I love this caption from today in 1939:

“A tip to a youngster. Washington, D.C., Jan. 17. Senator Robert Taft from Ohio today asked the advice of old timer Senator Arthur Vandenberg from Michigan upon certain matters. Senator Taft is a newcomer to Congress this year and is following advice given by those who ‘know the ropes,’ 1/17/39”

Of course, Taft (aka “Mr. Republican”) would go on to spend many years in the Senate.

Vandenberg, also a Republican, would go on to give a “speech heard ‘round the world” in 1945 when he gave up isolationism and called for bipartisan foreign policy. 

Photo by Harris & Ewing via Library of Congress (which notes that the caption information is “unverified.”) For more on the library’s effort to digitize the Harris & Ewing collection, visit the Picture This blog.