In this photograph by Eric Draper, President George W. Bush stands with author Harper Lee in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 5, 2007. Lee was at the White House to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Bush. Lee was best known for her classic American novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird" and received her honor alongside Liberian politician Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, director of the National Institutes of Health Dr. Francis Collins, and Benjamin Hooks, civil rights leader and former executive director of the NAACP, among others.

In this photograph by Bill Fitz-Patrick, President Gerald R. Ford presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former First Lady Lady Bird Johnson in a ceremony in the East Room on January 10, 1977. President Ford presented the award in the waning days of his presidency, honoring Mrs. Johnson alongside the likes of Georgia O'Keeffe, Irving Berlin, Joe DiMaggio, Nelson Rockefeller, and Norman Rockwell.

In this photograph by Lawrence Jackson, President Barack Obama awards the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Pat Summitt, legendary former coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team. The ceremony took place on May 29, 2012 in the East Room. Novelist Toni Morrison, seated at left, was also honored with the award in addition Madeline Albright, John Doar, Bob Dylan, William Foege, John Glenn, Gordon Hirabayashi, Dolores Huerta, Jan Karski, Juliette Gordon Low, Shimon Peres, and John Paul Stevens.

This photograph was taken by David Hume Kennerly on August 5, 1976, during a ceremony where President Gerald R. Ford awarded athlete and humanitarian Jesse Owens with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor a president can bestow. President Ford presented the award during a ceremony in the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden, attended by members of the 1976 United States Summer Olympic team. A track-and-field legend, Owens earned four gold medals during the controversial 1936 Summer Olympic Games in Nazi Germany. Notably, Owens did not receive a White House invitation or word of congratulations from President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated Owens as an Ambassador of Sports, and enlisted him on a goodwill tour to promote amateur sports in India, the Philippines, and Malaysia.

This photograph of President Bill Clinton presenting historian John Hope Franklin with the Presidential Medal of Freedom as First Lady Hillary Clinton looks on was taken in 1995. Franklin received the medal, the highest honor a civilian can receive from the president, for his groundbreaking work charting the history of race in America.