Main Content

First Official Turkey Pardon

In this photograph President George H. W. Bush stands in the Rose Garden during the first official turkey pardoning ceremony on November 17, 1989. Presidents and their families have received turkeys for the holidays as far back as the 1870s. However, the origin of the turkey pardon is said to have started with President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, after he offered a clemency to a turkey purchased for Christmas dinner at his son's request. The pardoning of a Thanksgiving turkey became a formalized tradition during the Ronald Reagan years before President Bush's first official pardoning in 1989.
Photographer
Unknown
Date of Work
November 17, 1989
Type
Photograph
Credit
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA
View in the Digital Library

You Might Also Like

  • Scholarship

    A White House Usher Remembers Winston Churchill

    After the United States entered World War II, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was a frequent guest in the Roosevelt White House. Although the Prime Minister's visits were associated with weighty issues, White House workers remembered Churchill with delight and amusement. "The most colorful visitor ever to appear at the wartime White House was Winston Churchill," J. B. West records