American Presidents

I read a blog entitled American Presidents. Most of the entries are posted by Jennie Weber with some intermediate posts from Dr. Michael Lorenzen. The blog focuses on more interesting details of presidencies, rather than just the politics. For example, in one post she explored the myth that James Madison tried to add a Secretary of Beer to his cabinet. Weber explains that in reality a business man wrote to Madison, urging him to establish a national, independently run brewery, but Madison made little consideration of the suggestion.

My favorite post I read was a discussion of the autopen. When President Obama signed the fiscal cliff deal he was in Hawaii, so the autopen was used in place of his signature. The autopen traces its roots back to the polygraph patented in 1803 by John Isaac Hawking and used by Jefferson. The devices formal name being "Hawkins & Peale's Patent Polygraph No. 57." Obviously this incites interest for me as my name is Peale. I had previously known that a Peale helped with the invention, but it is fun to see my name. It brought me back to the discussion we had in class last Wednesday about people researching their own family history to find all the family stories were wrong. While my father tells me I am a direct descendant of most of the Peale painters and inventors during the the 16th and 17th century, I would be curious to find how accurate that is.

http://www.american-presidents.org