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Frances Cleveland's French Lessons
Frances Cleveland, the bright and beautiful young wife of President Grover Cleveland, was much in demand on the social scene of Washington, D.C., and devised a novel way to set aside several hours a week for her French lessons. Her French teacher would go for a ride with Mrs. Cleveland, driven by Coachman Albert Hawkins, one morning each week.
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Scholarship
An Activist First Lady in Traditional Washington
The following excerpt is from Nancy Beck Young’s Lou Hoover: Activist First Lady, University of Kansas Press, 2004. The White House Historical Association provided a grant to support the book project.Despite all her preparation and planning, Lou Henry Hoover encountered controversy over the issue of race and White House protocol. On June 12, 1929, Jessie DePriest was a White House guest at
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Article
Mrs. Nixon and the White House Collection
When President and Mrs. Richard M. Nixon took residence at the White House in 1969, the wear and tear of thousands of earlier visitors and guests necessitated improvements. From the beginning Mrs. Nixon was keenly aware of the need to support a program for the acquisition of artwork and objects for the collection and played a major role in fulfilling this
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Easter Egg Roll: Bunnies and Other Easter Animals
First pets are a popular attraction at the White House Egg Roll. Canine attendees of the event have included a wide variety of beloved purebreds and mutts. Animals as diverse as President Benjamin Harrison's toy pony, First Lady Grace Coolidge's raccoon and the 1,200-pound steer brought in by the Carters for their petting zoo have appeared on the South Lawn
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Origins of the White House Easter Egg Roll
Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an 'egg roll' party. Held on the South Lawn, it is one of the oldest annual events in White House history. Some historians note that First Lady Dolley Madison originally suggested the idea of a public egg roll, while others tell stories of informal egg-rolling parties at the
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Article
Easter Egg Roll: Games, Old and New
The primary Easter Monday entertainment at the White House has always involved egg rolling. Participants roll dyed, hard-boiled eggs across the grass to see whose will go the furthest before cracking. Other egg sports enjoyed in the early years were egg ball, toss and catch, egg croquet and egg picking—a contest where eggs are pecked together until they crack. Af
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Advances in Entertaining
First Lady Helen Taft loved entertaining and White House hospitality during the William Howard Taft administration centered on the dining table, where the Tafts' tastes were regal. A "Forty-quart Peerless Ice Cream Freezer," with a direct current motor and a twelve-foot long Imperial French Coal Range were added to the large kitchen in 1912. On January 25, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson joined the
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Building a White House Kitchen
By the time Theodore Roosevelt took office, the use of electric light was common in American houses. The entire wiring system was replaced during a major restoration of the White House in 1902. Only the service areas of the house retained their gaslight fixtures, and these were used only in case of a power failure. A large main kitchen and an
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Article
Easter Egg Roll: Easter and the Cleveland East Room
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
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Article
Memoirs of Isabella Hagner 1901-1905
The White House Historical Association has reset the following excerpt of Isabella Hagner’s typescript memoirs, now in the White House collection in the Isabella Hagner James Papers in the Office of the Curator. Editor Priscilla Roosevelt has corrected the typographical errors, modernized some punctuation, added explanatory endnotes, and made a slight rearrangement of the original text in order to pr
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Article
Easter Egg Roll: The First Families' Role
Once the White House was opened to public egg rolling festivities in 1878, first families had to decide whether they were going to join the throng of celebrants or just organize and play host to it. Previously, the South Lawn was reserved for their own private Eastertide activities. Now the grounds represented a famous rite of spring for the nation's capital.
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White House Decorative Arts in the 1890s
The extended family of Benjamin Harrison stretched the Executive Mansion's available living space to the limit and a number of beds were ordered to accommodate the family. Caroline Harrison was a life-long art student, and her interest in china painting led her to search the White House for old services. She had these repaired and preserved and can be credited