Mayors of the Olden Time

The title of this portrait of three former mayors of Washington, D.C., has an odd ring to it. “The Olden Time” is archaic and gives a sense of remote distance, even though all three men were relatively recent office-holders and were still alive. What Alexander Gardner meant is that they were mayors before the war came and changed everything: the war was a bright dividing line that separated even recent history from the present. From left to right are Roger Chew Weightman (1787–1876), mayor from 1824 to 1827; William Winston Seaton (1785–1866), mayor from 1840 to 1850; and Peter Force (1790–1868), mayor from 1836 to 1840. All three men were also journalists and publishers at various points in their careers.