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We introduce costume to White House History in this issue, with plans for other issues on the subject. Looking good speaks for itself. For the president and first lady, it is a requirement. They need not be fashion plates, although some have been that, as, for example, Dolley Madison and Jacqueline Kennedy—and as you will see in this issue, Sa
Special spaces at the White House are usually those created by the presidents for their own use while resident there. For example, President Richard Nixon's favorite place to work alone was the Lincoln Sitting Room; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt prepared her cozy dressing room on the opposite or west end of the home, while FDR filled the big upstairs oval
This number of White House History recalls the burning of the White House, which took place in 1814, two hundred years ago this August 24th. It was destruction managed in formal order by the best European military standards of the time. The fire expert in charge, Ensign John Pratt, having fulfilled similar responsibilities in Wellington’s Spanish Campaign, directed the process. Re
Leaving the White House during the summer is an old tradition of the presidents. Those with farms, such as Dwight Eisenhower, or ranches, such as Lyndon B. Johnson and President George W. Bush, go for relaxation in cherished surroundings. Others, notably Richard Nixon, have created retreats, such as his in Florida and California; both Roosevelts went home. Victorian era presidents
The White House Historical Association’s Official 2019 White House Christmas Ornament honors Dwight D. Eisenhower, thirty-fourth president of the United States. His administration spanned the years 1953 to 1961, between President Harry S. Truman and President John F. Kennedy. Throughout his notable army career and presidency, Eisenhower was an innovator, a trait to which the helicopter represented in the ornament pays tribute. Th
George Washington in 1792 had set aside 85 acres for the “President’s Square,” presumably to have paddocks, sheepfolds, hay fields, meadows, and the other usual attachments to country houses, in addition to vegetable gardens to serve the table and ornamental plantings for pleasure. Washington himself had all of this at Mount Vernon and clearly deemed it appropriate to the official residence of the
President Taft, a frequent theater goer, was seated in his box at the National Theatre with his aide Archibald Butt, when he rose and said, “Archie, this is hot!” He led the way out, believing it undignified for the president of the United States to appear to condone a risqué show.Nearly all the presidents have enjoyed theatrical performance and sough
The White House Historical Association’s 2018 White House Christmas Ornament honors Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president of the United States. This ornament is designed to illustrate three significant changes made by President Truman during his administration, one to the Presidential Seal, and two to the White House itself. One side of the ornament features his celebrated Truman Balcony, added in
The preoccupation of those who occupied the White House for most of the nineteenth century was settlement of the West. Like most Americans, presidents by the 1840s saw the West as a place of romance, distant, impossibly different, a resource to exploit. Kit Carson, Seth Eastman and other rugged pioneers came to the East Room to shake hands with the
Further pursuing our interest in the neighborhood context of the White House, as well as the presidential complex itself, this issue hopes to paint a picture of the Mexican-American War era there (1846–48), when the American armies were fighting a war two thousand miles away on foreign soil. The capital tensed for reports from the fronts. Military action followed two main li
James Knox Polk was at home in Columbia, Tennessee, when he judged that it was about time to find out the results of the election. A dispatch from Washington was waiting for him at the post office. And the news of his presidential victory marked not only a change in his life, but marked, in retrospect, the start of the
When James and Dolley Madison moved to the White House officially on March 4, 1809, they were accompanied by her son Payne Todd, child of her first marriage. Payne had turned 17 only a few days before and had lived with his mother and adoptive father in Washington already for nearly eight years, ever in the shadows of the prominent and highly social