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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
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The Origins of the American "First Lady"
Article 2 Section 1 of the United States Constitution begins with the following: “The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the United States of America.”1 This passage goes on to define the length of the president’s term; how the president will be elected; citizenship and age requirements; presidential succession; compensation; and finally, the presidential oath that all chief execut
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Grace Coolidge and Great War Veterans
During her husband’s administration from 1923-1929, First Lady Grace Coolidge used her public visibility to support disabled First World War veterans. As part of her duties as first lady, Mrs. Coolidge met with veterans of the Great War and other patients at nearby Walter Reed Army Medical Center. On December 4, 1923, she visited the medical center to view an exhibition of
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Igor Stravinsky at the White House
President John F. Kennedy entertained many artists at the White House during his administration as a means of expressing his wide-ranging interest in promoting the arts. One of his most notable and intriguing guests arrived on the evening of January 18, 1962, when the president held a dinner in honor of famed Russian-born composer Igor Stravinsky. Held at the height of the
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Leonard Bernstein at the Kennedy White House
In November of 1961, two Washington Post columnists hailed President John F. Kennedy as “the best friend culture has had in the White House since Thomas Jefferson.”1 President Kennedy appreciated the arts and demonstrated his dedication to the arts community throughout his administration. He and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy invited the media to cultural events at the White House, highlighting its role
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Article
Music in Lincoln's White House
Abraham Lincoln was one of America’s most unmusical presidents. He could neither play an instrument nor carry a tune, yet he had a passionate love of music. Many times he left the White House during his tenure to attend the opera at Washington theaters, and when duties held him to the mansion, he invited performers to entertain him and hi
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Presidents as Horsemen
The nineteenth century might be called the golden age of the horse. Horsepower pulled plow, canal boat, and wagon to market; horse-drawn stages linked towns; and omnibuses and carriages conveyed people to work within cities, to shop, or to the train station, which, a decade after the Civil War, emerged as the hub of a transcontinental transportation system. Before automobiles,
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The Nation's Guest
On September 7, 1825, a tearful Marquis de Lafayette embraced President John Quincy Adams after delivering a farewell speech at the entrance to the White House. The ceremony signified the end of the famed Frenchman’s triumphant return to the United States from 1824 to 1825. This visit inspired patriotic celebrations and expressions across a young country during the waning days of the “Era of G
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The Truman Renovation Souvenir Program
As part of the implementation of the Truman renovation, the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion was tasked with disposing excess building materials that could not be reutilized. On February 17, 1950, President Truman approved the creation of a souvenir program. The leftover pieces in question were somewhat limited to materials that had “no tangible value but which were desired by
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President Eisenhower: The Painter
The only true response to art is to look with an eye like that of a child: unprejudiced, unbiased, clear, and uncommitted. When it is the art of a celebrity, this ideal, always almost unobtainable, becomes progressively difficult. Can we see the work in the dazzle of the artist’s aura? When the paintings of Noel Coward come to auction, th
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The Eisenhower Family Home, in Abilene, Kansas
The Eisenhower Family Home is located in the heart of the Midwest—Abilene, Kansas—and is part of the complex known as the Eisenhower Center. The 23 acre center includes the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library, a repository for the papers of the thirty-fourth president of the United States; the Eisenhower Museum; the Visitors Center; and the Place of Meditation, where Dwig
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John Tyler and Presidential Succession
Just after midnight on April 4, 1841, William Henry Harrison died after only thirty-one days in office. At daybreak on April 5th, Vice President John Tyler received a knock on his door in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he was visiting family. Fletcher Webster, the son of Secretary of State Daniel Webster, delivered the news of the president’s death. By dawn on April 6th