Description
Portrait of US. President Zachary Taylor, engraved at the period of his command in Mexico. Portrait painted by Alonso Chappel.
Annotation
An original engraving on medium stock paper. The engraving was taken from an original painting by the eminent artist Alonso Chappel (1828-1887). Bookplate from 1863, published by Johnson Fry & Company, NYC. NY. A facsimile signature is below his image, the text below the signature is clearly readable: ‘at the period of his commanding in Mexico’ – ‘From an original Picture in the possession of the Publishers.’ – ‘Johnson Fry & Co. Publishers New York’ – ‘Entered according to act of congress A.D. 1863 by Johnson Fry & Co. in the clerk’s office of the district court of the Southern District of New York’.
Condition
This shrink-wrapped print is stored in an architectural flat-file drawer. Ours is a smoke-free adult environment. Very clean surface, this piece has been stored in an architectural flat file drawer in a smoke-free adult environment. All of our prints are kept in tissue and/or plastic sleeves and mailed flat to ensure safe travels. We do not list artwork with visible surface conditions, marks, or damage beyond the perimeter margins (unless specifically noted for rare prints). Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated.
Virtually all antiquarian maps and prints are subject to some normal aging due to use and time which is not obtrusive unless otherwise stated.
About The 12th President of the United States of America
Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), born in Virginia he received only a rudimentary education but was well-schooled in the frontier skills of farming and horsemanship. He was a war hero and as a military commander, Zachary Taylor earned the nickname “Old Rough and Ready” for his willingness to get his boots dirty alongside his men.
His Presidency
The central challenge facing Zachary Taylor as he took the office of the presidency of the United States of America in 1849 was the sectional debate over slavery and its expansion into the country’s new western territories. The emergence of the anti-slavery Free Soil Party had intensified southerners’ fears that the abolitionists North would gain control of Congress and they saw slavery’s extension in the west as the only way of maintaining a balance. Gold had been discovered in California in 1848 and there was tremendous pressure to resolve the issue of the territory’s statehood as its population expanded. Though a slaveholder himself, Taylor was primarily driven by a strong nationalism born of years in the Army and by 1848 had come to oppose the creation of new slave states.
On July 4th, 1850 Zachary Taylor attended a ceremony at the unfinished Washington Monument; temperatures were blistering and he reportedly ate only raw vegetables, cherries, and milk. He took ill with violent stomach cramps the following day and died on July 9th of acute gastroenteritis. (Conspiracy theorists later suggested that Taylor may have been poisoned but his remains were exhumed in 1991 and the speculation was disproved.) Taylor became the 2nd President to die while in office after W. Harrison. New York Public Library.
