While traveling from Mount Vernon to New York City, the newly elected president was celebrated in several cities. This illustration of Gray's Ferry near Philadelphia appeared in Columbian Magazine with an article detailing the inaugural preparation. Can you "spy" the requested items? (this activity requires the Shockwave Player)

Washington's second inauguration was held on March 4, 1793. This remained the standard inauguration date for over one hundred years. In accordance with the Constitution's twentieth amendment, Franklin Delano Roosevelt's second inauguration in 1937 was the first to occur on January 20.

James Monroe held his second inauguration indoors because of snow and rain, but inclement weather didn't always change the ceremony site.

In 1841, William Henry Harrison rode to his inauguration in a rainstorm. It rained throughout his inaugural ceremony at the Capitol and continued through his inaugural address. Nonetheless, Harrison delivered the longest inaugural address on record – 8,441 words. A month later, he passed away after catching a cold that developed into pneumonia.

On March 4, 1909, a blizzard forced William Taft to hold his inauguration in the Senate chamber.

People gathered at the East Portico of the Capitol to witness inaugural oaths from Martin Van Buren's in 1837 to Jimmy Carter's in 1977. Benjamin Harrison explained the value of this public ceremony in his 1897 inaugural address:

"The oath taken in the presence of the people becomes a mutual covenant...My promise is spoken; yours unspoken, but not the less real and solemn...."

Would a private inaugural ceremony foster an equal commitment from "the people"? What effect does the media have on the solemnity of of the occasion?