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Presidential Recordings
One of the websites you can use to find a president you would like to hear in conversation is the one maintained by the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. An example within the presidential recordings is a conversation in the Oval Office following the March on Washington. Civil rights leaders came to see President John
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The President's Daily Diary
Some of the most fascinating documents of the presidency are the diaries that reveal what the president does all day and all week. Assembled from information found in Secret Service logs, the president's schedule, notes from presidential staff members who track where he is, the President's Diarist--an employee of the National Archives, not the White House--creates the record of his
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Online Resources
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Scholarship
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker, a free African-American man living in a slave state in the eighteenth century, never knew the weight of iron shackles or the crack of an overseer’s whip. A native of Baltimore County, Maryland, his experience diverged from those of most African Americans living in the early United States. He received a formal education during his youth, maintained hi
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Scholarship
The Slave Quarters at Decatur House
Nestled in the heart of Washington, D.C., Lafayette Park attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. From school groups to tourists, protesters to foreign dignitaries, many are drawn to the most prominent building on the square—the White House. Yet few fully realize just how much the neighborhood has changed since 1800, when President John Adams first moved into th
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Scholarship
Building the President's House with Enslaved Labor
In several ways, James Hoban’s life resembles the classic immigrant success story. Born to a modest family in County Kilkenny, Ireland, Hoban studied at the Dublin Society School of Architectural Drawing before seeking greater opportunities abroad. He arrived in the new United States by 1785 and was settled in Charleston, South Carolina, by 1787, where he and his business partner Pierce Pu
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The White House Social Secretary
The White House Historical Association began an oral history project in 2010 under the guidance of Maria Downs, the Association’s public affairs director and the White House Social Secretary during the Gerald Ford administration. Ms. Downs recognized that important insights into White House history were slipping away with the passing of social secretaries. They rarely wrote or spoke of their ex
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The Imperial Season
Historian and author William Seale's The Imperial Season: Americas Capital in the Time of the First Ambassadors, 1893-1918 describes a little-explored period of United States history when the U.S. emerged from more than a century of relative isolation to a significant international role. Published by Smithsonian Books, The Imperial Season is available for purchase.Research for The Imperial Season
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The White House Historical Association Kennedy Rose Garden Exhibition
The White House Historical Association has the privilege of announcing the opening of a new exhibit, The Kennedy Rose Garden: Traditionally American, which explores President John F. Kennedy’s 1961 vision for a new garden adjacent to the Oval Office. The exhibit is free and open to the public July 16 – September 12, 2015; Monday – Saturday from 10 a.m – 3 p.m.
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The Kennedy Rose Garden: Traditionally American
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy began to envision a "traditionally American" garden located just outside the Oval Office. His idea became the Rose Garden, which was installed the next year. This garden has had a strong presence on the White House grounds and in the American presidency ever since. It is a White House institution, a special place for official