William Cabell Rives, Senator From Virginia, 1839 Frame Style:Ebony Frame when the question of whether

when the question of whether a republic could legislate thirst was still very much open

The year sits squarely in the Cleveland interregnum

and the Belle Isle bridge — postcards mailed from the Motor City when assembly lines were new and the Detroit River carried freighters down from the Lakes in steady

The image carries the weight of a country tearing itself toward something it could not yet name

Zachary Taylor: The Nation's Choice for Twelfth President of the United States 1847 — a campaign portrait minted in the afterglow of Buena Vista

William Cabell Rives, Senator From Virginia, 1839 Frame Style:Ebony Frame when the question of whetherWilliam Cabell Rives, Senator From Virginia, 1839 a Senate era portrait of the Virginian Whig who broke with Van Buren over the Independent Treasury, rendered in the dignified engraver's hand reserved for men who measured their words against Jefferson's shadow and the gathering storm over the banks. About the Source Bella Frye sources artifacts from the great American historical archive the Library of Congress, the National Archives, regional