History of the Treasury

Secretaries of the Treasury

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Having served as chairman of the Advisory Council to President Kennedy's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunities in the early 1960's and later as an outspoken member of the National Alliance of Businessmen, G. William Miller (1925-2006) was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve by President Carter in 1977. As Fed Chairman he worked closely with the White House planning a joint assault on inflation by government, private industry, and labor groups. Appointed Secretary of the Treasury by Carter in 1979, Miller's plan was to find the fundamental causes of the country's economic problems and attack them. He got Congress to extend unemployment benefits and encourage private investment by cutting taxes for individuals.�

Miller had a long-standing commitment to jobs programs and promoted good relations between Carter and the AFL-CIO. He was described as "a feisty little guy, with a boyish grin and a broken nose, and that spontaneous, optimistic American attitude that trouble is inevitable but everything is possible." Miller resigned at the end of Carter's term.

About the Artist

Artist of more than thirty cabinet portraits, Everett Raymond Kinstler began his career as an illustrator and cartoonist, but once he turned to portrait painting he quickly achieved prominence. He is represented in numerous collections around Washington and by eight portraits in the Treasury collection alone. When President Carter left office in 1980, he revoked his regulation barring the commissioning of local cabinet portraits in oil. G. William Miller's portrait, painted by Kinstler in 1981, was the first of the new era's government commissioned portraits.