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Advances in Entertaining
First Lady Helen Taft loved entertaining and White House hospitality during the William Howard Taft administration centered on the dining table, where the Tafts' tastes were regal. A "Forty-quart Peerless Ice Cream Freezer," with a direct current motor and a twelve-foot long Imperial French Coal Range were added to the large kitchen in 1912. On January 25, 1915, President Woodrow Wilson joined the
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Lighting the Menorah: Celebrating Hanukkah at the White House
Throughout the history of the United States, all the nation’s presidents have been Christians.1 In modern times, to celebrate the holidays, starting in early December the White House is decorated with brightly ornamented Christmas trees, garlands festooned over mantels and doorways, and the eighteenth-century crèche, a gift to the White House collection in 1967, gloriously displayed in the East Roo
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Eleanor Roosevelt's White House Portrait Session
In 1949, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt sat for her portrait in Douglas Chandor’s New York studio. Seventeen years later, The White House Historical Association purchased the portrait for the White House Collection. First Lady Lady Bird Johnson invited more than 250 guests to the February 4, 1966, presentation of the portrait, including friends, family, and former associates of Mrs. Roosevelt. Enjoy the flickr sl
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Easter Egg Roll: Easter and the Cleveland East Room
In the beginning, children came into the White House with baskets of brightly dyed hard-boiled eggs. On Easter Monday, 1885, young egg rollers marched into the East Room, hoping for a personal audience with President Grover Cleveland. When he came down from his office to greet them, he was charmed. These visitors ruined the East Room carpet, which, as the Washington
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Easter Egg Roll: The President's Own Comes Marching In
Eleven years after the Easter Monday egg rolling festivities came to the White House, President Benjamin Harrison scored a hit by adding music to the affair. In 1889, he had the United States Marine Band, known as "The President's Own," play lively tunes while the children romped on the South Lawn. John Philip Sousa, who directed the band, took delight in
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Memoirs of Isabella Hagner 1901-1905
The White House Historical Association has reset the following excerpt of Isabella Hagner’s typescript memoirs, now in the White House collection in the Isabella Hagner James Papers in the Office of the Curator. Editor Priscilla Roosevelt has corrected the typographical errors, modernized some punctuation, added explanatory endnotes, and made a slight rearrangement of the original text in order to pr
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Easter Egg Roll: President Hayes Saves the Day
In 1878, Easter Monday celebrants who were not allowed to roll eggs on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol headed up Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The children knew about the low hills on the South Lawn, and hoped their egg rolling games would be permitted there. President Rutherford B. Hayes instructed his guards to let the youngsters through
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Easter Egg Roll: The First Families' Role
Once the White House was opened to public egg rolling festivities in 1878, first families had to decide whether they were going to join the throng of celebrants or just organize and play host to it. Previously, the South Lawn was reserved for their own private Eastertide activities. Now the grounds represented a famous rite of spring for the nation's capital.
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Motor Cars Come to the White House
At the beginning of the twentieth century, some people believed that the automobile was a toy for the rich that would just create a greater class divide in America.1 Others, like President Theodore Roosevelt, remained loyal to the horse. But democracy soon won out. Henry Ford’s introduction of the Model T in 1908 revolutionized American society by creating an automobile af
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The Executive Stables
The stables, built on the White House grounds over a period of a century, were never intended to be great architecture. Public interest was keen simply because they were the president's stables. The first executive stable was a simple Georgian brick building, erected just off the grounds in 1800. Thomas Jefferson located a stable and carriage house in flanking wing dependencies
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Plumbing in the White House is Not for the Servants
References to the installation of plumbing fixtures began to appear in architectural plan books in the 1840s. Plumbing systems were already known in large hotels and grand mansions by 1833, when water was first piped into the White House. Sometime within the next year, a "bathing room" was established in the east wing. Interim upgrades appear to have been made during
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White House Decorative Arts in the 1890s
The extended family of Benjamin Harrison stretched the Executive Mansion's available living space to the limit and a number of beds were ordered to accommodate the family. Caroline Harrison was a life-long art student, and her interest in china painting led her to search the White House for old services. She had these repaired and preserved and can be credited