More Painters, Sculptors, and Artsy Types
1. Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg gave America what patriotic symbol? (Hint: U.S.) [Answer]
2. What great painter of birds had made his living as a portrait painter? [Answer]
3. What classic painting of the Revolutionary War can be seen in Marblehead, Massachusetts? (Hint: fife and drum) [Answer]
4. What famous painter, known for his portraits of George Washington, is buried in Boston’s Central Burying Ground? [Answer]
5. What artist of American small-town life has a museum in Philadelphia? (Hint: Saturday Evening Post) [Answer]
6. James Ives and Nathaniel Currier were famous for what? [Answer]
7. What type of “dangly” art was Alexander Calder famous for? [Answer]
8. What mythical animals appear in the popular paintings of Arthur Davies? (Hint: horn) [Answer]
9. The Brandywine River Museum in Pennsylvania pays tribute to what talented American artist family? [Answer]
10. St. Petersburg, Florida, has a museum devoted to what off-the-wall Spanish artist? [Answer]
11. The home of what noted painter of sea scenes can be visited in Scarborough, Maine? [Answer]
12. Sculptor Jo Davison was famous for his busts of Woodrow Wilson, Will Rogers, Helen Keller, and other notables. What material did he work in? [Answer]
13. What famous sculptor and painter of Old West scenes is honored with a museum in Ogdensburg, New York? [Answer]
14. The Corcoran Gallery of Art in D.C. is devoted to what nation’s artworks? [Answer]
15. Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Wheelwright Museum features the artworks of what ethnic group? [Answer]
16. Salinas, California, has a unique city sculpture of a hat being tossed in the air. What, according to the artist, caused the hat to be tossed? [Answer]
17. What prehistoric creatures, sculpted in steel and concrete, are in a city park in Rapid City, South Dakota? [Answer]
18. What well-loved American artist (an Iowa native) has his artwork featured at Iowa State University’s campus? [Answer]
19. What noted sculptor died the year before finishing his colossal sculpture of four U.S. presidents? [Answer]
20. What New York City artists’ section is “south of Houston”? [Answer]
21. What great American artist was elected head of the Society of British Artists? (Hint: mother) [Answer]
22. Why did famous American painter John Singer Sargent refuse a knighthood from England’s king Edward VIII? [Answer]
Author! Author! (Part 2)
Given the names of key titles of works by a key American author, could you name that author? Give it a try, remembering that the authors range from contemporaries to the authors of the 1600s.
1. The Bear and the Dragon, Patriot Games, The Sum of All Fears, The Hunt for Red October [Answer]
2. The Shadow of Your Smile, I’ll Walk Alone, Daddy’s Little Girl [Answer]
3. The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham, How the Grinch Stole Christmas [Answer]
4. Murder in the Cathedral, “Ash Wednesday,” “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” [Answer]
5. Angels and Demons, The Lost Symbol, The Da Vinci Code [Answer]
6. Self Matters, Love Smart, Relationship Rescue, Getting Real [Answer]
7. As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the Fury, Sanctuary [Answer]
8. From Bed to Worse, My Ten Years in a Quandary, The Early Worm [Answer]
9. The Good Earth, Dragon Seed, A House Divided [Answer]
10. Tarzan of the Apes, Princess of Mars [Answer]
11. The March, Ragtime, Loon Lake, Welcome to Hard Times [Answer]
12. Strange Interlude, Anna Christie, Ah Wilderness [Answer]
13. A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls [Answer]
14. Farewell My Lovely, The Big Sleep, The Long Goodbye [Answer]
15. Shogun, Noble House, Tai-pan [Answer]
16. “Only the Diamond and the Diamond’s Dust”; “I Shall Forget You Presently, My Dear”; “Dirge without Music” [Answer]
