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Our Mission: Supporting White House Preservation
The White House Historical Association continued its mission of supporting the preservation of State and public rooms of the White House through its funding of the refurbishment of the State Dining Room and Family Dining Room — a multi-year process that was completed in 2015.In the State Dining Room, the Association’s support included the repainting and glazing of the walls, new
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Colloquia
Every year, the White House Historical Association partners with an institution to convene a small gathering of scholars, historians, and experts on a topic related to White House history. This event serves as the foundation for the Association’s annual symposium, which takes place the following spring. Past colloquia topics and partnerships have included: White House Gardens with Oak Spring Ga
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Elizabeth Keckly
Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly was born enslaved in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. She was the child of an enslaved woman, Agnes, and the plantation owner, Colonel Armistead Burwell. Keckly learned to sew from her mother, and later began a successful seamstress business, creating dresses for high society women, including First Lady Mary Lincoln. This exhibit was curated by Maegan Jenkins, the inaugural
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Ann Lowe
Dressmaker, seamstress, couturier, and, according to the Saturday Evening Post, “Society’s best kept secret,” Ann Lowe became the lead seamstress for a dress shop in Tampa, Florida, saving enough money to open three dress shops in New York City. She specialized in eveningwear, debutante gowns, and day dresses for the social elite. This exhibit was curated by Maegan Jenkins, the in
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Ethel Frankau
Ethel Frankau was director of the Bergdorf Goodman custom salon for nearly sixty years. Frankau, an American, was widely acknowledged as a formidable woman with a deep respect for French culture, which she embedded in her designs, especially Jacqueline Kennedy’s inaugural gown. This exhibit was curated by Maegan Jenkins, the inaugural Digital Exhibits Intern and MA/MS dual degree st
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Frankie Welch
Frankie Welch was one of the first designers to design “across the aisle,” creating gowns and scarves for first ladies Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, and Rosalynn Carter. After earning a degree in clothing and design at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, Welch relocated with her husband to Virginia, where she taught “clothes coordination” classes at the Universi
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Karen Stark
Karen Stark was the lead designer under the design house of Harvey Berin, a dress manufacturer that stood on 7th Avenue in New York City for nearly fifty years. Along with Nettie Rosenstein, Karen Stark was one of the American designers that prospered after World War II, helping to dispel the myth that French fashion designers were the leaders in
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Mary Matise
Mary Matise designed for Jimmae Manufacturing and designed a wide range of clothing from lavish eveningwear and resort wear to everyday basic dresses and suits for women. This exhibit was curated by Maegan Jenkins, the inaugural Digital Exhibits Intern and MA/MS dual degree student in Costume Studies and Library and Information Sciences at New York University.
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Nettie Rosenstein
Known for her exceptionally tailored designs and her masterful take on the “little black dress,” Nettie Rosenstein learned dressmaking skills at a young age. In 1916, Rosenstein created a dressmaking business out of her home in Harlem, and by the 1920s, she employed over fifty different dressmakers in a new location on East 56th Street and sold dresses wholesale under the Nett
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Digital Library Exhibit
Glamour and Innovation: Sally Milgrim
Sally Milgrim got her start working as a dressmaker for her husband Charles’s suit-making business in the 1910s. By the 1920s, her business proved to be so successful that she began creating custom designs for the Hollywood elite and was eventually approached by Eleanor Roosevelt to design her inaugural gown in 1933. This exhibit was curated by Maegan Jenkins, the in
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Digital Library Exhibit
Diplomatic Children’s Parties
For over 25 years, the White House holiday season featured an annual party for the children of diplomats. During their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, the parties were hosted by the first lady and typically attended by over 400 children under the age of twelve, representing over 80 countries. Between 1962 and 1985, National Geographic photographers captured images from several of these parties for