Silver gelatin portrait of William Howard Taft as Chief Justice. Washington, D.C.: Underwood & Underwood, [1929]. 9 x 11 5/8, matted to 12 3/8 x 15 3/4 in. Photographer's mark to lower margin. 

INSCRIBED BY TAFT to lower margin: "To Mr. Allen G. Messick of Marion, Indiana / with the best wishes of / Wm. H. Taft / Washington DC. February 9th / 1929 -"

A distinguished portrait of Chief Justice William Howard Taft wearing his black judicial robes. The former United States president was appointed by President Warren G. Harding as the 10th Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court on 30 June 1921. To date, Taft is the only person to have served as the highest level of both the Executive and Judicial branches of the Federal Government. He resigned on 3 February 1830 due to declining health, dying just over a month later. 

The portrait is inscribed to Allen G. Messick, an attorney and businessman who, in 1927, was appointed the president of the U.S. Radio & Television Corporation. 

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Isolated silvering, minor darkening at mat edges.