Skip Navigation Links  The Library of Congress >> Researchers >> Virtual Programs & Services
Web Guides (Virtual Services, Digital Reference Section)
  Home >> U.S. Presidential Inaugurations

U.S. Presidential Inaugurations: "I Do Solemnly Swear..."
A Resource Guide

Eagle float in the inaugural parade, Washington, D.C. 1989
Eagle float in the inaugural parade, Washington, D.C.
Carol M. Highsmith, photographer; January 20, 1989
Prints and Photographs Division

The Library of Congress digital collections include a wide variety of primary source materials documenting presidential inaugurations. This Web guide includes diaries and letters written by presidents and those who witnessed the inaugurations, handwritten drafts of inaugural addresses, broadsides, inaugural tickets and programs, prints, photographs, and sheet music.

A key objective is providing access to many treasures and other important primary source materials held by the Library of Congress. The collection has been organized chronologically by presidential inauguration.

Selections are drawn from the Manuscript Division, the Prints and Photographs Division, the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, the Music Division, and the general collections of the Library of Congress. Additional photographs were provided by the Architect of the Capitol, the White House, and the United States Senate Office of the Sergeant at Arms.

Notice: On January 23 to February 4, 2017, the Library of Congress featured a special display of presidential inaugural treasures in the Thomas Jefferson Building. Included in the display were the handwritten speeches of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln, as well as maps, newspapers, menus, film clips, and souvenirs from other presidential inaugurations. [Download a checklist] (PDF, 209KB)

List of U.S. Presidents

1. George Washington 2. John Adams 3. Thomas Jefferson 4. James Madison
5. James Monroe 6. John Quincy Adams 7. Andrew Jackson 8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison 10. John Tyler 11. James Knox Polk 12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore 14. Franklin Pierce 15. James Buchanan 16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson 18. Ulysses S. Grant 19. Rutherford B. Hayes 20. James A. Garfield
21. Chester Arthur 22. Grover Cleveland^ 23. Benjamin Harrison 24. Grover Cleveland^
25. William McKinley 26. Theodore Roosevelt 27. William Howard Taft 28. Woodrow Wilson
29. Warren G. Harding 30. Calvin Coolidge 31. Herbert Hoover 32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
33. Harry S. Truman 34. Dwight D. Eisenhower 35. John F. Kennedy 36. Lyndon B. Johnson
37. Richard M. Nixon 38. Gerald R. Ford 39. Jimmy Carter 40. Ronald Reagan
41. George H. W. Bush 42. William J. Clinton 43. George W. Bush 44. Barack Obama
45. Donald J. Trump      

^ served two non-consecutive terms.

U.S. Presidential Inauguration: Related Web Sites

Top of Page Top of Page
  Home >> U.S. Presidential Inaugurations