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Educational Resource
Watergate, Gerald Ford and the Nixon Pardon
He seemed a contented man. House Minority Leader Gerald R. Ford, had his niche. He had served twelve terms as a congressman, never receiving less than 60 percent of the vote from his constituents back in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ford did not hunger to be president of the United States. As he once said, "When I first ran for the Congress
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Educational Resource
Interpreting Buildings
Reminders of the past are all around us. The buildings that survive through the years are artifacts that can tell us a great deal about the values and aspirations of the people who built them. Architects use size, massing, ornamentation, symmetry or asymmetry, and other design features to project an overall image of a structure. This lesson will focus on
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Educational Resource
JFK, A. Philip Randolph and the March on Washington
In the spring of 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in the midst of a campaign to force the desegregation of the downtown department stores of Birmingham, Alabama. The goal was narrowly focused: persuade the city fathers to act by applying pressure through boycotts and public demonstrations. Response to that pressure, King understood, would bring a strong reaction from Eugene "
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Educational Resource
Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Crisis
Jimmy Carter would say later, "No matter who was with me, we watched the big grandfather clock by the door." Time was running out, for it was Tuesday, January 20, 1981. The scene was the Oval Office. In just hours this president would leave it for good, and a new leader, Ronald Reagan, would move in. As the clock ticked the time
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Educational Resource
Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Territory
No measure of Thomas Jefferson’s presidential administration captured the public imagination, and no policy approach so significantly affected the character of the nation, as did the acquiring of the Louisiana Territory.1 Yet long before his presidency, Jefferson was keenly interested in the land to the west of the Mississippi River. For example, just after the Revolution, he had heard th
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Educational Resource
John F. Kennedy and the Space Race
At the time, John F. Kennedy was serving as a United States senator from Massachusetts, and the events that were about to unfold would require the thinking and leadership of the nation’s president, Dwight D. Eisenhower. Yet the effects of those events would eventually come to bear on the presidency of John Kennedy. It started with the launching of Sp
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Educational Resource
LBJ Ascends to the Presidency
In that week before Thanksgiving, President John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline traveled to Texas. The trip was political–Kennedy was unsure of his support in this southern state. In the previous two years, very little Texas money had come into the coffers of the Democratic National Committee, and more and more Texas voters who opposed Kennedy’s civil righ
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Educational Resource
The Great Cause of Union
THE GREAT CAUSE OF UNIONOn Election Day, Abraham Lincoln had walked down to the courthouse in Springfield, Illinois, parting a crowd of supporters who had come to see him cast his vote. He did not think he should vote for himself, but otherwise checked off a straight Republican ticket. By midnight, through the benefits of the telegraph, he knew he
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Educational Resource
The White House at War
LESSON PLAN:The White House Burns: The War of 1812In August 1814, President James Madison (1809-1817) learned that 4,000 British sailors were entering the Chesapeake Bay and threatening to attack Washington. Madison cancelled plans to visit his Virginia plantation home and gathered his advisors together at the White House. One hundred soldiers camped out in front of the President’s House to pr
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Event
2016 White House History Summer Camp: Exploring the President's Neighborhood
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to live or work in the White House? Join the National Park Service and the White House Historical Association for our second annual summer camp all about the President’s House! Campers will become explorers, historians, preservationists, artists and more as they explore White House history, the White House neighborhood, and the nati
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Event
The White House History Teacher Institute 2016
There are so many reasons to teach about the White House! For more than 215 years, the White House has been intrinsically tied to American history, serving the roles of home, office, museum, and stage for each president and first lady who lived there. It also serves as a symbol, representing the nation and our democracy. Article 2 of the U.S.