Rutherford B. Hayes Photograph

This 3.4" x 6.8" (8.6 x 17.3 cm) image of Rutherford B. Hayes was taken soon after he was elected nineteenth president of the United States. Hayes lost the popular vote in the 1876 election to Democrat Samuel Tilden, but won the electoral college by a margin of 185 to 184. This photograph is part of the Rutherford B. Hayes Collection at the Hayes Presidential Center in Fremont. The extensive collection consists of photographs, documents, books, and ephemera. Rutherford B. Hayes was the fifth child of Rutherford and Sophia Birchard Hayes, who came to Ohio in 1817 from Vermont. He was born October 4, 1822, at Delaware, Ohio, two months after the death of his father. Young Rutherford and sister Fanny Arabella were raised by their mother and her younger bachelor brother Sardis Birchard. Hayes graduated from Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio in 1842 and from Harvard Law School in 1845. He began his law practice in Lower Sandusky, but moved in 1849 to Cincinnati, where he became a successful lawyer, a Republican, and an opponent of slavery. In 1864, while serving in the Civil War, Hayes was elected to Congress, despite his refusal to campaign. He was reelected in 1866. The following year Ohio voters elected him governor. He retired to Fremont after completing his second gubernatorial term in 1872, but was elected for a third term in 1875. That same year, the Republican Party chose Hayes as its presidential candidate. He won the 1876 election only after the creation of a special commission to decide disputed electoral votes. As president, Hayes initiated civil service reform, aimed at ending patronage, and appointed men with sound qualifications to government positions. He also signed a bill that allowed women attorneys to appear before the U.S. Supreme Court. The President was particularly concerned about helping minorities, the poor, and immigrants. He believed that education and manual training would help all people achieve better lives. Honoring his commitment not to accept a second term, Hayes retired to his beautiful home, Spiegel Grove, in Fremont, Ohio. He died at Spiegel Grove January 17, 1893.