NEW ISSUE of White House History Quarterly “The White House and New York”

May 24, 2023 Washington, D.C. —

The White House Historical Association today released on pre-sale the 69th issue of its award-winning magazine, White House History Quarterly. “The White House and New York,” explores the historical connections between New York City and the White House from the first Oath of Office to the present day.

Before there was a 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, or even a City of Washington, some of the earliest chapters of White House history were written in New York City. George Washington took the first presidential Oath of Office at Federal Hall in 1789 and lived in the first presidential mansion on Cherry Street and Broadway before the young federal government was moved to Philadelphia in 1790. For more than two centuries, New York City has welcomed, accommodated, celebrated, and mourned Washington’s successors. Though later presidents resided in the White House in Washington, D.C., the lives of many included consequential years in New York.

Articles included in this issue of White House History Quarterly:

• Forward “Only in New York” — The White House Historical Association’s Chief Publishing Officer, Marcia Mallet Anderson, opens the issue with the historic impact New York City has had on the presidency and the Executive Mansion.
• “Street Scenes: A New York Pedestrian’s Chance Encounters with Presidential History” — Matt Green has walked more than 9,000 miles of New York City since 2011 and, in that time, he has embraced numerous chance encounters with presidential history. Green details his expedition that has uncovered overlooked places such as the site where Chester A. Arthur took the Oath of Office and bodegas named for Barack Obama.
• “Before the White House: New York’s Capital Legacy”—Presidential Historian Thomas J. Balcerski reflects back to the New York that President George Washington knew and traces the legacy of the sites where he was inaugurated, served, and lived.
• “The New York City Death and Burial of President James Monroe”— Historian Scott Harris traces a series of temporary entombments that ultimately took the fifth president’s remains from New York to Virginia.
• “Made in New York: The White House Came Shopping” — Former White House Curator William G. Allman presents the many New York manufacturers whose works are among the most treasured objects in the White House Collection of decorative arts today. Furniture by Duncan Phyfe, pianos by Steinway & Sons, and silver by Tiffany and Sons are just a few of many important examples.
• “A Tiffany White House Interlude: President Chester A. Arthur Commissions Louis Comfort Tiffany’s Associated Artists to Decorate the White House” — One of the most legendary White House renovations is the focus of Kayli Rene Rideout’s article.
• “Nancy Reagan, the Barbizon, and a World Gone By” — Author Joy Ferro recounts the story of future first lady Nancy Reagan who, in the late 1940s, pursued her early dreams on the stage while living at the Barbizon, a safe and respectable residential hotel for women on the Upper East Side.
• “‘Hats are the Most Important Thing’ Jacqueline Kennedy’s Letter to Bergdorf Goodman” —Margaret Strolle, editorial and production manager at the White House Historical Association, tells the story of a letter written to Bergdorf Goodman from Jacqueline Kennedy about buying fashionable hats appropriate for the role of first lady.
• Presidential Sites Feature: “Herbert Hoover, Apt. 31A, and U.S. Presidents at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria” — Historian Dean J. Kotlowski writes about the Waldorf-Astoria, which has welcomed presidents and first ladies at political and social events for nearly a century, as he recounts the retirement of President Hoover, who was comfortable there for more than twenty years.
• “Reflections on New York”— Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association, closes the issue with two iconic presidential images captured in New York City and news of a presidential library to be curated by the White House Historical Association in the historic Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

This 124-page issue of White House History Quarterly retails for $12.95. To purchase a single issue, visit shop.whitehousehistory.org.

To subscribe to the Quarterly, visit whitehousehistoryjournal.org.

To request a copy of White House History Quarterly #69, or interview the contributors, contact press@whha.org.

About White House History Quarterly

White House History Quarterly, published by the White House Historical Association since 1983, is now in its sixty-ninth issue. The Quarterly strives to present the broadest view of this personal American subject—the White House—featuring memoir, biography, history, and cultural context as it opens the doors of “America’s House” to America. Issues are thematic, shaped to tell a story from a particular angle, and the themes—from music, theater, fashion, art, entertaining, flowers and gardens, kitchens and cooking, presidential journeys and travel, memoir, and presidential kin and presidential sites—suggest the broad scope of the content. With editorial offices in Washington, D.C., at the Association's row house facing Lafayette Park across from the White House, White House History Quarterly is published four times each year. One, two, or three-year subscriptions, single copies, and bound collections of back issues are available.