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Bio
Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Goodhue was born on January 3, 1879, in Burlington, Vermont. She was the only child of Andrew and Lemira Goodhue. Following her graduation from Burlington High School in 1897, Grace attended the University of Vermont, and joined the women’s fraternity Pi Beta Phi. Following her graduation in 1902, Grace entered training at the Clarke School for the Deaf in Northampton, Massachusetts. Sh
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Bio
Mamie Eisenhower
Mamie Geneva Doud was born on November 14, 1896, in Boone, Iowa. She was the daughter of John Sheldon Doud and Elivera Mathilda Carlson Doud. The Doud family later moved to Colorado, eventually settling in Denver. Mamie attended local public schools and graduated from the Wolcott School, a private school for girls in 1915. That fall she met Second Lieutenant Dwight D. Eisenhower,
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Bio
Lucy Hayes
Lucy Webb was born to parents James Webb and Maria Cook in Chillicothe, Ohio, on August 28, 1831. As a teenager, she took classes at Ohio Wesleyan University and later enrolled in Cincinnati Wesleyan Female College; her graduation in 1850 makes her the first first lady to graduate from college.1 Webb first met lawyer Rutherford B. Hayes on Ohio Wesleyan University’s campus, an
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Article
Easter Egg Roll: Fanfare and Keepsakes
Over the years, White House egg roll events have been made memorable by new attractions. In 1993, the Clintons scaled back the fanfare so that children would remember the day for its egg rolling games. A generation earlier, First Lady Pat Nixon gave out certificates of participation as a souvenir to eggrollers. First Ladies Betty Ford and Rosalynn Carter distributed plastic
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Scholarship
Preface - The White House in Gingerbread
My memories transport me back to a time, just a few years ago and a few days before Christmas, when I was the White House executive pastry chef and the annual White House holiday parties have come to an end. We are busily cleaning the Pastry Shop. This is the time of year we go through everything—every refrigerator, walk-in co
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Scholarship
White House Thanksgiving Turkeys in the Roaring '20s
First families received turkeys as gifts long before the 1920s. Horace Vose, the “Poultry King” of southwestern Rhode Island, first sent one of his prized birds to President Ulysses S. Grant in 1873, and continued to furnish White House Thanksgiving and Christmas tables for forty years.1 Yet in the 1920s, true to its reputation as a fast-paced era that saw major tech
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Scholarship
Our 2015 Ornament Design Inspiration
The Coolidges celebrated their first Christmas in the White House in 1923 quietly with their sons, Calvin Jr. and John, who were both home from Mercersburg Academy in Pennsylvania. In 1923, President Coolidge became the first chief executive to preside over a public celebration of the Christmas holidays. At 5:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the president pressed a button and lit strings
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Scholarship
A Coolidge Christmas
In 1923 holiday anticipation grew among Washington residents, especially among the First Family. President Coolidge and First Lady Grace Coolidge awaited the arrival of their sons Calvin, Jr. and John, who were to be home for the holidays returning from school in Pennsylvania on December 18. Mrs. Coolidge had completed her shopping and the Washington Post reported, “just what she bought for Jo
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Scholarship
The Presidential Sweet Tooth
As the holidays approach, thoughts inevitably turn to sugar plums, gingerbread, and all of the other delectable treats that season brings with it. Sweets signal the changing of seasons and the arrival of holidays, from cookies at Christmas to popsicles in the heat of summer. The same is true at the White House, where presidents and their families have enjoyed
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Scholarship
White House Gingerbread: Holiday Traditions
The holiday season at the White House is celebrated with an array of annual traditions, glittering holiday décor, fresh pine, and sugary treats for all to enjoy. One of the sweetest holiday traditions is the official White House gingerbread. Since the late 1960s, pastry chefs have baked, constructed, and decorated a gingerbread house for the enjoyment of the First F
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Scholarship
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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Scholarship
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