August 24 – December 31, 2011

“His Voice Spoke War and Peace”

 Speaker Clay: Leader of the War Hawks

This engraving is of a painting of Speaker Henry Clay by Charles Bird King.

Over the course of his half century of public service Henry Clay held three different offices and pursued a fourth. Of those positions, the one Clay impacted the most was the Speakership of the House of Representatives. Clay served as Speaker longer than anyone else in the 19th Century and has only been surpassed since by Sam Rayburn. Though the position is one of three legislative roles defined in the Constitution and the only one elected by the membership of a legislative body, the Speakership was largely a parliamentary role. Clay transformed it into one of the most powerful offices in our nation’s government. He accomplished this by appointing Representatives to committees who could control the flow of debate. Clay was the first Speaker to step down from his chair and into the fray of debate on the floor.

     Henry Clay achieved a number of firsts as Speaker of the House. He is the only Speaker elected on his first day in office on the first ballot. The most significant first achievement by Clay, was in using one of the most important constitutionally allocated powers: declaring war for the first time in our nation’s history. In June 1812, Clay and the House voted to declare war on Great Britain in hopes of finally ending harassment to their former colony.

Small Pictures, Great Stories:

Early Portrait Miniatures

August 24 - December 31, 2011

   Portrait miniatures were an important art form in the early 19th century. This exhibit features four important miniatures from Ashland’s collection and two from Transylvania University Library’s Department of Special Collections. These miniatures represent a range of materials and techniques as a well as subjects.