17. The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night, The Last Tycoon [Answer]
18. The Case of the Velvet Claws and other Perry Mason novels [Answer]
19. “The Lottery,” The Haunting of Hill House, Life among the Savages [Answer]
20. The Oregon Trail, The History of the Conspiracy of Pontiac, The Discovery of the Great West [Answer]
21. “O Captain, My Captain”; “I Hear America Singing”; “Oneself I Sing”; “I Sing the Body Electric” [Answer]
22. The Sea Wolf, Call of the Wild, White Fang [Answer]
23. Guys and Dolls, Blue Plate Special [Answer]
24. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Member of the Wedding, The Ballad of the Sad Cafe [Answer]
25. Gone with the Wind [Answer]
26. Everything That Rises Must Converge, Wise Blood, A Good Man Is Hard to Find [Answer]
27. “The Outcasts of Poker Flat,” “Plain Language from Truth James,” “The Luck of Roaring Camp” [Answer]
28. Dune, Dune Messiah, Heretics of Dune [Answer]
29. “The Chambered Nautilus,” “The Deacon’s Masterpiece,” “Old Ironsides” [Answer]
30. The Grapes of Wrath, The Pearl, Of Mice and Men [Answer]
31. Too Many Crooks, The Doorbell Rang, and other Nero Wolfe mysteries [Answer]
32. Penrod, Alice Adams, Seventeen [Answer]
33. My Life and Hard Times, Let Your Mind Alone, “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” [Answer]
34. I Am Charlotte Simmons, The Bonfire of the Vanities, The Painted Word [Answer]
35. The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie, The Open Boat [Answer]
36. Slaughterhouse Five, Cat’s Cradle, Player Piano [Answer]
37. The Martian Chronicles, Fahrenheit 451, The Illustrated Man [Answer]
38. The Turn of the Screw, The Golden Bowl, The Ambassadors [Answer]
39. “The Congo,” “The Eagle That Is Forgotten,” “General William Booth Enters into Heaven” [Answer]
40. Rabbit Is Rich, The Centaur, Rabbit Run [Answer]
Presidential Trivia
America has a love-hate relationship with its chief executives—but more love than hate. The truth is, some of our greatest national heroes have been the presidents. Maybe it’s only the current president that people like to complain about.
1. What president did Josh Brolin portray in a 2008 film directed by Oliver Stone? [Answer]
2. In Disney World’s robotic Hall of Presidents, which president stands up and makes a speech? [Answer]
3. What president’s election gave rise to the “birther” movement? [Answer]
4. Who was the only president not to live in the White House? [Answer]
5. What Vermont-born president was sworn into office by his own father in his own living room? [Answer]
6. What early president was the only one to serve in the House after he had been president? [Answer]
7. Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, and John Tyler had all been governors of what state? [Answer]
8. What candidate ran in 1956 with the slogan “Peace, Prosperity, Progress?” [Answer]
9. Which two early presidents died the same day, July 4, 1826? [Answer]
10. If you took a boat tour on the Potomac Spirit, what famous presidential home would you see? [Answer]
11. What state contributed a president to each side in the Civil War? [Answer]
12. Who was president during the nation’s bicentennial celebration in 1976? [Answer]
13. What future U.S. president was given the nickname “Sharp Knife” by Native Americans he had subdued? [Answer]
14. Thomas Jefferson was president when the U.S. bought the enormous Louisiana Territory from France. What future president negotiated the purchase? [Answer]
15. Independence, Missouri, was the hometown of what twentieth-century president? [Answer]
16. What Georgia port city was given as a “Christmas gift” t
o President Abraham Lincoln in 1864? [Answer]
17. President Franklin D. Roosevelt died in 1945 at the Little White House. Where is that? [Answer]
18. Atlantic Beach, North Carolina, has a conservation area named for which U.S. president? [Answer]
