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Hoover Easter Egg Rolls
The annual White House Easter egg roll was a well-established tradition when President Herbert Hoover took office, and the Hoovers were present on April Fools’ Day, 1929 to observe their first Easter egg roll take place. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover put her own imprint on the event by ordering part of the South Lawn roped off so maypole dances and Na
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Civil War Veterans Visit the White House
In May 1865, at the close of hostilities, a Grand Review throughout Washington, D.C., exhibited parading Union troops from the Eastern and Western Theaters of the Civil War. For numerous Civil War veterans, this was their last memorable act as soldiers, as many were soon mustered out of service and began civilian life. A presidential reviewing stand was erected outside
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African Americans Enter Abraham Lincoln's White House, 1863-1865
The New Years’ Day reception became a White House tradition with President John Adams in 1801 and ended with President Herbert Hoover in 1932. A gala social occasion that attracted the interest of dignitaries, journalists and the general public, it eventually generated crowds of several thousand people who crashed the White House gates for a glimpse of the president or, best of al
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Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier, the Virginia estate of James and Dolley Madison. His mother, an enslaved woman of African and Native American descent, told him that his father was the local English trader Benjamin Jennings. While Paul had no documented relationship with Benjamin and probably never met him, he did adopt the ‘Jennings’ surname as his own. As a
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The Life of Eugene Allen
Eugene Allen served in the White House for 34 years. Assisting eight presidents, Allen’s top priority was to make the White House a comfortable residence for each chief executive and his family. Allen was born in 1919 on a plantation farm near Scottsville in central Virginia.1 During his youth, he worked as a waiter at a resort in Virginia and at a
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April 6, 1917
At eight o’clock on the morning of April 2, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson and his wife Edith “threw responsibilities to the winds for a few hours,” boarding their limousine at the White House and riding to a local club where they played golf for a few hours before returning to Washington, D.C. Grave events were afoot there, thanks to Germany’s recent
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The American Protective League and White House Security During World War One
The United States remained neutral during the early years of World War I, from the outbreak of hostilities in August, 1914, to April, 1917. As a result, the country continued to interact with both the Central Powers and Allied Powers.1 However, security for the White House, President Woodrow Wilson and those closest to him was becoming a concern on the eve of
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Enslaved and Entrenched
Elias Polk was born into slavery in 1806 on a farm owned by Samuel Polk, father of the future president of the United States, in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Later that year, Elias moved with the Polk family west to Tennessee, where they settled on land near Spring Hill (about 40 miles south of Nashville).1 In 1824, newlyweds James and Sarah Polk were
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Capturing History
The first known image of the White House was a daguerreotype taken in 1846, during the administration of President James K. Polk. This image, taken by John Plumbe, Jr. started a long tradition of photography surrounding the White House as a building and an institution.1 Since that first image, photographs have offered viewers a glimpse into the world of the American
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"He Stands for All the Fallen"
“Quentin’s mother and I are very glad that he got to the front and had the chance to render some service to his country and to show the stuff there was in him before his fate befell him” – Former President Theodore Roosevelt, July 17, 19181 On July 14th, 1918, less than four months before the end of World War I, Lieutenant Quentin Roosevel
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The White House Garden Tours
When the White House gates open at 10:00 am on Saturday, April 13th, thousands of people will stream through for the start of the 2019 White House Spring Garden Tour. Few of them will know that this special tour – one of only two weekends each year that the grounds of the President’s House are open to the general public – is part of the
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Diversity in White House Art: Jacob Lawrence
Jacob Lawrence, one of the twentieth century’s most celebrated Black artists, is remembered for his vivid portrayals of the Black experience in America. Lawrence was born in New Jersey on September 7, 1917, and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Harlem, New York. While taking art classes at Harlem’s Utopia Children’s Center and Harlem Art Workshop, Lawrence trained under prominent leader