Peale's majestic portrait of founding father George Washington has headed to Versailles for a state-of-the-art restoration.

He won two major history prizes and served as a consultant for filmmaker Ken Burns. His books charted the evolution of the American presidency.

Yet Washington was aware that politics is perception — including the perception of his personal finances. As the national ...

William E. Leuchtenburg, a prize-winning historian widely admired for his authoritative writings on the U.S. presidency and as the reigning scholar on Franklin Roosevelt and the ...