Joseph Habersham, Former Postmaster General

Appointed by President George Washington in 1795, Joseph Habersham (1751–1815) served as Postmaster General through the administration of President John Adams.  A Georgia native, Habersham held local elected office as Speaker of the Georgia House and mayor of Savannah prior to his federal appointment.  Under Habersham’s direction, the Postal Service continued to expand its reach with the introduction of the hub-and-spoke system, which eliminated the need for repeated sorting of the mail.  When the federal government moved from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800, it took but two wagons to carry all of the postal records, furniture, and supplies held by the department.  In 1801, Habersham was replaced as Postmaster General when newly elected President Thomas Jefferson appointed Gideon Granger to the position.

Russian-American sculptor Gleb W. Derujinsky was born to aristocratic parents in Smolensk, Russia, in 1888.  A student of Rodin, Derujinsky studied at the Académie Julian in Paris and the Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg.  After the Russian Revolution, he departed Crimea as a sailor on a ship bound for America.  Derujinsky arrived in the U.S. in 1919, and soon established himself as a prominent sculptor in New York.  Among his best known works are portrait busts of presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy.