Through history, presidents, former presidents, and not -yet-presidents have visited the Vineyard.

But it was a First Lady who caused the biggest stir.

In August of 1961 on a Sunday afternoon President Kennedy, his wife, Jackie, and daughter, Caroline, came over to the Vineyard on board the Marlin. They picked up some friends on Chappaquiddick and anchored off the Chappaquiddick Beach Club.

“The President, Jackie and Caroline Drop Over/from the Cape to Chappy; Jackie Water Skis,” the headline in the Vineyard Gazette later noted politely.

Written in typical understated fashion, the story reported that as word spread of the Kennedy family arrival, a small crowd gathered on the beach, and several Coast Guardsmen swam ashore to keep curiosity-seekers at bay. A woman skippering a Boston whaler, apparently unaware of the presidential presence in the harbor, was towing a teenage boy on water skis. The Gazette reported: “. . . the woman skipper was heard to say, ‘Heavens, that’s the President!’ . . . President Kennedy hailed the Boston whaler and soon Mrs. Kennedy — well, Jackie, then — clad in an aqua maillot swimsuit, tightly fitting, a white-petaled swimmers cap, was waterskiing behind the Boston whaler. She was expert at the sport, taking two big swoops and dropping off quite a way out to swim back.”

There were no photographs.

But at the risk of being accused of sexism, that single image conveyed by words is stronger than a hundred shots of Bill Clinton playing golf at Farm Neck.

And in truth, presidential visits have not always been so elegant.

The first sitting president to arrive for an official vacation was Ulysses S. Grant, who stayed in a Camp Ground cottage. Franklin D. Roosevelt also visited the Vineyard during his presidential term, but chose to remain afloat in surrounding waters.

A Gazette story from Friday, Sept. 8, 1882, reported that President Chester A. Arthur and his accompanying party went fishing off Menemsha Bight on the U.S. Fish Commissioner’s steamer Fishhawk. (If your American history is rusty, Chester Arthur, was the 21st president, succeeding James Garfield after he was assassinated.)

The story does not indicate whether any fish were caught by the President, but it did report that a bundle of state documents were sent ashore. Perhaps while waiting for the bite that never came, the President took some time to deal with official business. Even then a presidential vacation was a contradiction in terms.

Grover Cleveland was known to sail over to the Vineyard from his summer home in Buzzards Bay, on the yacht Oneida. According to Joseph E. Howes of West Tisbury, he once came to try the bass fishing from R.W. Crocker’s stand at Squibnocket. On the way there from Vineyard Haven, President Cleveland, Mr. Crocker and the rest of the party lost a carriage wheel. Seeing that it was getting dark and there was no spare, the quick-thinking Mr. Crocker took the President to the home of Ulysses E. Mayhew for the night. Meals were served at Sea Breeze House, hosted by a Mrs. Athearn. In the middle of the night another indignity occurred, reported by the Mayhew family as “an awful crash.” A slat had come loose beneath the presidential bed, and Mr. Cleveland hit the floor.

Misfortune did not end there. The following day, when the party finally reached Squibnocket, the President was installed on a bass stand over the surf, and Philly Mayhew, chummer for Mr. Crocker, noticed a “sag in the presidential posture, as if the sun had made him sleepy.” All remained quiet for another hour and then the President let out a yell. The tide had risen and his boots had filled with water.

It was all quite incongruous with reports that Grover Cleveland was the most avid fisherman ever to hold the title of commander in chief.

Later presidents enjoyed greater preparations prior to their arrivals. Such was the case with Mr. Grant, who was welcomed to Cottage City in 1874. The pomp began with his arrival at Highland Wharf, an alternate landing site to the Oak Bluffs Wharf, located by the present East Chop Beach Club. His party was met by officials from the committee of the Camp Meeting Association, in its day a major political force.

