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Easter Egg Roll: Easter and the Cleveland East Room

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The Prize Basket at the Easter Egg Rolling

In this photograph, taken on April 2, 1923 by Herbert E. French of the National Photo Company, Warren Sonnemann holds up a prize Easter basket during the White House Easter Egg Roll. Dating back to 1878, the Easter Egg Roll is a cherished springtime tradition in Washington, D.C., with children and their families gathering to enjoy festivities on the South Lawn. This photograph is from the Herbert E. French Collection at the Library of Congress, which captured life in Washington, D.C., from the Wilson to the Hoover administrations.

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In the beginning, children came into the White House with baskets of brightly dyed hard-boiled eggs. On Easter Monday, 1885, young egg rollers marched into the East Room, hoping for a personal audience with President Grover Cleveland. When he came down from his office to greet them, he was charmed. These visitors ruined the East Room carpet, which, as the Washington Post reported, was "ground full of freshly smashed hard-boiled egg and broken egg shells." Still, when Cleveland returned in 1893 for a second, non-consecutive term, he continued to grant the egg rollers free reign of the house and grounds.

Easter Egg Rolling at the White House

In this photograph taken on April 1, 1929 by Herbert E. French of the National Photo Company, a little girl feeds candy to a stuffed rabbit holding an Easter basket during the White House Easter Egg Roll. Dating back to 1878, the Easter Egg Roll is a cherished springtime tradition in Washington, D.C., with children and their families gathering to enjoy festivities on the South Lawn. This photograph is from the Herbert E. French Collection at the Library of Congress, which captured life in Washington, D.C., from the Wilson to the Hoover administrations.

Library of Congress

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