7 Secretly Talented US Presidents

Dwight Eisenhower

Dwight Eisenhower was a five-star general, one of only five in US history. He was Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in World War II. What’s less known is that he was also a talented, if somewhat pedestrian, artist.

Eisenhower didn’t start painting until age 58, after he watched Thomas E. Stephens paint a portrait of his wife, Mamie. He began by copying imagesfrom magazines and photographs, eventually branching out into landscapes and portraits. Eisenhower completed a total of over 300 works, mostly during the last 20 years of his life. He never considered himself a great painter, referring to his works as mere “daubs.” Painting served mostly as aform of relaxation for the president.

Regardless of what the man himself thought of his work, Eisenhower’s old-fashioned subjects do hold a certain charm. They include his family farm in Gettysburg, an old brown barn covered in snow, and his seven-year-old grandson swinging a golf club. Eisenhower also painted five traditional portraits, including a self-portrait and one of Abraham Lincoln, which he executed during his first year in the White House in 1953. Despite his prodigious output, Eisenhower forbade that his works be bought or sold. He preferred to give them as gifts to family members and personal friends.

6Harry Truman

President Truman was a pianist of admittedly questionable talent. After observing one of his performances, actress Lauren Bacall later confided that then–Vice President Truman played “badly, playing the ‘Missouri Waltz,’ or something.” Anyone could be forgiven for performing less than flawlessly with the famously leggy actress perched atop their piano, but Truman apparently shared Bacall’s assessment of his talent. As a boy, he had awakened every morning at 5:00 AM to practice for two hours before going to school and had once dreamed of being a concert pianist, yet he reportedly later said “I missed being a musician, and the real and only reason I missed being one is because I wasn’t good enough.”

In the PBS program American Experience: Truman, violinist Stuart Caninrecalled Truman playing for him and pianist Eugene List during the Potsdam Conference in 1945. “He didn’t always have the technique to do what he wanted,” Canin said, “but you could sense that he really loved music.” Truman was more critical of his own abilities, joking later that year at a Missouri county fair performance “When I played this, Stalin signed the Potsdam Agreement.”

5Bill Clinton

Bill Clinton famously exhibited his saxophone skills in 1992 with his rendition of “Heartbreak Hotel” on The Arsenio Hall Show, as seen in the video above. But that’s not Clinton’s only secret talent—he’s also a master of crossword puzzles. He can reportedly finish the New York Times crossword in just a few minutes, which he always uses ink to complete, and with so little effort that he can do so while carrying on a serious political conversation. In his appearance in the 2006 documentary Wordplay, Clinton explained how solving a crossword puzzle is similar to tackling any complex problem, saying “You start with what you know the answer to and you just build on it.”

In 2007, he even got the chance to write clues for a New York Timescrossword puzzle, which was called “Twistin’ the Oldies.” The puzzle, in which the answers consisted of rock song titles updated for the Baby Boomer generation, came with a warning from editor Will Shortz that the clues “are a little more playful and involve more wordplay than in a typical crossword.” While some of the answers—such as “You’re So Veiny” as the answer to “Boomer update to a Carly Simon song”—seem more cringe-inducing than clever, the puzzle is impressive.

4Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln had always loved science and cutting-edge technology. In the late 1850s, he taught himself the highly mathematical art of surveying as well as Euclidean geometry and law. In 1848, when Lincoln was a Congressman, he was traveling back to Illinois when his flatboat became stranded on a sandbar. The crew placed empty casks under the boat until it was lifted high enough to clear the sand bar, which gave Lincoln an idea.

With the help of Walter Davis, a Springfield mechanic, Lincoln created a scale model of a device for “Buoying Vessels Over Shoals.” When he returned to Washington, he applied for a patent, which was issued on May 22, 1849. Lincoln’s invention was never manufactured, and it’s not clear whether the full-sized version would have worked, but he remains the only US president to have held a patent. The scale model of his invention is on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.

3Jimmy Carter

Jimmy Carter is well known for his humanitarian work, for which he won the2002 Nobel Peace Prize. What you might not know is that he is also apublished novelist and poet as well as a respected artist and furniture maker.

