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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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A White House Worker Remembers President Kennedy's Assassination
President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy had developed a bond with White House doorman Preston Bruce. The slain President's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, invited Bruce to walk with members of the Kennedy family to JFK's memorial service at St. Matthew's Cathedral. Here are some of Bruce's recollections:"My heart ached to see Mrs. Kennedy march up
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Nell Arthur's Memorial Window
Stained glass, a medieval art, was revisited in the historically retrospective nineteenth century. The art was a prominent feature of two significant renovation projects in Washington, D.C., during the presidency of Chester Alan Arthur (1881–85). Saint John’s Church in Lafayette Square engaged Lorin, a studio based in Chartres, France, to create stained glass windows for its new pictorial glazing prog
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Keeping Cool in the White House
During the 19th century Washington’s infamous summer heat and humidity presented challenges to presidents and their families. In that pre-air conditioning era, most chose to leave Washington in summer for fresher places – sometimes estates in Virginia, farms in Massachusetts, seaside or fishing retreats in New England, or on the New Jersey shore or Chesapeake Bay.At times during the hot
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“A Charming Resort”
For nearly a century, the United States Marine Band’s Saturday afternoon public concerts on the south grounds of the White House from June to September were a fixture of cultural life in Washington, D.C. Performed largely in an era before radio, motion pictures, television and the internet, the concerts offered people a chance to sample free, high quality en
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History of China State Visits to the White House
On January 29, 1979, President Jimmy Carter and First Lady Rosalynn Carter received Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping and his wife, Madame Zhuo Lin, for an official visit to Washington D.C. The occasion marked the highest-ranking Chinese visitor to the White House since Madame Chiang Kai-shek visited in 1943.
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Monuments to the American Revolution in Lafayette Park
In 1853, Clark Mills’ statue of President Andrew Jackson on horseback is in the center of Lafayette Park. The park’s four corners were later allocated for statues commemorating significant Europeans who assisted American forces during the American Revolution. In 1891 the first statue was erected, honoring the Marquis de Lafayette. Some feared the statue would impact the view of the White Hous
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The Fireside Chats: Roosevelt's Radio Talks
“The president wants to come into your home and sit at your fireside for a little fireside chat,” announced Robert Trout on the airwaves of CBS in March 1933. It was the first of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous radio talks addressing the problems and successes of the Great Depression, and later, World War II. President Roosevelt had not originally planne
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Taking the Oath of Office
It is probably safe to say that the presidential inauguration is the transcendent public ritual of American representative government. Unlike the coronation of a monarch or any ritual associated with the rise to power of a dictator or autocrat, the inauguration of a president is a cyclical, regularly scheduled event held every four years, and one to which, perhaps thankfully,
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Forgotten Ghosts of the White House
Not all White House ghosts are well-known or have been presidents and first ladies. There are also lesser-known spirits like a white-haired old man that disturbed President Chester Arthur at night, a beautiful maiden in a flowing white dress sited in the old conservatory, and the unidentified boy called the “Thing” that greatly frightened the Taft residence staff in 1911. Perhaps they
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Hoover's Retreat: Rapidan Camp
Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, 100 miles from Washington, Camp Rapidan served President Herbert Hoover and First Lady Lou Henry Hoover as a vacation retreat and also a rustic resort center for entertainment of important guests. Rapidan Camp lay 2,550 feet above sea level, and its fresh air drifting through elm, beech and oak trees provided a refreshing difference