Significant Events
Featured Collection
State Dinners
A State Dinner honoring a visiting head of government or reigning monarch is one of the grandest and most glamorous of White House affairs. It is part of an official State Visit and provides the president and first lady the opportunity to honor the visiting head of state and his or her spouse. In this collection, explore the history of
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The Japanese Mission of 1860
During the 1850s Japan gradually began to discard its isolationist foreign policy of sakoku (“locked country”) and began opening some of its ports to foreign trade while accepting diplomatic recognition from western nations. The U.S. and Japan signed a Treaty of Amity and Commerce in July 1858, and in February 1860 three samurai ambassadors and their entourage of 74 took a U.S. N
