Transfer of Power: Inaugurations Past
Beginning with the swearing-in of President James Buchanan in 1857, photographers have chronicled inaugural ceremonies and the festivities that surround the event. Sometimes, especially in cases of unscheduled inaugurations or in times of national crisis, a solemn, grim tone has been struck. But more often the presidential inauguration is an uplifting and hopeful national celebration, a quadrennial day of reckoning and recommitment to a democracy established by the Founding Fathers in 1789.

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