USDOJ: AG: William Henry Moody

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William Henry Moody
Forty-Fifth Attorney General 1904—1906

Artist: Albert Rosenthal

WILLIAM MOODY was born on December 23, 1853, in Newbury, Massachusetts. In 1872 he graduated from Phillips Academy, in 1876 from Harvard University, and studied law in the office of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Moody served as district attorney for the Eastern District of Massachusetts from 1890 to 1895. He was elected to the 54th Congress to fill a vacancy, and to the 55th, 56th, and 57th Congresses. He was appointed Secretary of the Navy and assumed the duties of that office on May 1, 1902. He served in that position until appointed Attorney General of the United States by President Roosevelt on July 1, 1904. He left the office of Attorney General on December 17, 1906, to become Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. During a five-year period he served the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the Government. Moody resigned in 1910 because of ill health and died on July 2, 1917, in Haverhill, Massachusetts.

About the Artist: Albert Rosenthal (1863-1939)

Born in Philadelphia, Rosenthal studied art under his father, Max Rosenthal, and at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. His early work was in lithography, reproducing etchings of American historical figures. After studying painting in Paris from 1889 to 1892, he opened a studio in Philadelphia. His portrait of Attorney General Moody was painted in 1907. He was well known for portraits of Supreme Court Justices.


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