INDIANAPOLIS (September 1, 2006) - Portraits of William Henry Harrison and Jane Dale Owen Fauntleroy are the newest additions to the Hoosier Heritage Portrait Collection that adorns the south wall of the Governor's Office.

Harrison first visited Indiana in 1794 when he served in the U.S. Army as aide-de-camp to General "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. He resigned from the Army in 1798 and went on to become the first governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory, a post he held from 1800-1812. While governor, Harrison built a home, Grouseland, in Vincennes, from which he could launch his military and diplomatic campaigns. In 1840, Harrison was elected to be the ninth President of the United States.

Fauntleroy, a daughter of British social reformer and philanthropist Robert Owen, moved from Scotland to New Harmony in 1833 where her father had attempted to create a utopian community. While in New Harmony, Jane was involved in the day to day workings of the community and founded a seminary for young women to learn art, music, math, science, and foreign languages.

In January 2006, the governor designated the south wall of the governor's office as a place for portraits of historically important Hoosiers - a change in the longstanding tradition of hanging portraits solely of former governors. The portraits, which are loaned to the state, are part of a rotating exhibit that is updated periodically. Portraits of Mother Theodore Guerin of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, and Mark C. Honeywell of Wabash, are also currently hanging in the Governor'sffice.

The portrait of Fauntleroy is on loan from the Indiana State Museum and the New Harmony State Historic Site. The portrait of Harrison was painted by John Wesley Jarvis and is on loan from his home in Vincennes.

Biography of William Henry Harrison

William Henry Harrison was the youngest of seven children born into a prominent political family in Charles City County Virginia. His father's death in 1791 left Harrison without money for further schooling and so, at the age of 18, he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Army. He was sent to the Northwest Territory where he spent much of his life. Harrison served as aide-de-camp to General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, from whom he learned how to successfully command an army on the American frontier.

Harrison resigned from the Army in 1798 to become Secretary of the Northwest Territory. The following year, he was elected as the first delegate representing the Northwest Territory in the Sixth United State Congress. In 1800, Harrison became governor of the newly formed Indiana Territory, a post he held for 12 years. He built a home, Grouseland, in Vincennes, from which he could launch his military and diplomatic campaigns.

After his time in Indiana, Harrison served in several government and diplomatic posts including Congressman and Senator from Ohio and Minister to Columbia. In 1840 he was elected the ninth President of the United States.

When Harrison took office in 1841 at the age of 68, he was the oldest man to be elected President; a record that stood for 140 years. Before he had been in office a month, he caught a cold that developed into pneumonia. On April 4, 1841, he died-the first President to die in office.

Biography of Jane Dale Owen Fauntleroy

Jane Dale Owen was one of two daughters of the British social reformer, Robert Owen. She and her four brothers resided in the town of New Harmony, Indiana, which her father had purchased in 1825.

Owen moved to New Harmony in 1833, not long after her mother and sister had died in Scotland. In 1835, she married Robert Henry Fauntleroy, a civil engineer from Virginia who became more lastingly known as an officer in the U. S. Coast Survey.

While in New Harmony, Owen was involved in the day to day workings of the community, along with her brother Robert Dale Owen who ran the operation when their father returned to England. She founded a seminary for young women where they learned English, math, science, art, music, foreign languages and many other skills that would "render her pupils intelligent and useful women, and bestowed in that spirit of kindness and sympathy with the young mind which is so necessary to elicit its powers."