In Pictures: Presidential Inaugurations Through American History

    From Washington to Trump.

    Donald Trump is about to be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States. His inauguration ceremony will take place on 20 January – as has every Inauguration Day since 1937.

    Here we take a look back at more than 220 years of US presidential inaugurations, from 18th-century paintings to 21st-century colour photographs.

    George Washington, president 1789–97

    Thomas Jefferson, president 1801–09

    James Monroe, president 1817–25

    Andrew Jackson, president 1829–1837

    Martin Van Buren, president 1837–41

    William Henry Harrison, president 1841 (died in office)

    James K. Polk, president 1845–49

    Zachary Taylor, president 1849–50

    Franklin Pierce, president 1853–57

    James Buchanan, president 1857–61

    Abraham Lincoln, president 1861–65 (assassinated)

    Ulysses S. Grant, president 1869–77

    Rutherford B. Hayes, president 1877–81

    Grover Cleveland, president 1885–89 and 1893–97

    William McKinley, president 1897–1901

    Theodore Roosevelt, president 1901–09

    William Howard Taft, president 1909–13

    Woodrow Wilson, president 1913–21

    Warren G. Harding, president 1921–23 (died in office)

    Calvin Coolidge, president 1923–29

    Herbert Hoover, president 1929–1933

    Franklin D. Roosevelt, president 1933–45 (died in office)

    Harry S. Truman, president 1945–53

    Dwight D. Eisenhower, president 1953–61

    John F. Kennedy, president 1961–63

    Lyndon B. Johnson, president 1963–69

    Richard Nixon, president 1969–74 (resigned from office)

    Gerald Ford, president 1974–77

    Jimmy Carter, president 1977–1981

    Ronald Reagan, president 1981–89

    George H. W. Bush, president 1989–93

    Bill Clinton, president 1993–2001

    George W. Bush, president 2001–09

    Barack Obama, president 2009–17

    Preparations for the inauguration of Donald Trump, 2017