Workers Rolling the Grounds

This photograph provides a rare, early glimpse of White House staff at work in 1862.

This photograph of White House groundskeepers on the South Lawn was taken by Mathew Brady in 1862. During Abraham Lincoln's presidency, workers used heavy, water-filled rollers to smooth the White House's gravel paths and lawns. This photograph provides a rare, early glimpse of White House staff at work. Brady was one of the first professional photographers in the United States. He studied under inventor Samuel B. Morse, who brought the daguerreotype from France to America. Brady achieved his fame documenting the Civil War.