Hail to the Chief: Six President-Themed Events
By Troy Segal
Ever since George Washington was inaugurated on a Federal Hall balcony above Wall Street, New York City has always kept a keen eye on the President, and on presidential politics. Discover some new takes on the men who have been our nation’s Commander-in-Chief throughout New York City this summer.
Several lectures at the Bryant Park Reading Room delve into our 19th-century leaders:
- Learn about doubts concerning Abraham Lincoln back in his own day — even among Yankee troops, as revealed by historian Jonathan White in his book-based talk, Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Reelection of Abraham Lincoln, July 30.
- Though Lincoln presided over the Civil War, the actions and attitudes of five of the previous Commanders-in-Chiefs (all of whom were alive during the conflict) cast a significant shadow over his behavior. Hear more about it in The Presidents’ War: Six American Presidents and the Civil War That Divided Them, August 13.
- Forty years later, the country was at peace, but the infighting within the Republican party was fierce. Hear how a new breed of politician was born at the turn of the 20th century, thanks to Theodore Roosevelt and his fellow Progressives, July 23.
Speaking of Teddy: Did you know he was the only U.S. President to be born in New York City? Near Gramercy Park, his home is now a museum, the Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace National Historic Site, with guided tours of its period-furnished rooms offered by the National Park Service five days a week.
Roosevelt was born here — and Ulysses S. Grant was buried here, with wife Julia in the General Grant National Memorial (colloquially known as Grant’s Tomb). From July 19 to September 13, the site holds a series of Saturday afternoon lectures, Civil War to Civil Rights, with each talk focusing on a different era and group in the U.S.; July 19’s lecture, for example, focuses on the tumultuous period right after World War I.
Moving into the 20th century: John Dean, the White House Counsel during the 1970s Watergate scandal, talks about old secrets and new revelations, based on his just-published, provocative book, The Nixon Defense: What He Knew and When He Knew It, at Barnes & Noble–Upper West Side, July 30.