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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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Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The gilded American bald eagle featured on the 2017 White House Christmas ornament is inspired by the eagle cartouche emblazoned on the speaker’s stand at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration, March 4, 1933. With his appearance at that stand, Roosevelt’s remarkable presidential journey began. Three future inaugurations lay ahead—1937, 1941, and 1945. This first of FDR’s inaugurations, however, was to be the las
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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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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day": Ceremonies
Ceremony and ceremonial occasions played vital roles in the Roosevelt White House. Whether presiding over state receptions, entertaining heads of state or hosting diplomatic ceremonies, the Roosevelts used these events and their own personal magnetism to project an image of American democracy that was both substantive and personal.Many of the ceremonies in the Roosevelt White House followed elaborate rules
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Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day": Household
Eleanor Roosevelt (ER) believed that the White House "staff and the ushers and the housekeeper deserve all the credit that we can give them." The mansion staff, led by housekeeper Henrietta Nesbitt and a succession of chief ushers, numbered about thirty people during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.Nesbitt, a Hyde Park neighbor of the Roosevelts who had worked with
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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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President and Mrs. Adams Invite the United States Marine Band
President and Mrs. John Adams were the first occupants of the White House in the nation’s new capital, the City of Washington. Shortly after moving into the mansion in November 1800, the Adams’s invited the young United States Marine Band, consisting of only eight or ten musicians, to play at their first reception on New Years Day, 1801. This event esta
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Caroline Harrison's 1891 Music Room
The Green Room, positioned between the East Room and the Blue Room, is one of the principal parlors of the White House. It has had many incarnations. For President Thomas Jefferson it was an everyday dining room. First Ladies Grace Coolidge, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Pat Nixon imagined it as a Federal-era parlor. Beginning with President Bill Clinton, it has served
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The Willard Hotel
During the Civil War, the fighting at times came so close to the capital that the Lincolns could hear the sounds of battle from their country retreat at the Soldiers’ Home, 3 miles north of the White House.1 One of the officers in the Union Army charged with defending the capital noted in his tiny leather-bound diary: "July 17, 1862: This night I sl
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Scholarship
America Under Fire: Aftermath
Timeline of Events:August 29, 1814: Faced with a British demand to surrender 21 merchant ships, naval and ordinance stores and cotton, flour, tobacco and wines from the city warehouses or face attack from a squadron of seven ships, Alexandria's mayor and council bowed to the inevitable and agreed to the British demand—for they had no reliable defenses or defenders.August 30, 1814: A wa
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The Building of the Inaugural Reviewing Stands 2009
Little in Washington life excites locals more than the first sight of building spectator stands for the upcoming inauguration. The windows of the White House Historical Association look out over Lafayette Park and a hive of activity is underway in the weeks before President-elect Obama will take the oath. Not a leaf is on a tree to obscure a building
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A "Dark Horse" in Sunlight and Shadow
When Whig opponents chanted “Who is James K. Polk?” throughout the presidential election of 1844, it was more an attempt to influence perception than a reflection of reality. The image of Polk as an obscure protege of Andrew Jackson stood in contrast to the successful career of the nationally known governor of Tennessee and speaker of the United States House of Repr