Book Event Puts Techie Twist on Presidents Day, 12:30 pm Feb. 14

National Press Club member Jane Hampton Cook will put a techie twist on Presidents Day by showing how the new social media of the day impacted Presidents Washington, Lincoln, Obama and others through her new children’s book What Does the President Look Like? at 12:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, in the McClendon Room.

What Does the President Look Like? shows how paintings, cartoons in penny newspapers, Currier and Ives posters, photographs, film, TV, smart phones and other innovations have shaped the president’s image over the years.

From the photo Matthew Brady took of Abraham Lincoln that was sold in stores prior to his election to the television debates between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, the book shows the growing impact media has had on politics and who wins office.

“Children today live in a digital wonderland. I wanted to help Americans see how we arrived in a world where Barack Obama’s image is everywhere you look. In contrast, unless Americans met George Washington or saw a rare public display of Gilbert Stuart’s paintings of him, few in 1789 knew what the first president actually looked like,” said Cook, author of six books and a former White House Webmaster, said.

Sometimes the first president to use a new technology isn’t the president most remembered for it. Calvin Coolidge was the first to appear in a campaign movie newsreel, but movies were still silent. Years later Franklin Roosevelt leveraged the weekly newsreel to his advantage after sound arrived at the movies.

A buffet lunch at the Reliable Source will be available. Fruit pie, in honor of one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite desserts, will be served.

RSVP to [email protected], 703-201-3272.

-- Jane Hampton Cook, [email protected]