Some other Presidential Firsts
The first President to have his photograph taken while he was in office was also the first President to die in office, William Henry Harrison. He was also the first President to have been born outside of the original 13 states. His Vice-President was John Tyler, who became the first President to face a vote of impeachment in the House of Representatives. Until Tyler, Presidents had only issued vetoes on Constitutional grounds, he expanded the use of the veto to consider political differences and Congress responded with a move to impeach him, which failed.
The first President with no prior experience in an elected political office was Zachary Taylor, who achieved fame as a soldier in the Mexican War. Taylor was also the first President with the misfortune of winning election while the opposing political party took control of both Houses of Congress. Coupled with his inexperience, Taylor had little chance of forwarding any agenda, but he died in his second year in office. His successor, Millard Fillmore, was the first President to establish a White House Library. He did very little else.
Abraham Lincoln was the first and to date only President to hold a US Patent. He obtained the patent for a device he designed to lift steamboats over shallows and obstructions encountered in streams and rivers. Lincoln obtained the patent during his first term in Congress and a model of the device can be seen in the National Museum of American History in Washington DC. The Smithsonian has expressed doubts over whether the device would work.
The first President to have graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point was Ulysses S Grant. The only other American President to have graduated from West Point was Dwight David Eisenhower. The first and thus far only President to have graduated from the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis was Jimmy Carter. Curiously, Grant and another President, Harry S. Truman, used the letter S as a middle initial, it meant nothing in either case. Grant was also the first President to publish his memoirs, with the assistance of Mark Twain, completing them shortly before his death from cancer.
Rutherford B. Hayes installed a telephone and typewriters in the White House, both firsts. He was also the first President to lose the popular vote but attain the Presidency by carrying the Electoral College, an achievement he seldom if ever boasted about. Hayes was the first President to travel west of the Rocky Mountains while in office, making a ten-week tour of the west, arriving in California via the Transcontinental Railroad, and then touring the western states via stage, rail, and steamship.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“All Aboard! The Amazing History of Presidential Trains”, by Tyler Rogoway, The Drive
“Thomas Jefferson”, entry, About the White House, whitehouse.gov
“Does the White House have a Pool?”, The White House Historical Association, whitehousehistory.org
“Cars of the Presidents”, The Quint, November 2020
“Presidential Yachts”, (pdf), usspotomac.org
“Imperfect Presidents: Tales of Presidential Misadventure and Triumph”, by Jim Cullen, 2007
“Presidential Vetoes”, by John Wooley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project, online
“The Book of Political Lists”, from the editors of George Magazine, 1998
