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An Essay on "A Favorable Day" by Peter Waddell
Dawn breaks over the White House stables on March 4, 1873. The grooms and coachmen are up early to prepare for President Ulysses S. Grant's second inaugural parade. Details have been taken by the artist from historic photographs. The carriage in the picture, which was a sporting vehicle made to accommodate hunting dogs, still exists.This stable was the fourth built at
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An Essay on "Composition in Red and Gold" by Peter Waddell
The Red Room was the only complete interior designer Louis Comfort Tiffany created for the White House. Redesigned in high aesthetic taste (meaning art-like) the room was first called the Red Room some thirty-five years before, during the administration of James K. Polk. It is shown here about 1883, during the presidency of Chester A. Arthur, transformed from the old-fashioned room
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An Essay on "The Confidant" by Peter Waddell
President Rutherford B. Hayes announced when he was elected that he would serve for one term only; this he did, and it was an uplifting four years for the country. With his wife, First Lady Lucy Hayes Hayes, President Hayes was determined to return tranquility to a nation troubled by recent political scandal and economic depression. They set out to
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An Essay on "The Great Cheese" by Peter Waddell
The East Room, the largest interior in the White House, was conceived in planning the house as an official gathering place where, among other ceremonies of state, Congress would convene to present bills to the president. President Thomas Jefferson disposed of state ceremony early-on, so there was no urgency to complete the room. It was unfinished when the British burned
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An Essay on "The Splendid Mrs. Madison" by Peter Waddell
The most famous hostess in the history of the White House was First Lady Dolley Madison, a lady in whom legend and fact intertwine now, as they often did in her own time. In this painting, the artist shows the principal drawing room of the Madison White House, today's oval Blue Room sometime during the years from 1810 to 1814, when her
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An Essay on "The Visit" by Peter Waddell
One of the most revered historic interiors of the White House is the one that President Abraham Lincoln occupied as an office. Located in the east end of the Second Floor, it shared the upstairs with the family's private living quarters. Although intended as a bedroom, it had been used for an office since 1817.Historical documentation, written and visual, is
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An Essay on "Visitors from the East" by Peter Waddell
Those who lived it remembered the 1850s as the most elegant era the white House had ever known. Emerged from the war with Mexico, its western boundary stretched to the Pacific Ocean, the United States was rich with promise, and while the decade was cursed by economic crisis in the Panic of 1857 and the violent debate over slavery, few would
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The Lincoln Bedroom: Refurbishing a Famous White House Room
President Abraham Lincoln's office and Cabinet Room––the large southeast room on the Second Floor of the White House––has been called the Lincoln Bedroom since 1945, when President Harry S. Truman directed that Lincoln-era furnishings be assembled there. In the Truman renovation of the White House (1949-52), only the muted Brussels-style carpet gave a reasonably appropriate design context for the celebrat
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Foreword; White House History Number 29
Special spaces at the White House are usually those created by the presidents for their own use while resident there. For example, President Richard Nixon's favorite place to work alone was the Lincoln Sitting Room; First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt prepared her cozy dressing room on the opposite or west end of the home, while FDR filled the big upstairs oval
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Abraham Lincoln's White House
On a hot summer day in August 1864, Abraham Lincoln strolled from his Second-Floor office to the lawn outside the Executive Mansion to greet a regiment of Ohio soldiers en route home after surviving some of the bloodiest fighting of the Civil War. Thanking the men profusely for their bravery and sacrifice, Lincoln implored the veterans to remember that the nation
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Reflections: A Secret Garden
Tucked away on the South Lawn, behind a tall hedge of hollies, is the White House Children’s Garden, a special jewel, created by President Lyndon B. Johnson and First Lady "Lady Bird" Johnson as their family’s time in the White House drew to a close. Mrs. Johnson wrote of the opening in her diary, “Sunday, January 19 [1969]. Today dawned gray a
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Rescue of the Papers of State During the Burning of Washington
In August 1814, British forces occupying the Chesapeake Bay began to sail up the Patuxent River in Maryland. Fearing an attack on the capital, Secretary of State James Monroe offered to scout the British position and report back to President James Madison. Monroe, accompanied by cavalry, left Washington and rode into southern Maryland. On August 19 and 20 the British landed troops at