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About Our Authors
Authors JAMES ARCHER ABBOTT is currently the executive director at Wright’s Ferry Mansion in Columbia, Pennsylvania. Abbott has served as director of Johns Hopkins University’s Evergreen Museum & Library, curator of American and European decorative arts for the Baltimore Museum of Art, and curator and educator for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Boscobel House and Gardens, and Hist
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Articles & Publications
Since joining the White House Historical Association in 2014, Stewart McLaurin has had been published a number of times. Topics range from the construction of the White House, First Lady history, the Easter Egg Roll, and others related to White House History. See below for a selected list of Stewart’s articles and publications. External Publications USA Today Opinion Columns When yo
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Roland Mesnier - In Memoriam 1944–2022
Chef Roland Mesnier, longtime White House Executive Pastry Chef, mentor and teacher, prolific author, and sought-after speaker, passed away on August 26, 2022, following a short illness. He is predeceased by his wife, Martha, and survived by his son, George Mesnier.
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White House Weddings and Receptions
By Elyse Werling In this article, Elyse Werling illustrates a timeline of White House ceremonies and receptions from the James Madison administration to the Barack Obama administration.
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What Flavor is the Cake?
by Bethanee Bemis In this article, Bethanee Bemis examines how traditions for releasing wedding details to the public have evolved. Included are wedding cake recipes released to the press for the weddings of Luci and Lynda Johnson and Patricia Nixon.
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State Dining Room
The State Dining Room, which now seats as many as 140 guests, was originally much smaller and served at various times as a drawing room, office, and Cabinet Room. Today's State Dining Room incorporates the space that President Thomas Jefferson used as a private office. Tall and generously proportioned, the room had fireplaces on the east and west and was flooded
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The Blue Room
The Blue Room with the Yellow Oval Room above and the Diplomatic Reception Room below it, form the most elegant space of James Hoban's plans for the White House. For the south wall of the Blue Room, he designed French doors flanked by long windows. An oval portico with curving stairs that descended to the South Lawn was included in
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The East Room
Ascending from the Ground Floor Corridor, a marble stairway leads the White House visitor to the State Floor level. Off the landing to the right is the East Room. The largest of the State Rooms, it was designed by James Hoban and George Washington to be a "Public Audience Room." Second President John Adams and his wife First Lady Abigail
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The Entrance Hall
The Cross Hall and large Entrance Hall are at the center of the original plan by James Hoban for the State Floor of the White House. The basic floor plan has not been altered substantially, although modifications have been made to the design and placement of the principle staircases. The plan is arranged so that the Cross Hall connects all
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The Green Room
James Hoban, the original architect of the President's House, intended that the space now called the "Green Room" be used as a "Common Dining Room." An 1801 inventory revealed that first residents President John Adams and First Lady Abigail Adams actually used it as a guest bedchamber. However, the next chief executive, Thomas Jefferson, did serve meals in this room. Jefferson
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The Red Room
Benjamin Henry Latrobe's 1803 drawing of the State Floor indicates that the Red Room served as "the President's Antechamber" for the President's office and Cabinet Room next door. During the James Madison administration, the room became First Lady Dolley Madison's famous salon. A sunflower yellow, not red, dominated the room's decor. Visitors were received at her famous Wednesday night receptions in
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National Student Art Competition 2021
For press inquiries relating to the art competition, please contact press@whha.org and copy artcomp@whha.org.The White House is an enduring symbol of the United States. More than just a home for the president, this celebrated building has been shaped by countless people including first families, enslaved workers, innovative staff, and the American public. When First Lady