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Hoover Easter Egg Rolls
The annual White House Easter egg roll was a well-established tradition when President Herbert Hoover took office, and the Hoovers were present on April Fools’ Day, 1929 to observe their first Easter egg roll take place. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover put her own imprint on the event by ordering part of the South Lawn roped off so maypole dances and Na
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The Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square
The Dolley Madison House, a yellow structure on the corner of H Street and Madison Place in “The President’s Neighborhood” surrounding Lafayette Square near the White House, was built in 1818-1819 by Richard Cutts, a congressman from Massachusetts who was married to Dolley Madison’s sister Anna. The mortgage passed to President James Madison, and, after his death, to his wife
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Lady Bird Johnson's Floral Legacy
Few first ladies have been so attuned to the natural beauty inside and outside the White House as First Lady Claudia Johnson, or “Lady Bird.” Famed for her environmental work, she brought a sense of the floral to everything she did, from wide-ranging legislation to small touches of hospitality.Mrs. Johnson’s White House entertaining style often included an homage to the
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The Life and Presidency of Herbert Hoover
The 2016 White House Christmas ornament honors the administration of the thirty-first president of the United States Herbert Hoover, who served from 1929 to 1933. The ornament is inspired by the fire engines that responded to the 1929 Christmas Eve fire at the White House and the toy trucks presented to children by the Hoovers the following Christmas. Crafted from shiny brass plated with
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Official White House China: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries
The house in which the President of the United States lives has always had a great fascination for American citizens who have come to feel they share in the ownership of the Executive Mansion. Throughout its more than 200 year history, the style in which the house is furnished has been determined—to varying degrees—by the money appropriated by Congress from
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Martha Johnson Patterson: Hostess of the Andrew Johnson White House
Of her family’s role in the White House in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War, Martha Johnson Patterson, daughter of President Andrew Johnson, admitted, “We are plain people, from the mountains of Tennessee, called here for a short time by a national calamity.”1 One of the five children of President Andrew Johnson and First Lady Eliza McCardle Johnson, Martha
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A Widower's Hostess
When President Martin Van Buren assumed office on March 4th, 1837, there was no woman to assume the role of first lady. His wife, Hannah Van Buren, had contracted an illness and died in February 1819, years before he took office.1 President Van Buren hired staff to serve in the absence of a White House hostess. Census records from 1840 list the numerous
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Pioneering Women of the Woodrow Wilson White House, 1913-1921
American women did not yet possess the right to vote when Woodrow Wilson was elected to his first term in office as President of the United States on November 5, 1912. Despite the efforts of suffrage activists, there was little reason to hope that they would attain that right anytime soon. Although he was an intellectual and a man of high ideals,
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Arts Advisors in the Kennedy White House
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy’s advocacy for the performing arts endures as a vital part of the Kennedy White House legacy. From 1961 to 1963, the White House became a focal point for arts and culture as the administration hosted numerous concerts and performances. One of the most significant White House concerts during the Kennedy years took pl
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The Arts in the Kennedy White House
Historians of American music, art, and dance often explore their subjects through different topical categories such as genres, schools, and periods. This approach involves studying the individuals and groups responsible for various trends, fashions, and styles. It also means examining how these contributions broadly shaped American culture and artistic expression. Presidential historians tend to focus extensively on a respective administration,
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A Friendly Voice
Marian Anderson was a successful American contralto singer known for her enchanting performances in the United States and throughout the world. But it was her 1939 Easter concert at the Lincoln Memorial that brought her national attention and fame. Charmed by her voice and personality, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt cultivated a relationship between the White House and Marian that would last
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Tennessee in the White House
As he left the White House in 1869, President Andrew Johnson supposedly exclaimed that he could “already smell the sweet mountain air of Tennessee.”1 Despite the considerable distance between Washington, D.C. and Tennessee, there have been numerous connections between the state and the Executive Mansion that highlight Tennessee influence in the history of the president’s home. Three presidents, all servin