On This Day in Texas History: Rejected Portrait of LBJ Draws Record Crowd to Snyder Museum

SNYDER, TX — On March 12, 1967, the Diamond M Museum in Snyder, Texas, saw a massive crowd as people came to see a portrait of President Lyndon B. Johnson, a painting that the president himself had famously rejected.

The portrait, painted by artist Peter Hurd, earned harsh criticism from Johnson, who called it "the ugliest thing I ever saw."

Even though Johnson did not like it, the painting became a huge deal in the small town of Snyder. People from all over the area came to the museum to see it. 

Hurd, an artist from New Mexico who studied under N.C. Wyeth, was already well-known for his work in the Southwest, but this portrait of LBJ definitely received more attention than his other pieces.

The Diamond M Museum in Snyder, known for its unique art collection, displayed the portrait just before it was sent to the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., where it still hangs today. The museum closed in 1992, but it had become the home for a painting that turned into a piece of history.

After the museum closed, its collection, including the LBJ portrait, was moved to the Museum of Texas Tech University.