February 15 to N0vember 4, 2010
"All Aboard! Making Tracks with the Presidential Train"

Explore how Presidents have traveled by train. The first President to ride a train during his term in office was Andrew Jackson in 1833.  William Henry Harrison was the first presidential candidate to campaign from the rail, traveling from Wilmington, DE to Trenton, NJ, in September 1836 during his first unsuccessful bid for office.  Then in 1840 he became the first president-elect to travel by train to his inauguration.  After traveling from Cincinnati via boat and stagecoach he boarded a train in Frederick, MD traveling through Baltimore to Washington.

Presidents at first were just like regular passengers; as time passed, schedule demands and concerns for personal safety called for change.  Presidents then rode in a private car coupled to a regular train.  By Benjamin Harrison’s presidency they traveled in special trains of four or five cars in length.  By the 1940s, Franklin D. Roosevelt traveled in a full sixteen to eighteen car train.  Travel by rail remained the main mode of presidential travel through Dwight D. Eisenhower.  Rail still is used today on occasion, usually as nostalgic campaign excursions like the old whistle stop tours. 

Benjamin Harrison’s 1891 train trip of 10,000 miles, which went through the South and West, making a large loop through the country will be highlighted in the exhibit.  Many of the gifts presented to the Presidential party on the Harrison trip will be displayed.  We are fortunate that Mary Lord Dimmick was one of the family members on the trip and we have her diary recording the events and some of the gifts.  “The Mail and Express” evening New York newspaper published a book of the trip recording Harrison’s speeches, making note of some gifts and events along the way. 

Sponsored in part by the Indianapolis Cultural Development Commission.

Learn more about our 23rd President Benjamin Harrison!

Do you know how many Supreme Court cases Harrison tried?
Do you know about the first woman convicted of murder in Indiana?
Find out! Accomplishments as a Lawyer

Do you know which battles the Indiana 70th fought in?
Where did the 70th catch enemy canons?
Find out! Accomplishments as a Soldier

Do you know the names of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th National Parks to be set aside?
Do you know the name of the first US Battleship?
Find out! Accomplishments as President

 

Past Exhibits

2006 - Death in the White House: A Nation Mourns

2007 - Benjamin Harrison:Lawyer, Soldier, President

2008 - Campaigns Through the Centuries

2008 - The Tiffany Touch

2009 - William Henry Harrison