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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
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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
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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
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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
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The Locomotive Tea Set
The Statue of Liberty that stands in New York Harbor is surely the largest gift from France to this country. A smaller French gift arrived in Richmond during the early years of the Civil War, when the Confederate Capitol felt on top of the world—that the Confederacy might win the war. A decorative tea maker in the shape of a
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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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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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At Work in the Lincoln White House
William Johnson accompanied Abraham Lincoln on the journey from Illinois to Washington, where Lincoln would take the helm of a nation engulfed in crisis. Lincoln hoped Johnson, who was African American, would work as his personal attendant in the White House, but the existing staff had other ideas. They refused to work with Johnson, an outsider with a particularly dark
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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