Main Content
Featured Collection
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
Shot by anarchist Leon F. Czolgosz while he was standing in a receiving line at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, N.Y., on September 6, 1901, President McKinley would die eight days later after gangrene ravaged his wounded organs. McKinley's funeral train arrived in Washington, D.C., in the evening of Monday, September 16, 1901. The coffin was lifted out of the palace car
Before the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841, there was no established form for official mourning and funerals of presidents who died in office. However, it was clear that the death of a president called for a formal ceremony with symbolism suitable to the dignity of the state. The White House was heavily draped in black. The funeral ceremony was
The stunning news of President Harding's death came to the White House by telephone on August 2, 1923. The president had fallen ill and died suddenly of a heart attack in San Francisco while on a tour of the western states. Floral tributes—bouquets, crosses, wreaths, anchors of hope and many other traditional symbols of mourning—began to arrive as soon as the
John F. Kennedy was shot and killed by Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Shocked and saddened by that news bulletin, Americans that lived through the 1960s will never forget the day of Kennedy's death and the sorrow of that solemn funeral. Television brought those events immediately and continually into America's homes. The president had been pronounced dead
On July 2, 1881, Charles J.Guiteau twice shot and greviously wounded President Garfield at Washington's Baltimore and Potomac station. The president was taken to the White House and was treated by a half dozen physicians who tried to remove a bullet in his back with bare hands and unsterilized instruments. Garfield asked to be taken to the New Jersey seaside on
The death of President Roosevelt on April 12, 1945, took the world wholly by surprise. Although those close to him had feared that since his reelection campaign that his time was near, the public was not aware of the seriousness of his condition even though photographs from Yalta showed his physical deterioration. The president secretly left for the Yalta Conference after his
Six hundred invited guests attended the funeral of President Lincoln, felled by the assassin John Wilkes Booth. The East Room overflowed with mourners out into the Green Room. Inconsolable, Mary Todd Lincoln would not attend the funeral services. General Grant was seated alone at the head of the catafalque in full uniform, the hero on a pedestal, his face glistening
Before the death of William Henry Harrison in 1841, there was no established form for official mourning and funerals of presidents who died in office. However, it was clear that the death of a president called for a formal ceremony with symbolism suitable to the dignity of the state. The White House was heavily draped in black. The funeral ceremony was