19. What tough-wooded tree lent its name to future president Andrew Jackson? [Answer]
20. What honored U.S. politician was playing sandlot baseball when he learned he’d been nominated for president? [Answer]
21. What future president was supreme commander of Allied forces in World War II? [Answer]
22. What one-term president of the 1840s was the first to be photographed? [Answer]
23. What two future presidents signed the Constitution? [Answer]
24. Who was the only president who had served as an ordained minister? [Answer]
25. Which two twentieth-century presidents died within a month of each other? [Answer]
26. Who was the first U.S. president to refer to his D.C. home as the White House? [Answer]
27. President John Tyler’s plantation in Virginia was named for a place out of the Robin Hood legend. What? [Answer]
28. What early president gave the shortest inaugural speech, only 134 words? [Answer]
29. What five-foot-four-inch Virginia-born man was the shortest president? [Answer]
30. Columbia, Tennessee, has the home of the president who masterminded the Mexican War. Who? [Answer]
31. What tight-lipped U.S. president handed reporters slips of paper, stating, “I do not choose to run for president in 1928”? [Answer]
32. Canton, Ohio, has the burial place of the twenty-fifth president, who was assassinated. Who was he? [Answer]
33. Marion, Ohio, has the home of what man who was president in the 1920s? [Answer]
34. What president’s home was known as the “Texas White House” during his term in the 1960s? [Answer]
35. What president (noted for serving two nonconsecutive terms) was born in Caldwell, New Jersey? [Answer]
36. Composer Irving Berlin wrote the campaign song “I Like Ike” for what presidential candidate? [Answer]
37. What president can you see perform “live” in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, each summer? [Answer]
38. Greeneville, Tennessee, has the home, office, and grave of what misunderstood president? [Answer]
39. What blind hymn writer was a lifelong friend of President Grover Cleveland? [Answer]
40. The Bull Moose party, splitting from the Republicans, was founded by what grinning, bespectacled president? [Answer]
The First Ladies
1. Who claimed her husband was the victim of a “vast right-wing conspiracy”? [Answer]
2. What recent first lady was born Anne Frances Robbins but became known as Nancy Davis, a movie actress? [Answer]
3. What lovely blooming trees were introduced to D.C. by First Lady Helen Taft after she visited Japan? [Answer]
4. First Lady Claudia Alta Taylor was better known by what name? [Answer]
5. What future first lady did not have to change her last name when she married? [Answer]
6. What first lady’s home can be toured in Lexington, Kentucky? (Hint: assassination) [Answer]
7. What famous early first lady lived in the Todd House in Philadelphia? [Answer]
8. What first lady offered her silver service for the first coins minted in the U.S.? [Answer]
9. In Boone, Iowa, you can visit the birthplace of a famous first lady of the 1950s. Who? [Answer]
10. A wax museum with figures of presidents and first ladies is near what famous Pennsylvania battlefield? [Answer]
11. In 1890, who, at age five, met her future husband in an Independence, Missouri, Sunday school class? [Answer]
12. What humbly born president of the 1860s was taught to read by his wife? [Answer]
13. What famous first lady’s home can be visited in Braintree, Massachusetts? [Answer]
14. Who, on her first date with the future president, went to a Spike Lee movie? [Answer]
15. What first lady took TV viewers on a White House tour on Valentine’s Day, 1962? [Answer]
The Quotable Presidents
Did our chief executives say anything memorable? You betcha. Their statements—on and off the record—range from the sublime to the ridiculous. The sublime includes Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The ridiculous includes the quote in question one.
