On Oct. 22, 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt delivered remarks to students and faculty at Peabody Normal College during a brief visit to Nashville. Roosevelt was a trustee of the Peabody Education Fund and supported the resolution that liquidated the fund, applying $1 million of the trust to create George Peabody College for Teachers. Photo credit: Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
Hanor Webb, a professor in science education at Peabody, wrote in the November 1934 issue of the Peabody Reflector: “Of course many readers of the Reflector and Alumni News were in the crowd of students who cheered for Theodore Roosevelt as his car stopped in front of the gray stones of our main building on the Old Campus. …And—you who were there with me—do you remember how ‘Teddy’ rose and made a pleasing little talk in a voice that startled us with its high pitch—almost a squeakiness!” Photo credit: Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, along with his wife, Eleanor, made a brief visit to Nashville on Nov. 17, 1934, during which he drove through all the city’s campuses, including the city’s historically black colleges. At Peabody, he stopped in front of the Social-Religious Building, now known as the Wyatt Center, but did not get out of the car. Photo credit: Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
Hanor Webb, who wrote the previous item about Theodore Roosevelt, mentioned in the same article: “As far as I am aware, I am the only person on campus at the present time [1934] who witnessed the visits of both Presidents bearing the name of Roosevelt to Peabody.” Photo credit: Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
Though Chancellor Harvie Branscomb chaired the Advisory Commission on Educational Exchange from 1947–51 under President Harry S. Truman, and Chancellor Alexander Heard served in an advisory role regarding campus unrest to the Nixon administration during the ’70s, these presidents never visited Vanderbilt. Most presidential visits to the campus, other than JFK’s in 1963, were the result of the IMPACT Symposium, a series of student-led forums that began in 1964 to bring high profile speakers to campus to address controversial topics. Many of the country’s presidents who have spoken at IMPACT came either before their presidency or after their terms had ended. In 1979, then presidential candidate George H.W. Bush came to campus to speak at IMPACT on the topic “Toward Global Unity.” He would be unsuccessful in his campaign for the presidency, though he would accept the vice-presidential nomination to run on the ticket with Ronald Reagan, with whom he served from 1981 until he won the presidency in 1989. Left to right: John H. Geary Jr. welcoming Assistant Secretary of State Charles William Maynes and George Bush, who, at the time, was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, at the opening session of IMPACT on Feb. 16, 1979. Photo credits: Kathleen Smith/ Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford were on campus for the 1986 IMPACT Symposium titled “The Next Move: Conflict or Compromise in East/West Relations” in late February 1986. Robert McNamara and Andrew Young were also on the panel. Photo credit: David Hildebrand/ Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
The most recent sitting president to visit campus was Bill Clinton, who attended the 6th Annual Gore Family Re-Union on June 25, 1997. The conference is held annually to address topics of concern to families and children. Photo credit: Billy Kingsley/ Vanderbilt University Special Collections and University Archives
