#2: Adams, John

John Adams
October 30, 1735 - July 4, 1826

This is not a good drawing, so I am attaching it in a small format. He looks like he's wearing blush and lipstick, but I was going for "ruddy." I was using the portrait in the World Book as a model: it is an oil painting of Adams by Mather Brown, done in 1788 (well before he was president). I drew this with a Reeves HB pencil. I think I should have tried again, but I was running late to go to my upholstery class.

Things I learned:

• John Adams graduated from Harvard College in 1755, ranked 14th in a class of 24. "In those days, a student's rank indicated social position, not scholarship, and Adams was one of the best scholars in his class."
• While Adams was in office (1797-1801), two new territories were organized (Mississippi and Indiana), the Eleventh Amendment was adopted (limiting the power of the federal government), and "Andre Garnerin of France made the world's first parachute jump from a balloon." (World Book doesn't say whether Garnerin survived.)
• Adams did a terrible thing: he presided over the adoption of the Alien and Sedition Acts, which were later repealed. "Historians agree that the acts were unwise."
• Adams was the first president to live in the White House, "the Executive Mansion." Abigail Adams wrote her sister: "As I expected to find it in a new country, with houses scatterred over a space of 10 miles, and trees and stumps in plenty with a castle of a house--so I found it." When the Adams moved in, the house was not yet finished. "Mrs. Adams had to dry the laundry in the East Room, because no drying yard had been provided."
• Adams and Thomas Jefferson became great friends when they met in Congress in 1775. "Their friendship cooled steadily after about 1790, because they differed on the meaning of the French Revolution. But they forgot their political quarrels after retiring from public life. By a remarkable coincidence, both men died on July 4, 1826. Adams' last words were: 'Thomas Jefferson still survives.'"
• According to the 1981 World Book, Adams lived longer than any other President: he died four months before his 91st birthday. I checked though and both Reagan and Ford died at age 93.

The "A" volume is very fat. Other articles in the "A" volume:

• Affenpinscher: "The Affenpinscher is often called the Monkey Dog."
• Adolescent: "Adolescent is a person who is no longer a child but not yet an adult." Sub-sections in the"Adolescent" article include "Growth and Development," "Special Problems of Adolescence: Attitudes Toward Schooling, The Use of Drugs, and Delinquency," and "Preparation for the Future."
• Advertising: This article includes an illustration of a Hertz ad that shows OJ Simpson running in a suit with a briefcase and the slogan "Need a car fast? Come to Hertz. The Superstar in rent-a-car."
• Also, Africa, Arabs, Atonement, Asbestos, and Austria, my mother's homeland!