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Sarah Fling came to the White House Historical Association in 2019 as a graduate public history fellow before joining as a historian in 2021. She received her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Pittsburgh and her master’s degree in Public History from American University. Sarah specializes in material culture and nineteenth-century women’s history.
The White House Diplomatic Reception Room is perhaps best known for its scenic wallpaper, installed during the John F. Kennedy administration in 1961. The highly detailed panorama, designed by French artist Jean-Julien Deltil and produced by Jean Zuber and Company, depicts notable American places including Niagara Falls, Boston Harbor, West Point, and the Natural Bridge in Virginia. It is worth noting
Jacob Lawrence, one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated Black artists, is remembered for his vivid portrayals of the Black experience in America. Lawrence was born in New Jersey on September 7, 1917, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Harlem, New York. While taking art classes at Harlem’s Utopia Children’s Center and Harlem Art Workshop, Lawrence trained under prominent leader
Often, the accomplishments and contributions of enslaved people are lost to history—undocumented, ignored, or forgotten by successive generations. One of these overlooked historic figures is Philip Reed, an enslaved man who worked as a sculptor’s apprentice.1 He contributed to a number of iconic sculptures, including the Statue of Freedom atop the U.S. Capitol Dome and the equestrian stat
Charles Willson Peale is synonymous with eighteenth-century portraiture. His depictions of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and other famous Americans are displayed in several of the country’s most prominent art galleries and museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the White House. In his lifetime, Peale fostered close relationships with U.S. pr
On November 22, 1963, tragedy brought Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson to the White House and thrust her into the national spotlight. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, her husband Lyndon B. Johnson took the Oath of Office aboard Air Force One at Love Field. In the blink of an eye, Lady Bird Johnson became the first lady—a titl
Betty Bloomer Ford was not a politician. She was a dancer, a model, a wife, and a mother. She never expected to be in the political limelight—in fact, after divorcing her first husband she began dating Gerald Ford, who kept his intentions of running for Congress a secret.1 Moreover, Betty Ford certainly never anticipated becoming First Lady of the Un
The 1936 Summer Olympics were unlike any other. In Berlin, Germany, under the shadow of Chancellor Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime, an African-American track and field athlete rose to stardom: Jesse Owens.1 Owens’s record-breaking athleticism carried him from the cotton fields of the South to the White House and made him one of the most famous athletes in American history. Jame
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. During his childhood, the wife of one of his owners taught Douglass the alphabet. Later, she was forbidden to continue because slave literacy was illegal in Maryland. Undeterred, young Douglass taught himself, recognizing that education could be “the pathway from slavery to freedom.”1 Experiencing the cruelty and mora
“Would it be superstitious to presume, that the Sovereign Father of all nations, permitted the perpetration of this apparently execrable transaction, as a fiery, though salutary signal of his displeasure at the conduct of his Columbian children, in erecting and idolizing this… temple of freedom, and at the same time oppressing with the yoke of captivity and toilsome bondage, twelve or f
Women are often overlooked in history for their role in the institution of slavery. First Lady Julia Dent Grant, wife of President Ulysses S. Grant, was a steadfast slave mistress for more than half of her life—an often forgotten part of her identity. Though Grant himself grew up in an abolitionist family in the free state of Ohio, his ma
Curators are indispensable to historic sites and museums today. Utilizing their subject expertise and training in the field, they conduct research, organize exhibits, acquire and loan items, and manage the preservation of historic art and artifacts. Today, the White House Collection contains more than 60,000 decorative and fine arts pieces, overseen by a team of curators. While curatorial staff members have
Andrew Johnson’s close association with Abraham Lincoln, as both his vice president and his successor, often disguises Johnson’s own slave ownership. He is a complicated example of a southerner who simultaneously supported the Union and gradual emancipation while perpetuating slavery through the bondage of others—perhaps even fathering children with his enslaved servant. Some of these enslaved individuals were l