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Last month, Representative Nancy Pelosi, 85, announced that she would retire when her term ended in early 2027.
Her decades-long career is notable for many reasons: In 1981, Ms. Pelosi became the first woman to chair the California Democratic Party. When she was elected House minority leader in 2002, she became the first woman to head a major party in either chamber of Congress. And in 2007, Ms. Pelosi became the 52nd speaker of the House of Representatives, the first — and so far, only — woman to serve in the role.
But Ms. Pelosi, who first entered the political arena in her mid-40s, was in the public eye long before. Her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., served as the mayor of Baltimore (from 1947 to 1959), as did her brother, Thomas J. D’Alesandro III (from 1967 to 1971).
The New York Times has published images of Ms. Pelosi throughout her life and career, including an engagement announcement photo in 1963. Here is a selection of other images of Ms. Pelosi that have appeared in the newspaper, as well as others from our archives.
1987
A political origin story
In April 1987, the first of two special elections was held to determine who would succeed Rep. Sala Burton, Democrat of California, who had died two months earlier at 61. Ms. Pelosi, 47, a stay-at-home mother and former state Democratic chairman, had entered the race with endorsements from several prominent state Democratic leaders, including Mrs. Burton before her death.
It was the first time Ms. Pelosi had run for political office, though her inexperience did not appear to dissuade voters. This image shows a seemingly cheery Ms. Pelosi on the day she won the Democratic nomination that April. Two months later, she was elected to the House of Representatives, marking the beginning of her storied political career.
That August, her father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., a former mayor of Baltimore, died at 84. His Times obituary, which described him as a “tireless, ribbon-cutting booster of Baltimore,” only briefly mentioned his daughter’s successful campaign for Congress.
1994
An ongoing effort
Seven years later, Rep. Pelosi was seen as a progressive leader who championed causes including gun control. This photo, taken in May 1994, shows the congresswoman meeting with Michelle Scully, whose husband was killed in a mass shooting in San Francisco the previous year.
According to The Times, Ms. Scully thanked Ms. Pelosi during their meeting for voting in favor of a crime bill that included a ban on assault weapons. That bill became law in 1994, but the ban expired a decade later.
Ms. Pelosi fought for the passage of another ban on assault weapons in 2022, which was passed by a 217-to-213 House vote. Still, it stood “no chance of passing in the evenly divided Senate,” The Times accurately predicted.
2007
A noteworthy victory
“When Ms. Pelosi struck the gavel, it was a historic moment,” The Times reported in January 2007. “She is the first woman to be speaker, and the first person to preside over a State of the Union speech wearing a skirt, not a necktie.” (Ms. Pelosi was, in fact, wearing pants.)
This image shows Vice President Dick Cheney applauding Ms. Pelosi, who appeared on the newspaper’s front page on Jan. 24 alongside the headline “A Shift in Power, Starting With ‘Madam Speaker.’”
In preparation for President George W. Bush’s address, she “had been coached by her staff to keep a neutral face,” The Times wrote. “They warned that any raised eyebrow or pursed lip would be captured by the cameras trained on the president.”
2019
A cordial reception
Speaker Pelosi was a vocal critic of President Trump during his first administration. A viral image of her clapping during Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address in February 2019 was emblematic of their tense relationship.
Three months later, at the annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service, the Times photographer Doug Mills captured a moment of apparent civility between the president and speaker. Just a week later, the two engaged in a public war of words over each other’s temperament and mental fitness.
It is safe to say their relationship has not improved much during President Trump’s second term. After Ms. Pelosi announced her retirement last month, he described her as an “evil woman.” “I think she did the country a great service by retiring,” Mr. Trump said during a recent news conference — though some might argue her service up until the announcement was remarkable.
Carl Hulse, The Times’s chief Washington correspondent, recently lauded her decades of strenuous diplomatic efforts. “Nancy Pelosi was the first of her kind,” he wrote, “and perhaps the last of the powerhouse speakers able to bend the increasingly fractious and Balkanized House to their will to achieve big things.”
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