Carter began writing poetry while he was in the submarine force from 1948–1952. In 1995, he published a book of poetry called Always a Reckoning and Other Poems, making him the first US president to do so. Unfortunately, the critical response was underwhelming. The New York Times called Carter a “mediocre poet” who wrote “well-meaning, dutifully wrought poems that plod from Point A to Point B.” Eight years later, Carter also became the first president to publish a work of fiction, a novel set in the Deep South during the Revolutionary War called The Hornet’s Nest. He displayed more of his talents when he couldn’t find a cover for the book that he liked and decided to paint one himself.

Carter’s paintings and furniture are auctioned off from time to time by his nonprofit organization, the Carter Center, along with items such as luxury vacations and presidential and celebrity memorabilia. In 2012, one of Carter’s paintings sold for $250,000, while last year, a stool handmade by the former president fetched $300,000. Profits from the sale of Carter’s works benefit the center’s initiatives to advance worldwide peace and health.

2Ronald Reagan

Before entering politics, Reagan was an actor with more than 50 film credits to his name. His most famous film is the 1940 biopic Knute Rockne, All American, in which Reagan played Notre Dame football star George Gipp.

Reagan started his career in radio, making $10 per game plus transportation expenses as a sportscaster for WOC in Davenport, Iowa. He graduated to radio commercials, eventually becoming a staff announcer for the station. Within two years, he was transferred to WHO, an NBC affiliate in Des Moines, Iowa. By 1936, he was recreating Chicago Cubs baseball games and doing sportscasts of Big Ten football.

In the late ‘30s, Reagan turned to acting. Over the next 15 years or so, he appeared in dozens of films and television shows, but by 1954, the roles had dried up. Reagan took what work he could get, including two weeks as anemcee and performer in a Las Vegas song and dance revue. The Reagans didn’t care for the Vegas scene, however, so the actor signed on with General Electric Theater, a Sunday evening television show which Reagan hosted for the next eight years.

As part of his duties on GET, Reagan spent 10 weeks every year visiting General Electric’s research and manufacturing facilities as a “roving ambassador.” By his own account, Reagan had visited 139 GE facilities by 1952, speaking with over 250,000 employees in the process. This surely played no small role in his emergence as the Great Communicator.

1Thomas Jefferson

The author of the Declaration of Independence was also an innovative architect and inventor as well an accomplished musician. As an architect, he is best known for his plans for the University of Virginia, including the university’s famed Rotunda, which Jefferson modeled after the Roman Pantheon. Jefferson also designed his plantation (Monticello), his villa retreat (Poplar Forest), and several other Virginia homes.

In addition to planning cities and landscapes, he improved household items he had seen in Europe. His innovations included a portable copying press, a pasta machine, a plow, and a mechanical dumbwaiter. He designed furniture as well, including a revolving chair with a leg rest and writing arm and a revolving book stand with adjustable book rests that folded up for easy storage.

One of Jefferson’s most celebrated inventions, the “Great Clock,” still adorns the entrance hall at Monticello. Gravity powers its 8-kilogram (18 lb) weights, which are strung on ropes and hang through holes in the floor to the cellar below. Markings on the wall tell onlookers the time and day of the week. In Jefferson’s day, the clock was connected to a large copper gong on the roof, which could be heard throughout the plantation. To facilitate the clock’s repairs, Jefferson invented a folding ladder, which could also be used for pruning trees. It was the first of its kind in the United States and later became widely used in libraries.

Jefferson played the violin, which he is said to have practiced three hours a day. He was proficient enough to receive regular invitations from Virginia colony Governor Francis Fauquier to play chamber music in “the Palace.” During his presidency, Jefferson championed the music of the Native Americans, using it to counter European claims about the inherent degeneracy of the New World.

