Has every US president been familiar with, or at least shaken hands with, every immediate predecessor all the way back to Washington?

by MississippiJoel

Just a thought that popped in my head. We think of the presidency as Secret Service details and motorcades that it's easy to forget that the pre-industrial revolution presidents as even being from the same country. Was it a slow evolution of the office, or could we point to events like this and say there are "historical presidents" vs "modern presidents"?

fischermansfriend

Inspired by this question, I made this album. https://imgur.com/gallery/j5kEK

DeckardsDolphin

We know that George Washington thought shaking hands was beneath the dignity of the office of the President, so he stuck to bowing instead. That said, we can't say for certain that he never shook hands with even his close friends.

Funnily enough, there was already a thread asking this question.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/2gex95/what_is_the_smallest_chain_of_handshakes_between/

I like /u/k1990's answer the best.