You Might Also Like
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Benjamin Harrison
Born in North Bend, Ohio, on August 20, 1833, Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of "Old Tippecanoe," William Henry Harrison, ninth president of the United States. The second of ten children to John and Elizabeth Harrison, Benjamin grew up at The Point, his grandfather's six hundred acre farm near North Bend. His early education included attendance at a nearby one-room schoolhouse. At
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Grover Cleveland
Grover Cleveland's reelection in 1892, unprecedented for the four-year gap following an unsuccessful first bid for re-election, demonstrated his tenacity and the electorate's desire for a commanding leader. By presidential standards of the twentieth century, Cleveland was not a powerful chief executive. However, in the context of the 1880s, he boldly asserted powers that had been left dormant since the Civil
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of William McKinley
Born in Niles, Ohio, on January 29, 1843, McKinley briefly attended Allegheny College, and was teaching in a country school when the Civil War broke out. His mother, Nancy Allison McKinley, a devout Methodist, was a guiding influence in his life. It was against her wishes that he joined the Union Army. As a commissary sergeant during the Battle of Antietam, he
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt
While McKinley had been popular and had brought major changes to presidential prestige as well as the nation's world status, Theodore Roosevelt during his seven years and six months in office dramatized the presidency and its image. Both admirers and critics, in praise or scorn, would call his actions "imperial." Roosevelt's 1902 White House restoration created the idea of the residence
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was born on September 15, 1857, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to judge Alphonso Taft and his wife Louisa. He graduated from Yale, and then returned to Ohio, studied at the Cincinnati Law School, and began his law practice. He made a swift climb in politics through Republican judiciary appointments, while a seat on the Supreme Court was his ultimate ambition.
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Woodrow Wilson
Woodrow Wilson was born in Staunton, Virginia, on December 28, 1856. He was the third of four children of Janet Woodrow and Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister. He spent his childhood in Augusta, Georgia, and Columbia, South Carolina; graduated from Princeton (then the College of New Jersey) in 1879; and attended the University of Virginia Law School. In 1885 he married Ellen Louise
-
Scholarship
Forgotten Ghosts of the White House
Not all White House ghosts are well-known or have been presidents and first ladies. There are also lesser-known spirits like a white-haired old man that disturbed President Chester Arthur at night, a beautiful maiden in a flowing white dress sited in the old conservatory, and the unidentified boy called the “Thing” that greatly frightened the Taft residence staff in 1911. Perhaps they
-
Scholarship
Canadian Visits to the White House
“Geography has made us neighbors,” President John F. Kennedy told the Canadian Parliament in May 1961, “History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.”After Canada became a nation in 1867, ties between it and the United States grew closer. In 1927, the two countries received ambassadors. On December 6, Canadian Governor General Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess
-
Article
John and Abigail Adams: A Tradition Begins
John and Abigail Adams had a wealth of experience in establishing and living in official houses prior to their move into the new President's House in Washington, D.C., in 1800. Adams had represented the United States in diplomatic missions to Europe during the Revolution, and in Paris and London in the 1780s when Abigail Adams joined him. They lived and
-
Article
History in the Camera's Eye
Versailles, Potsdam, and other grand relics of power are all imposing architecture and vistas, one always leading to another— Ossa piled upon Pelion and Olympus over all. It is a difficult feat to summon up in these surroundings the ghosts of vanished absolutism or to imagine real people actually living and working in them. The President's House, in Washingt
-
Article
A "Dark Horse" in Sunlight and Shadow
When Whig opponents chanted “Who is James K. Polk?” throughout the presidential election of 1844, it was more an attempt to influence perception than a reflection of reality. The image of Polk as an obscure protege of Andrew Jackson stood in contrast to the successful career of the nationally known governor of Tennessee and speaker of the United States House of Repr
-
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The gilded American bald eagle featured on the 2017 White House Christmas ornament is inspired by the eagle cartouche emblazoned on the speaker’s stand at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration, March 4, 1933. With his appearance at that stand, Roosevelt’s remarkable presidential journey began. Three future inaugurations lay ahead—1937, 1941, and 1945. This first of FDR’s inaugurations, however, was to be the las