Martin Van Buren was a man who kept his appointments.

Called in for another portrait with famous photographer Mathew B. Brady, Van Buren agreed even though a terrible storm was raging. When Brady asked him why he had braved such weather, the former president insisted that he never breaks engagements if he feels they are at all possible to keep. Something tells me Van Buren was one of those types who come to parties fashionably early and stand around awkwardly while the host continues to get ready.

The press dubbed our eighth President of the United States “the Little Magician” (though his enemies preferred the term “sly fox”) for his impressive navigation across a vast political landscape, holding titles such as Attorney General, governor, and U.S. Senator of New York, Ambassador to England, Secretary of State, and Vice President under Andrew Jackson. He was also the first ever president to have been born as a U.S. citizen, which is pretty cool.

Mathew B. Brady’s portrait disguises Van Buren’s small size, portraying the man in all of his glory as former American president, gosh-darn-it, one of only four still living at the time of the photograph’s taking in 1855, and doesn’t he look nice and stately.

Brady had already been making a name for himself taking photographic portraits of many illustrious Americans for ten years, with subjects such as Daniel Webster, Edgar Allan Poe, and James Fenimore Cooper. He would also go on to acquire an extensive collection of presidential portraits, including Van Buren’s here.

Photographs still being a relatively new endeavor, these portraits brought Brady quite a lot of attention and solidified his reputation as one of America’s most successful camera artists, but there was a mutual benefit for those photographed. Abraham Lincoln, for example, once credited his presidential election largely to Brady’s portrait of him, its circulation helping to dignify Lincoln’s “country bumpkin” image among voters. (Fun fact: images of Lincoln on the five dollar bill and penny are based on Brady portraits!)

Van Buren, on the other hand, who was photographed fourteen years after his presidency, would just have to live with only being immortalized on salt paper print, political ambitions be damned. Still, he gives the photo his all, we gotta admit.