Vice President Tyler Receives News of President Harrison's Death

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.