19 Rarely Seen Photos of American Presidents

There's a reason why official White House photographers can almost always be found by the president's side: Yes, to document iconic, history-making moments (think: Lyndon B. Johnson taking the oath of office aboard Air Force One) but, equally important, to capture those intimate, unguarded minutes hat reveal the person behind the scenes (like John F. Kennedy playing with his son in the Oval Office).

"On paper, the job of Chief Official White House Photographer is to visually document the president for history. But what, and how much, you photograph depends on each individual photographer,” former chief White House photographer Pete Souza wrote in the introduction to his book, Obama: An Intimate Portrait. “It was my job to capture real moments for history. The highs and lows, the texture of each day, the things we didn’t even know would be important later on.”

In honor of the newly-inaugurated President Joe Biden—and the upcoming President's Day holiday—we're sharing some rarely seen photos of former presidents.