One stain on Jefferson’s record—and there are many—is his attitude toward the music of African Americans, which he mentions just twice in all of his numerous writings. Jefferson preferred the music of European composers—especially his favorite, Corelli—but he does appear to have at least kept an open mind regarding the music of his slaves. He admits that “they are more generally gifted than the whites, with accurate ears for tune and time,” but goes on to say “Whether they will be equal to the composition of a more extensive run of melody, or of complicated harmony, is yet to be proved.”

7 Aspects Of Colonial America Everyone Pictures Incorrectly

7Everything About the Salem Witch Trials

Supposedly, in the burgeoning Massachusetts town of Salem, ministers preaching fire and brimstone stoked religious fervor until it culminated in an explosion of violence, resulting in the witch trials and burning of dozens of innocent women and other marginalized citizens. However, very little of the conventional Salem narrative is true. The trials began at the insistence of the ordinary populace in an extreme form of mob justice and were stoked by the revelatory stories of Salem-area youth. The emphasis is on “area,” because the trials were hardly confined to Salem, extending into neighboring towns like Andover and Ipswich.

Interestingly, the accused were far from marginalized or downtrodden citizens. Prior to the trials, most of the accused “witches” and “warlocks” were prominent citizens and moderately wealthy. That was likely because accusers could benefit financially from a victim’s property in the event of a conviction. Both men and women were convicted and executed in the trials, but none were burned at the stake. All of the victims were hanged or died in prison, except one man who was crushed to death.

Lastly, contrary to the popular belief that equates the trials to a kind of American inquisition, church leaders and ministers actually encouraged reason and rationalism to end the bloodshed. Area ministers were theloudest proponents of the idea the trials should look for actual evidence rather than rely on such “witness” testimony as “I saw her look at my laundry, and the next day, it was stained.”

6There Was A Russian Colony In California

When we think of the colonization of the Americas, the three countries that immediately come to mind are Spain, France, and England. However, North America factored into the imperial ambitions of several other countries, including Russia. Russian exploration of the Alaskan coast began in the early 1700s and was dominated primarily by fur traders. By the end of the 18th century, several Russian settlements dotted the Alaskan coastline as hunters roamed farther and farther south in search of otter furs.

The plentiful mammalian life in California’s coastal waters coupled with the area’s more hospitable climate eventually attracted Russian traders. In 1812, the Russian colony of Fort Ross was established in what is now Sonoma County, California. Fort Ross was the southernmost anchor of the Russian claims that stretched from Alaska across the Pacific Northwest coast.

For the next few decades, Fort Ross served as a hub for 100 or so Russian traders and colonists. A small village sprang up around the stockade, and a decent trade agreement was established with the local native population and Mexican colonists just to the south. The Russian treatment of the natives was often exploitative, though, and labor practices bordering on slavery were commonly employed as the Russians pressed the natives into agricultural labor.

Despite Fort Ross’s small size, a large number of scientific, ethnological, and exploratory expeditions were launched from there, including the first ascentof Mount St. Helens. As the fur trade diminished, though, Fort Ross increasingly struggled to turn a profit. In 1841, the colony was sold to Swiss pioneer John Sutter of later gold rush fame. The Russian colonists sailed for Alaska, where they maintained a presence until the sale of that land to the US in 1867.

5Log Cabins Were Nearly Nonexistent In The Colonies

Even though the log cabin is seemingly interwoven with visions of early American settlements, the picturesque and sturdy dwelling was almost entirely absent from colonial North America. From the earliest years of colonization, it would be centuries before log cabins were a regular sight.

That’s because Dutch, British, and French colonists, along with Native Americans, were wholly unfamiliar with the notched-log construction of later children’s toy fame. Instead of log cabins, 17th-century colonists built houses out of “wattle and daub.” First, they drove sticks into the ground upright and wove them together with horizontal branches to form a crosshatch pattern (“wattle”). The wattle was then coated with clay (“daub”) to form walls. Wattle-and-daub construction eventually gave way to timber-frame architecture.

The log cabin seems to have first arrived in America with the mid-1600s influx of immigrants from Scandinavia, where such structures had long been popular. However, the log cabin did not catch on within the colonies until the late 1700s, when large numbers of Scottish-Irish immigrants were impressed by the ease and sturdiness of the Swedish construction and adopted the log cabin, spreading its use throughout the colonies.

