IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
This media is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Politics and Government\Cabinet member\Secretary of War
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\Civil War army officer
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Military and Intelligence\Army\Officer\General
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Politics and Government\President of US
Ulysses Simpson Grant: Congressional Gold Medal
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Restrictions & Rights
CC0
Object number
NPG.88.176
Exhibition Label
Born Point Pleasant, Ohio
In 1868, General Ulysses S. Grant was the nation’s foremost choice for the presidency. Yet his sole political ambition, he claimed, was “to be mayor of Galena [Illinois]—to build a new sidewalk from my home to the depot.” Grant served two terms as president, leaving a record of fraud and scandal. Although personally honest, he was at times badly served by scheming cronies who discredited his administration. When he left the White House, he said he felt like a boy let out of school, and he and his wife, Julia, embarked on a world tour lasting two years. Upon their return they established a home in New York City. In the fall of 1884, Grant was diagnosed with inoperable throat cancer. He had already begun writing his memoirs, an activity he enjoyed, but it become a race with death. He finished just days before he died, leaving his wife with the prospects of royalties amounting to $200,000.
