Mourning Zachary Taylor

This exhibit explores the power of black cloth as part of public and private displays of bereavement at the White House. Between 1841 and 1963, eight American presidents died while in office. By examining the fabrics used to decorate the White House for their funerals, as well as the mourning fashions of their spouses, one can track displays of grief through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and observe the mourning traditions that were either preserved or discarded to meet the needs of a growing, modernizing nation.

Zachary Taylor
Died on July 9, 1850

After attending a long and hot Fourth of July celebration, President Taylor returned to the White House and ate a meal of cherries, milk, and ice water. Gastrointestinal distress followed soon after, and he died a few days later. Like Harrison, Zachary Taylor’s coffin was placed in the East Room, and it was later drawn on a draped caisson with white horses. The façade of the White House was again decorated with fabric. One Washington newspaper reported: “Wednesday the President’s House, all the public offices, several of the churches and many public and private houses, were shrouded in mourning.”

The president’s wife, Margaret “Peggy” Taylor, was chronically ill and lacked any desire to be a society lady. She mostly remained on the Second Floor of the White House, and many of the first lady’s hostess duties were taken on by her daughter, Betty. Taylor’s death devastated Mrs. Taylor. In her grief, she could not attend the East Room funeral, instead confining herself to her room. A retreat from public life was common for widows of the nineteenth century. In fact, etiquette demanded that they accept no invitations to social events and abstain from visiting many public places during the first year of mourning. If they did venture outside, they wore a thick veil that completely shrouded their face. As far as it is known, Mrs. Taylor attended no public events or issued any statements as a former spouse of the president.

Gallery

Date: 1850
Creator: N. Currier
Medium: Lithograph

This print depicting the scene of President Zachary Taylor’s death is remarkably like the image produced nine years earlier, after the death of William Henry Harrison. Historians contend Mrs. Taylor appeared in public so rarely—even before the death of her husband—that the artist was compelled to depict the first lady with her face concealed in a handkerchief because he did not know what she looked like.

Library of Congress

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Date: ca. August 2, 1850
Creator: George E. Leefe
Medium: Lithograph

This funeral procession took place in New York as a way for the city to honor the memory of the deceased president. The funeral caisson closely resembles descriptions of the one that carried President Taylor’s coffin in Washington, D.C. Draped heavily in black and white fabric, it was pulled by eight white horses, and affixed to its top was a large figure of an eagle.

Library of Congress

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Date: 1855
Creator: John Varden
Medium: Wood, paper, human hair

Keeping locks of a deceased person’s hair as a precious memento was a common practice in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The strands of hair were often manipulated into intricate forms, then mounted and hung like a painting, or braided into ropes and used as jewelry. In 1850, Mr. John Varden put out the call for the hair of U.S. presidents and other dignitaries, requesting “Those having hair of Distinguished Persons, will confere [sic] a Favor by adding to this Collection.” A small bundle of President Zachary Taylor’s purported hair can be found on the lower right-hand side of Varden’s display.

Division of Political History, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

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Margaret Taylor

Date: 1903
Creator: Bureau of National Literature and Art
Medium: Print

There are no known images of Margaret Taylor. This image, allegedly of the first lady, was created in 1905, almost fifty years after she passed away.

Library of Congress

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