Description: George Washington was known for his horsemanship, and (according to several biographers) for his amazingly muscular thighs. Whether you're belting Hamilton lyrics or reading old thigh-happy biographies of Washington, wearing this in public is sure to be an interesting social experiment.
Description: The Marquis de Lafayette famously toured the United States in 1824 - 1825, and this Lafayette Farewell Tour design celebrates the 200th anniversary of the triumphant US tour of America's favorite fighting Frenchman. The back side (available on t-shirts only) features a list of cities Lafayette visited on his cross-country trek.
Description: This peg-legged philandering "Penman of the Constitution" is the most fascinating Founder most people have never heard of. Gouverneur Morris fully deserves his own musical, though it might be best to cut out his death scene. We certainly didn't shy away from talking about it in one of our favorite episodes, "Gouverneur Morris and the Vampire of Bizarre."
Description: This design is perfect for the history lover who feels like they're living in the Upside Down. Though John Adams didn't invent this famous quote, he famously used it in 1770 when he defended British soldiers for their role in the Boston Massacre, saying "Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence."
Description: Championed as the successor to the Teddy Bear, the Billy Possum was a stuffed toy inspired by a famous possum dinner honoring William Howard Taft. Somehow, Billy Possum did not replace the teddy bear in the hearts of the nation's children, but the story of the wild efforts to promote this toy did make for one of our favorite episodes.
Description: An obscure reference to the scurrilous Burr! In 1799, New York City needed clean water and Aaron Burr needed money and power, so he convinced Alexander Hamilton to help him charter The Manhattan Company—a water company that would bring "pure and wholesome water" to lower Manhattan. Buried in the charter's language was a clause allowing it to use its excess funds for anything it wanted, which let Burr create a bank that helped his Democratic-Republican Party win the Election of 1800 and went on to become the powerful Chase Manhattan Bank.
Description: In 1808, the White House lawn was a dangerous place. Not because of the two grizzly bears in the yard (they were in a cage) but because of a little four-horned Shetland ram described as beautiful, wicked, and abominable. This little creature, the subject of our episode "Thomas Jefferson's Killer Ram," was responsible for the first recorded death on the White House property.
Description: George Washington has a well-earned reputation for being a bit stuffy, but he definitely found humor in giving his dogs names like Vulcan, Venus, Truelove, Drunkard, and Sweetlips. We'd like to imagine those awkward moments when George hollered, "Come here, Sweetlips!" and Martha and the dog both turned around.
About Plodding Through The Presidents
