![]() The formalities of pardoning a turkey gelled by 1989, when President George H. The turkey ceremony also became a source of satire and humor for reporters. The 1978 turkey, presented to First Lady Rosalynn Carter, met a similar fate when it was sent to Evans Farm Inn to live in a mini zoo.Īfter 1981, the practice of sending the presentation turkey to a farm became the norm under President Ronald Reagan. The Washington Post used both "pardon" and "reprieve" in a 1963 article in which President Kennedy said of the turkey, "Let's keep him going." During the latter years of the Nixon presidency, Patricia Nixon accepted the turkeys on behalf of the President and in 1973 sent the bird to the Oxon Hill Children’s Farm. ![]() There was clearly no plan for these birds to receive a presidential pardon. In December 1948, Truman accepted two turkeys and remarked that they would "come in handy" for Christmas dinner. While 1947 was the beginning of the official turkey presentation from the poultry industry, the turkey pardon remained a sporadic tradition. The turkey they presented to President Truman that December promoted the poultry industry and established an annual news niche that endures today. The effort was deflated in time for Thanksgiving, but not before poultry growers had sent crates of live chickens- "Hens for Harry"- to the White House in protest. This came to a head when the poultry industry pointed out that the upcoming Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day, the three big turkey holidays, happened to fall on Thursday. ![]() Outrage from homemakers, restaurant owners, and the poultry industry was palpable in Washington. From September to November 1947, announcements of the government encouraging "poultryless Thursdays" grabbed national headlines. The focus on Truman stems from his being the first president to receive a turkey from the Poultry and Egg National Board and the National Turkey Federation. However, the Truman Library & Museum disputes the notion that he was the first to do so. Truman began the tradition of “pardoning” a turkey. Recently, White House mythmakers have claimed that President Harry S. The turkey gifts had become established as a national symbol of good cheer. First Lady Grace Coolidge accepted a turkey from a Vermont Girl Scout in 1925. In 1921, an American Legion post furnished bunting for the crate of a gobbler en route from Mississippi to Washington, while a Harding Girls Club in Chicago outfitted a turkey as a flying ace, complete with goggles. Soon after, in December, Horace Vose died, thus ending an era.īy 1914, the opportunity to give a turkey to a president was open to everyone, and poultry gifts were frequently touched with patriotism, partisanship, and glee. At Thanksgiving 1913, a turkey-come-lately from Kentucky shared a few minutes of fame with the fine-feathered Rhode Islander. The First Families did not always feast upon Vose's turkeys, but the yearly offering gained his farm widespread publicity and became a veritable institution at the White House. Reports of turkeys as gifts to American presidents can be traced to the 1870s, when Rhode Island poultry dealer Horace Vose began sending well fed birds to the White House. It is often stated that President Lincoln's 1863 clemency to a turkey recorded in an 1865 dispatch by White House reporter Noah Brooks was the origin for the pardoning ceremony, although this is likely apocryphal. The official "pardoning" of White House turkeys is an interesting White House tradition that has captured the imagination of the public in recent years.
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