TIME & The Presidency

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One of the defining characteristics of the modern American presidency has been the close scrutiny it has received from the Fourth Estate. Occupants of the White House since Franklin D. Roosevelt have been all but constantly in the eye of a camera. Some of the most memorable pieces of presidential photojournalism have appeared in the pages of TIME. Beginning in February at the Truman Library in Independence, Mo., an exhibit of photographs will be touring presidential libraries and museums. Accompanying the photographs will be observations by Hugh Sidey, longtime President watcher and columnist for TIME. Excerpts from the exhibit, "TIME and the Presidency," appear on the pages that follow.

Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933-1945

Old-timers used to tell me that taking part in Roosevelt's New Deal was one of the greatest political experiences in history. Any good idea got a hearing. Those programs that did not work were torn up, and the young, brainy aides would start over the next day. At night, when Roosevelt gathered his band of political warriors around him, there was robust laughter and the tinkle of his martini pitcher and his long cigarette holder pointed at a rakish angle, which signaled to everybody that the U.S. was rising from its fear.

Harry S Truman 1945-1953

He insisted on a brisk walk every morning around Washington, striding out at his old soldier's pace while newsmen scrambled to keep up. He was a natty dresser, ate sparingly and never got overweight, loved a hand of poker and a good joke. He doted on his wife Bess and daughter Margaret, an aspiring concert soprano. His pleasures and his wants were simple. When his presidency was finished and he arrived back in Independence, Mo., reporters asked him on his first day home what he intended to do. "Carry the grips up to the attic:" he replied.

Dwight D. Eisenhower 1953-1961

There were days around the White House when I figured that the Eisenhower grin was worth our entire nuclear arsenal in world affairs. Some careless observers have suggested that it was a perpetual condition. Not so. There was anger, and it lurked beneath a furrowed brow. He could glower, and then often he just shifted into neutral. When he did grin, with old Army comrades or his newfound political friends, you knew more often than not that good things were on the way.

John F. Kennedy 1961-1963

Once, before Kennedy was president, I asked him if he remembered the Great Depression. I knew that his father had seen the Crash of 1929 coming and had sold his stocks and had one of the world's greatest hordes of cash during the 1930s. "I have no memory of the Depression as an event," he told me. "We had one of the great fortunes. We traveled more, we had bigger homes and more servants. I learned about the Depression by reading at Harvard." Kennedy, who had been a young Navy hero in World War II, then looked at me and said, "War was my experience. I can tell you about that."

Lyndon B. Johnson 1963-1969