# American Presidents: Life Portraits

American Presidents: Life Portraits is a series produced by C-SPAN in 1999. Each episode was aired live, and was a two- to three-hour look at the life and times of one particular president of the United States. Episodes were broadcast from locations of importance to the profiled president, featured interviews with historians and other experts, and incorporated calls from viewers. The series served as a commemoration of C-SPAN's 20th anniversary.
The first program aired on March 15, 1999, and profiled George Washington. Subsequent programs featured each president in succession, concluding with the then current president Bill Clinton on December 20, 1999. (Despite serving two non-consecutive terms, Grover Cleveland was only profiled on one program.)

## Peabody Award

American Presidents was awarded a George Foster Peabody Award in 1999. Excerpts of the official rationale for that award appear below:
   ...From the sites, noted biographers, presidential scholars, descendants, and other guests presented revealing information and assessments of the life, times and legacies of the presidents. The tone set by chairman and CEO (and reluctant air personality) Brian P. Lamb remains on point: good television often takes time, requires few special effects and demands (and rewards) good listening. While, like Mr. Lamb, they rarely seek the spotlight, especially deserving of mention are executive producer Mark Farkas, producers Maura Pierce, Paul Brown, Peter Slen and the more than 200 other unseen individuals who make the C-SPAN service increasingly indispensable...
   ...For creating a series that perfectly embodies the essence of public service in electronic communications, a Peabody Award is presented to C-SPAN for "American Presidents: Life Portraits."

## Presidential portraits

Artist Chas Fagan was commissioned by C-SPAN to paint portraits of each of the 41 men who had held the office of U.S. president through 1999. He was given a 90-day window from the time he agreed to the assignment until the time that the project needed to be complete. In September 1999, Union Station in Washington, D.C., hosted a display of Fagan's presidential portraits. Since then, Fagan has also painted portraits of George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump, and tours with exhibits of those portraits.

## Programs

Note: In addition to the interviewees listed, each program featured a variety of other experts, many of whom were employed by or volunteered for the historical sites from which the programs were being broadcast.
| Original air date with link to video | President | Location | Featured interviewees |
| March 15, 1999 | George Washington | Mount Vernon Estate and Gardens, Alexandria, Virginia | Richard Norton Smith |
| March 22, 1999 | John Adams | Adams National Historic Site, Quincy, Massachusetts | David McCullough |
| April 2, 1999 | Thomas Jefferson | Monticello, Charlottesville, Virginia | Andrew Burstein, Annette Gordon-Reed |
| April 9, 1999 | James Madison | Montpelier, Montpelier Station, Virginia | Jack Rakove, Holly Shulman |
| April 12, 1999 | James Monroe | James Monroe Museum, Fredericksburg, Virginia | |
| April 18, 1999 | John Quincy Adams | Massachusetts Historical Society, Boston, Massachusetts | Lynn Hudson Parsons |
| April 26, 1999 | Andrew Jackson | The Hermitage, Hermitage, Tennessee | Robert Remini |
| May 3, 1999 | Martin Van Buren | Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Kinderhook, New York | |
| May 10, 1999 | William Henry Harrison | Tippecanoe Battlefield, Battle Ground, Indiana | |
| May 17, 1999 | John Tyler | Sherwood Forest Plantation, Charles City, Virginia | Edward Crapol, Harrison Ruffin Tyler |
| May 28, 1999 | James K. Polk | President James K. Polk Home & Museum, Columbia, Tennessee | |
| May 31, 1999 | Zachary Taylor | Zachary Taylor National Cemetery, Louisville, Kentucky | |
| June 11, 1999 | Millard Fillmore | Fillmore House Museum, East Aurora, New York | |
| June 14, 1999 | Franklin Pierce | The Pierce Manse, Concord, New Hampshire | Barry Paris |
| June 21, 1999 | James Buchanan | Wheatland, Lancaster, Pennsylvania | |
| June 28, 1999 | Abraham Lincoln | Lincoln Home National Historic Site, Springfield, Illinois | |
| July 9, 1999 | Andrew Johnson | Andrew Johnson National Historic Site, Greeneville, Tennessee | |
| July 12, 1999 | Ulysses S. Grant | General Grant National Memorial, New York City, New York | John Y. Simon, Allan Ballard, Ulysses Grant Dietz |
| July 19, 1999 | Rutherford B. Hayes | Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, Spiegel Grove, Fremont, Ohio | Ari Hoogenboom |
| July 26, 1999 | James A. Garfield | James A. Garfield National Historic Site, Mentor, Ohio | |
| August 6, 1999 | Chester A. Arthur | Union College, Schenectady, New York | Thomas C. Reeves |
| August 13, 1999 | Grover Cleveland | Grover Cleveland Birthplace, Caldwell, New Jersey | |
| August 20, 1999 | Benjamin Harrison | President Benjamin Harrison Home, Indianapolis, Indiana | |
| August 23, 1999 | William McKinley | McKinley National Memorial and Museum, Canton, Ohio | |
| September 3, 1999 | Theodore Roosevelt | Sagamore Hill National Historic Site, Oyster Bay, New York | Edmund Morris, Sylvia Jukes Morris |
| September 6, 1999 | William Howard Taft | William Howard Taft National Historic Site, Cincinnati, Ohio | David H. Burton |
| September 13, 1999 | Woodrow Wilson | Woodrow Wilson Birthplace and Museum, Staunton, Virginia | John Milton Cooper, Jr., Nell Irvin Painter |
| September 20, 1999 | Warren G. Harding | President Harding's Home, Marion, Ohio | Robert Ferrell, Eugene Trani |
| September 27, 1999 | Calvin Coolidge | President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site, Plymouth, Vermont | |
| October 4, 1999 | Herbert Hoover | Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum and Herbert Hoover National Historic Site, West Branch, Iowa | Richard Norton Smith |
| October 11, 1999 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site and Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park, New York | David Kennedy, Hugh Gregory Gallagher, Allida Black |
| October 18, 1999 | Harry S. Truman | Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, Independence, Missouri | Alonzo Hamby, Margaret Truman Daniel |
| October 25, 1999 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | Dwight D. Eisenhower Center, Abilene, Kansas | Geoffrey Perret |
| November 5, 1999 | John F. Kennedy | John F. Kennedy National Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts | Robert Dallek, Thomas C. Reeves |
| November 12, 1999 | Lyndon B. Johnson | LBJ Ranch, Stonewall, Texas | Joseph Califano, Robert Caro |
| November 19, 1999 | Richard Nixon | Richard M. Nixon Library and birthplace, Yorba Linda, California | Melvin Small, Joan Hoff |
| November 22, 1999 | Gerald Ford | Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan | James M. Cannon, Richard Norton Smith |
| December 3, 1999 | Jimmy Carter | Jimmy Carter National Historic Site, Plains, Georgia | Douglas Brinkley, Leo Ribuffo |
| December 6, 1999 | Ronald Reagan | Ronald Reagan ranch, Santa Barbara, California | Lou Cannon |
| December 13, 1999 | George H. W. Bush | George Bush Presidential Library, College Station, Texas | John Robert Greene |
| December 20, 1999 | Bill Clinton | Clinton Center and Birthplace, Hope, Arkansas | David Maraniss |