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Primary sourcePhotograph1870-1880

President Rutherford Hayes 1870 - 1880

Mathew Benjamin Brady · 1870-1880

A studio photograph of Hayes by Mathew Brady, the standard lifetime photographic likeness of him as president.

This studio photograph is the standard lifetime image of Hayes during his presidential years.

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Black and white photograph of a bearded man with short hair in a dark suit jacket and vest over a white shirt, seated and turned slightly to the side, looking directly at the camera against a plain gray backdrop.
Mathew Brady, President Rutherford Hayes, 1870-1880.

About this source

What it is

This photograph of Rutherford B. Hayes was taken by Mathew Brady's studio, known for its many portraits of American political and military figures. It shows Hayes seated, in a dark suit, looking toward the camera.

Why it matters

Brady's studio produced some of the most widely reproduced photographs of nineteenth-century American leaders, and this image became the standard way the public pictured Hayes during his presidency.

Look closer

  • What does Hayes's expression and posture suggest about the formality of presidential photographs at the time?
  • Why might a photographer pose a president against a plain background?
  • How might this image compare with the painted portrait made of him the same period?

This photograph is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Rutherford B. Hayes on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Rutherford B. Hayes · 5 March 1877

Dark maroon cloth book cover with a faint embossed title area and subtle woven texture, showing no legible text. This appears to be the binding of a volume of the Hayes diary and letters.Diary entry

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Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes

Rutherford B. Hayes · 1834-1893

Painting of a crowded, domed chamber with rows of seated men in dark suits on a lower floor, a standing speaker in the center-right, and spectators packed into a balcony above. A red-draped gallery and marble busts are visible.Document

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Electoral Commission

1877

Full-length oil portrait of an elderly bearded man in a dark frock coat standing beside a red draped table with papers, against a dark, cloudy background. Signed and dated lower left.Painting

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Rutherford Birchard Hayes

Daniel Huntington · 1884

Black-and-white studio portrait of a bearded man with combed-back hair in a dark military-style uniform with rows of buttons, seated with one hand resting on his knee and the other on a chair back, a cap visible at the lower right.Photograph

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General Hayes

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