How many former US Presidents would you recognize in a crowd?
SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) - Even U.S. Presidents can be forgotten when enough time passes. Here's proof.
How many of these former U.S. Presidents do you recognize? Because the odds are that you wouldn't know most of these men if they sat down on a barstool beside you.
Start here and count how many of these Presidents you can name just by looking at their faces. Then score yourself out of 46.
The first President of the United States isn't hard for most people to identify. President George Washington's image is embossed in the memories of most schoolchildren from the United States.
But what about the fifth through the fifteenth Presidents of the United States? Do their faces look familiar to you, too?
Portrait by John Henry Brown in 1851.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1858.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1857.
Portrait by Joseph H. Bush ca. 1848.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1858.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1859.
Portrait by James Reid Lambdin in 1835.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1858.
Portrait by Ralph E. W. Earl ca. 1835.
As a nation, we tend to quickly forget what our former Presidents looked like. But we also forget how fashion trends influence U.S. Presidents, too.
Who was the best-dressed U.S. President of all time? And can you find the first U.S. President who wore a tie for his Presidential portrait?
Portrait by Harriet Anderson Stubbs Murphy in 1902.
Portrait by Jonathan Eastman Johnson in 1895.
Portrait by Jonathan Eastman Johnson in 1891.
Portrait by Daniel Huntington in 1885.
Portrait by Calvin Curtis in 1881.
Portrait by Daniel Huntington in 1884.
Portrait by Henry Ulke in 1875.
Portrait by Eliphalet Frazer Andrews in 1880.
Portrait by George Peter Alexander Healy in 1869.
Is it just us, or does Andrew Johnson bear a striking resemblance to Robert De Niro? And did you notice what Andrew Jackson was wearing in his portrait?
Portrait by Aaron Shikler in 1970.
Portrait by James Anthony Wills in 1967.
Portrait by Martha Greta Kempton in 1947.
Portrait by Frank O. Salisbury in 1947.
Portrait by Elmer Wesley Greene in 1956.
Portrait by Charles S. Hopkinson in 1932.
Portrait by Edmund Hodgson Smart in 1923.
Portrait by Frank Graham Cootes in 1936.
Portrait by Anders Leonard Zorn in 1911.
Portrait by John Singer Sargent in 1903.
High-fashion in the Oval Office is one thing, but a sarcastic tongue is quite another. And there is little question that the American public responds warmly to a smile and a few dozen well-chosen words.
Ronald Regan said, in 1984, “I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” Even his opponent laughed over that one.
In the 1988 Vice Presidential debate, Lloyd Bentsen cracked a joke that was a little more stabbing when he said the following to Dan Quayle: "I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."
Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler in 1991.
Portrait by Herbert E. Abrams in 1982.
Portrait by Everett Raymond Kinstler in 1977.
Portrait by James Anthony Wills in 1984.
Portrait by Elizabeth Shoumatoff in 1968.
Herbert Hoover was only half joking and half serious when he once said, “Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the National Debt.”
John Adams had jokes, too. “In my many years, I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.”
Portrait by Adam Schulz in 2021.
Portrait by Shealah Craighead in 2017.
Portrait by Robert McCurdy in 2018.
John F. Kennedy had plenty to say after he won the presidency. But some of his jokes were a little to close for comfort, such as this one: "When we got into office, the thing that surprised me most was to find that things were just as bad as we’d been saying they were."
Richard Nixon had a change of heart after he became President, but decades had to pass before his words became truly funny: "I would have made a good Pope."
And now we'll end with another quote from one of the funniest U.S. Presidents in recent history, Ronald Regan. He said that a recession is when your neighbor loses his job. Depression is when you lose yours. And recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.
How'd you do? Did you recognize many of the men who were president of the United States before you were born? Did you recognize the faces of men who have been president since you were born? And how many generations do you think will pass before most people don't recognize the President we will elect in 2024?
All images of U.S. Presidents provided by the White House Historical Association.