The presidential party took the horse-drawn railroad that ran from Highland Wharf along the Shore Road by Lake Anthony (today the Oak Bluffs harbor) and Siloam avenue into the Camp Ground and circled the Tabernacle. The President’s attention was immediately drawn to the cottage of Postmaster Francis Pease Vincent “which was decorated with garlands of oak leaves about the balcony.” A strip of white cotton cloth across the front balcony held the greeting: “We bid President Grant welcome to Martha’s Vineyard.”

There were security concerns. Mr. Grant arrived from Woods Hole on the River Queen, which you might call Ferry Boat One, used as his private dispatch boat on the Potomac. His party included Massachusetts Gov. Thomas Talbot, other state and national dignitaries, his wife Julia, Vice President Henry Wilson and Postmaster General Jewell, who acted as the President’s advisor during this stay.

Calvin Coolidge was not a sitting president when he visited the Camp Ground for Governor’s Day in 1916; he was lieutenant governor. Massachusetts Gov. Samuel W. McCall “had come the year before and had suffered exhaustion from an Island tour, a supper, the Illumination, a late dinner, and a still later bedtime.”

Mr. Coolidge later returned post-presidency to visit Sen. William M. Butler at Lambert’s Cove and went to the movies.

In June of 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt was on his way to Nantucket when a Sunday afternoon squall forced the sloop Amberjack II to anchor in Edgartown harbor. The Island was aware that the presidential vessel would be passing by, and preparations had been made. Charles Ellis, assistant lighthouse keeper at West Chop, filling in for regular keeper James Yate, who had the day off, dipped the colors (a naval salute) as the yacht and associated destroyers sped by the Chop.

The gesture was acknowledged and returned by a salute blasted from the destroyers’ sirens.

Although invited ashore, the President declined, preferring to remain onboard his vessel.

As word spread that the President was anchored in the harbor, many Islanders made their way down to the wharfs. “A few boats went within respectful distance of the Amberjack, but no one attempted to be nosy, and the Vineyard population afloat and ashore was disposed to respect the President’s vacation privacy,” the Gazette reported.

So the Island was aloof about its presidents even then.

Mr. Roosevelt did not disappoint the crowd that was on the lookout for his appearance as a seafaring man. “The President was on deck, clad in his dripping oilskins, looking over the schooner’s gear and rigging, exactly as any fishing skipper would have done, the calmest man in sight, and again the old timers breathed a word of admiration. For everything was snug on deck, sails properly stopped, sheets and halyards coiled down and all things shipshape, before the President went below,” the Gazette reported.

Officially President Kennedy visited twice.

And until the arrival of President Clinton in his first term, there were no other sitting presidents to visit the Island.

And so much has been said and written about the Clintons and their many visits to the Vineyard, that is a history chapter all its own. The pattern was to fly in with great fanfare on Air Force One, stay at the home of Richard Friedman on Oyster Pond in the remote rural reaches of Edgartown (the very first year the Clintons stayed at the McNamara home, also on Oyster Pond), play golf, go out to restaurants and shops, attend parties, play golf, go sailing with Ted Kennedy, play golf. By the time they flew out on Air Force One, the Island was exhausted.

And the rumors would fly for months that the Clintons were buying property on the Vineyard, although to date that has not happened.

But if it is true that history repeats itself, the most common theme through the decades on the Vineyard has been that the Island is being ruined by its popularity. Which leads to one last presidential tale.

Six years after his infamous resignation, Richard Nixon cruised unannounced into Green Hollow in Edgartown on the 110-foot motor yacht Star Mist. Harbor master John Edwards helped Mr. Nixon and his crew moor at a pier on the property of Walter Cronkite. He later appeared at the Edgartown Yacht Club for a seafood dinner.

On Saturday morning, Mr. Nixon and his party spent some time window shopping on lower Main street, and the throng of “admirers, autograph-seekers, picture-takers, and those who were just curious” forced him to pause for photographs and conversation.

Rumors had begun to circulate that Mr. Nixon was considering buying a home on the Island. One embittered bystander said: “The Island is just getting too popular, and he’s another sign of it.”