4The US Constitution Wasn’t Modeled After the Iroquois Confederacy’s

During the past few decades, many have embraced the idea that the Framers of the US Constitution drew upon the example set by their democratic Iroquois neighbors. These ideological adopters include New York’s public schools and state senate. However, even though there was a great deal of cultural exchange between the colonists and the tribes of the Iroquois, it’s highly unlikely that ideas about government were among those exchanged.

The two most obvious reasons for this are the conspicuous lack of references to the Iroquois during the carefully recorded constitutional debates in the 1780s and the drastic differences between the Iroquois Confederacy’s government and that of the emerging United States. A nonrepresentative council, whose members were often determined by matrilineal heredity, governed the Iroquois Confederacy, and decisions were reached via unanimous consensus of the 50 or so members. Other elements of the Iroquois system were entirely anathema to Founding Fathers’ ideology, such as the more prominent role of women and less social stratification.

As far as the Founders understood Iroquois politics—that is, not very—they found them too democratic, a word that was synonymous with mob rule to John Adams and other Framers. Their ideal was a representative republic governed by a cadre of elites. To say that the natives influenced the Framers is to assign them a modern sociocultural awareness that they clearly didn’t possess.

3The Colonies Weren’t Founded On African Slavery

While the British colonies that later formed the US did eventually rely on the African slave trade, they were initially not the biggest participants. During the first century of American colonialism, almost all African slaves were taken to the Caribbean or South America. The African slave trade in the British colonies didn’t reach its height until the mid-1700s, and even then, 90 percent of slaves landed in those other regions.

The colonies weren’t relying on paid labor before the large-scale importation of African labor, of course. During the 17th century, over half of all new immigrants were indentured servants. In theory, freedom was to be earned after 4–7 years’ labor, but documents of indenture were frequently lost, so proving that one’s term of service was up could be nearly impossible. That didn’t matter much, though, because in colonies like Maryland and Virginia, half of all indentured servants died within five years of their arrival to the New World.

Colonial servitude often differed little from slavery besides the possibility of gaining one’s freedom at the end of indenture. For some, not even that possibility existed. In their continuous struggle to subdue Ireland, the English took thousands of prisoners of war and deported the Irish by the tens of thousands. These unfortunates were sent all over the colonies, where they were bound to English planters for life. In effect, the English colonies were established on servitude and then sustained by African slaves.

2America Wasn’t Pristine Wilderness Before Colonization

The idea that America was an untouched wilderness was mostly invented by 19th-century American writers pining for a past that never existed and seeing the long-term effects of radical Native American depopulation, which resulted in natural habitat regeneration. Before European colonists arrived, the human impact on the North American landscape was far from negligible. Despite the enduring imagery of the “crying Indian” conservation campaign, natives practiced a wide variety of approaches toward the natural world.

When the first European colonists arrived, what they found was a carefully maintained landscape habituated to a large population’s hunting and farming needs. Before being decimated by disease, the Native Americans transformed New England and Midwestern forests into a mixture of fallow growth, open fields, and meadows via regular, controlled burning. Early colonists noted that the remaining forests weren’t a dense tangle of brush but wide, grassy pathways and openings among trees.

The paradisaical forests of America and the Midwest’s iconic prairies were also the result of carefully planned fires set by natives. After they were cleared from those lands, forest rapidly encroached upon the settlers’ fields, resulting in the lush growth we know today.

1Warfare Was Constant

You can’t tell the story of America’s colonial origins without talking about the frequent and constant warfare, yet we often do, skipping over the wars and massacres that shaped the colonies. In the 40 years following the founding of Jamestown in 1607, the Virginia colonists fought three wars with the Powhatan that lasted a total of over 15 years. The contest over land, trade, and food often bubbled over into massacre. Such was the case with the conflict of 1622, when the Powhatan killed 300 Virginians, one-fourth of the entire colony. No sooner did the British colonists retaliate and defeat the Powhatan than they entered into two successive wars with Dutch settlements to the north.