This engraving depicts Vice President John Tyler at Sherwood Forest, his plantation estate in Virginia, receiving news from a messenger regarding the death of President William Henry Harrison. On April 4, 1841, Harrison became the first president to die while in office following a battle with pneumonia. As the first vice president to unexpectedly rise to the office of the presidency, Tyler established a precedent of not merely title but also presidential power falling to the new successor. This image appears in a book titled "The Lives of the Presidents" by William O. Stoddard, published in 1886.
This engraving depicts Vice President John Tyler at Sherwood Forest, his plantation estate in Virginia, receiving news from a messenger regarding the death of President William Henry Harrison. On April 4, 1841, Harrison became the first president to die while in office following a battle with pneumonia. As the first vice president to unexpectedly rise to the office of the presidency, Tyler established a precedent of not merely title but also presidential power falling to the new successor. This image appears in a book titled "The Lives of the Presidents" by William O. Stoddard, published in 1886.