1. According to George W. Bush, “Either you are with us, or you are with the ______.” [Answer]
2. What grinning, spunky president coined the phrase “Speak softly and carry a big stick”? [Answer]
3. Who famously said, “I didn’t inhale, and I never tried it again”? [Answer]
4. What famous (and brief) speech of November 19, 1863, began, “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth . . .”? [Answer]
5. What president broke his 1964 campaign promise not to send “American boys to fight Asian wars”? [Answer]
6. What president claimed to seek “peace with honor” in ending the Vietnam War? [Answer]
7. What candidate ran in the 1916 presidential race with the slogan “He kept us out of war”? [Answer]
8. What early vice president called the office “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived”? [Answer]
9. What 330-pound president thought so little of his term that he later said, “I don’t remember that I ever was president”? [Answer]
10. On the eve of the depression, which presidential candidate promised “a chicken in every pot”? [Answer]
11. According to President Woodrow Wilson, what war was fought “to make the world safe for democracy”? [Answer]
12. Which president, who left the nation on the brink of civil war, claimed that “history will vindicate my memory”? [Answer]
13. What Republican president announced on taking office in 1974, “Our long national nightmare is over”? [Answer]
14. What grinning presidential candidate of the 1970s claimed, “I will never lie to you”? [Answer]
15. What Republican president of the 1970s assured the nation, “I am not a crook”? [Answer]
16. What president wrote the inscription for Sam Houston’s gravestone: “The world will take care of Houston’s fame”? [Answer]
17. In 1925 Calvin Coolidge said, “The business of America is” what? [Answer]
18. What lanky president said, “You may fool all the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all the time”? [Answer]
19. What tired president, leaving office in 1849 after watching the U.S. double in size, said, “The presidency is not a bed of roses”? [Answer]
20. What D.C. building did President Benjamin Harrison refer to as “my jail”? [Answer]
21. What president, never liked by liberals, appealed to what he called the “silent majority”? [Answer]
22. What brassy president of the early 1900s claimed that “no president has ever enjoyed himself as much as I have enjoyed myself”? [Answer]
23. What popular president of the 1800s had “Let the people rule” as his slogan? [Answer]
24. What Democratic presidential candidate of the 1970s claimed he had “committed adultery in his heart” many times? [Answer]
25. What future president said, during the Revolutionary War, “The united force of Europe will not be able to subdue us”? [Answer]
26. Who was the first president to use the phrase “this nation under God”? (Hint: Civil War) [Answer]
27. Who was given an unconditional pardon for all crimes “he committed or may have committed” by President Gerald Ford? [Answer]
28. What tight-lipped president left office in 1929, stating, “It’s best to get out while they still want you”? [Answer]
29. What former president’s last words in 1848 were, “This is the last of earth, I am content”? (Hint: son of a president) [Answer]
30. What early presid
ent’s last words were, “Thomas Jefferson still survives”? [Answer]
31. What Democrat told reporters, “Pray for me, boys” when he became president in 1945? [Answer]
More Presidential Trivia
1. What president did Hillary Clinton call “the selected president”? [Answer]
2. What Republican president was knighted by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth? [Answer]
3. Who received his “Slick” nickname from columnist Paul Greenberg? [Answer]
4. When George Washington was inaugurated president in 1789, what city was the U.S. capital? [Answer]
5. Whose death did Barack Obama announce to the United States on May 2, 2011? [Answer]
6. Who has been the only U.S. president to resign from office (so far)? [Answer]
7. What recent Republican president was called the “Teflon President” because scandals never seemed to stick to him? [Answer]
8. What enormous statue in New York did President Grover Cleveland officially dedicate in 1886? [Answer]
9. What much loved president warned, in his farewell address, against any “small, artful, enterprising minority” controlling government? [Answer]
10. Nationwide TV broadcasting began in 1951 with a showing of what president’s speech? [Answer]
11. What Democratic president’s campaign logo was a peanut with a toothy grin? [Answer]
12. What outdoorsy president was the first president to ride in an automobile? [Answer]
13. What president was the first that someone tried to assassinate? (Hint: hickory) [Answer]
14. What Republican president was shot in the chest only two months after taking office? [Answer]
15. What does the president place his left hand on while taking the oath of office? [Answer]
16. President Rutherford Hayes’s wife was nicknamed “Lemonade Lucy” because she refused to serve what in the White House? [Answer]
17. Varina Davis was the wife of what president? [Answer]
18. New Orleans’s famous city square is named for (and has a statue of) a president important in the city’s history. Who was he? [Answer]
The Big Book of American Trivia Page 11