Portrait of William Henry Harrison

This ink portrait by Jacques Reich depicts William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States (1841). The work exemplifies late-nineteenth-century newspaper illustration technique, with cross-hatching and linear shading creating volume and character. Harrison served only thirty-one days before his death in 1841, the shortest presidential term in American history. Reich's rendering captures the formal portraiture conventions of the period, when newspapers and periodicals relied on skilled engravers and illustrators to reproduce political figures and historical subjects for the reading public.