The Munsey, August 1908

This August 1908 issue of Munsey's Magazine features an article by Helen Corinne Hambidge surveying the White House Presidential portrait collection. The collection, scattered throughout the State Suite and inaccessible to the general public except by card, contains twenty-two portraits of Presidents and several paintings of White House ladies. Hambidge details the portraits' artists and histories: works attributed to George P. A. Healy, copies and originals by Stuart, Andrews, Huntington, and others. She describes specific subjects—Van Buren in his seventy-sixth year, Chester Arthur with a controversial fallen rosebud at his feet, Sargent's Roosevelts, and the inadequate Lincoln portrait. The article includes a history of the 1859 Congressional act authorizing the collection and anecdotes about Washington's wit while sitting for multiple artists simultaneously. The issue also contains advertisements for Hinds' Honey and Almond Cream.