James K. Polk, Eleventh President of the United States, 1845-1849 old Ontario map The Gentlemans Peculiar Apparatus Patent

The Gentlemans Peculiar Apparatus Patent for the Preservation of the Victorian Moustache belongs to the era when every neighborhood had its barber and every barber had his preferences — and patents like this one were how those preferences became standard

shifting bottom — screw-pile footings splayed across the page like spider legs

An engraving from the years when Franklin was less a man than a diplomatic instrument

Representative From New York

A posthumous engraving of the first president

James K. Polk, Eleventh President of the United States, 1845-1849 old Ontario map The Gentlemans Peculiar Apparatus PatentJames K. Polk, Eleventh President of the United States, 1845 1849 a campaign era portrait of the Tennessee dark horse who promised one term and delivered a continent, his sober likeness fixed at the moment Manifest Destiny found its most efficient executor. About the Source Bella Frye sources artifacts from the great American historical archive the Library of Congress, the National Archives, regional historical societies, and the lithographic