Exhibitions

Presidents in Waiting

January 20, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Gerald and Betty Ford,
David Hume Kennerly, born 1947

National Portrait Gallery
8th and G Streets, NW
Washington, DC

2nd Floor, West

See on Map Floor Plan

John Adams, perhaps our most cantankerous founding father, viewed the office of the vice president as the "most insignificant office" ever invented by man. He would never have guessed that 14 vice presidents, almost one-third of America's vice presidents, either by the death or resignation of an incumbent president or by winning an election on their own, became presidents. If some still remain unconvinced about the significance of the vice president and those who occupied it, this exhibition shows that most of the vice presidents who succeeded to the presidency were highly capable political figures with the experience and aptitude to be president.