On October 17, 1979, President Jimmy Carter signed the Department of Education Organization Act into law, creating a cabinet-level department dedicated to education. The legislation separated education functions from the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which became the Department of Health and Human Services. The new Department of Education began operating on May 4, 1980.
The reorganization brought federal education programs under a dedicated cabinet secretary. Its stated goals included improving coordination, strengthening equal educational opportunity, and supporting the work of states, local school systems, educators, and families. The department’s responsibilities included administering federal education assistance, supporting research, and enforcing federal education laws—not directing local curricula or running the nation’s schools.
This portrait of Carter was made in 1979 by Ansel Adams, best known for his landscape photography. Taken during portrait sessions that November, it captures the president just weeks after he signed the department into law. The photograph is now part of the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery collection.
Image: Ansel Adams, 1979. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
