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Sarah Fling

Sarah Fling came to the White House Historical Association in 2019 as a graduate public history fellow before joining as a historian in 2021. She received her bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Pittsburgh and her master’s degree in Public History from American University. Sarah specializes in material culture and nineteenth-century women’s history.

  • Scholarship

    Prom Night at the White House

    Senior prom is a night to remember — especially if your venue is the White House! On May 31, 1975, First Daughter Susan Ford hosted the Holton-Arms School senior class for prom at the Executive Mansion, marking the first and only celebration of its kind to take place there. The class of ‘75 at the Holton-Arms School, located in Bethesda, Maryland, had saved for the

  • Scholarship

    Harriet Lane

    Most Americans have never heard of Harriet Lane, but at the time of her uncle James Buchanan’s presidency, she was the White House hostess, a friend to Queen Victoria, namesake to “societies, ships of war, [and] neck-ties,” “First Lady of the Land,” and a national celebrity.1 How, then, have Americans forgotten her?

  • Scholarship

    A Resolute Myth: Debunking the Resolute Desk Panel

    As historians, one part of our job is to question and investigate oft-repeated stories in history. Myths, inaccuracies, and questionable documentation abound in White House history, and historical facts can be ignored, altered, misremembered, or forgotten as time passes. One such example is the history of the Resolute Desk—one of the most important symbols of the presidency and a pr

  • Scholarship

    The Enslaved Households of President Zachary Taylor

    Born in 1784, Zachary Taylor grew up on a plantation in Virginia. His father, Richard Taylor, was an officer in the Continental Army and a southern planter. About six years later, Colonel Taylor purchased Springfield plantation and moved his family to Louisville, Kentucky, and by 1800, Taylor had expanded his slaveholdings to twenty-six enslaved people.1 Zachary Taylor lived at his father’s pl

  • Scholarship

    Jimmy Carter, Iran, and the Canadian Caper

    The Iran Hostage Crisis was one of the most important issues of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and likely one of the reasons for his election loss in 1980. But at the beginning of Carter’s presidency, the United States and Iran were allies. Carter called Iran “an island of stability in one of the more troubled areas of the world” during a visit

  • Scholarship

    LGBTQ+ Protests in Lafayette Square

    Lafayette Square, the neighborhood just north of the White House, has long been the site of protests, marches, memorials, and celebrations for LGBTQ+ activists.1 Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, segments of the American public have demanded equal treatment in the workplace, in healthcare, and at home, regardless of sexual orientation. Inspired and often excluded by other social movements, including