NEW Issue of White House History Quarterly “After the White House”

Sep 17, 2024 Washington, D.C. —

The White House Historical Association today released "After the White House," the 74th issue of its award-winning magazine, White House History Quarterly. While the White House may be the defining moment in either a life story or in the provenance of an inanimate object, the adventure does always end at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. This issue follows some interesting people and their things out the door, taking a look at what happened next after life at the White House.

“Our opening articles tracing the journeys of White House building materials and furnishings prompt some questions: Why are discarded household furnishings celebrated on their return to the White House Collection? Why would a bent nail from a White House wall be a collectible treasure? And why has a velvet evening gown worn to a single White House dinner been sought after, auctioned, preserved, and exhibited? The words of the late historian William Seale offer a fitting answer: “The old stones of which this house is made are saturated . . . by history.” As these pages reveal, no matter whether made of silver, velvet, or brick, the objects that set the stage for the American presidency will forever be primarily White House objects, attracting attention, desire, and even reverence for the history they hold.”

-Marcia Anderson, Editor White House History Quarterly

Articles included in this issue of White House History Quarterly:

• Going, Going… Gone!: A Survey of White House Auction – Author Scott H. Harris, opens the issue by taking us back to the public auctions when White House furnishings deemed “decayed, out of repair, or unfit for use” could be acquired for nickels and dimes.

• Pieces of the White House Preserved: Renovation Relics –Wayne Smith explains how the roof timbers, bricks, floors, moldings, and even the nails and copper wire that filled wheelbarrows during structural renovations took on second lives as the prized possessions of scavengers and collectors. Some were even fashioned by presidents and first ladies into special gifts.

• Cataloging History’s Return to the White House – First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy brought a wholly new perspective to the White House when she appeared on the scene in 1961. Furnishings once considered worthless to the White House became treasured for their historic value as Mrs. Kennedy established a museum-quality collection and bringing pieces back to the White House became a priority. Once the returning tables, chairs, China, and more began to fill the first White House curator’s office in 1962, a much-needed catalog documenting and describing the new acquisitions was compiled. Lauren McGwin explains and highlights some of the objects found in the catalog completed in 1964.

• A William King Jr. Chair Comes Back to the White House – Furnishings discarded as useless in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries have been finding the way back home to the White House for more than sixty years, bringing with them stories of their years at large. Whether given back by a public or private collection or acquired by the White House Historical Association for donation back to the collection, returned objects are among the most important items on display in the State Rooms. One chair, now back in the White House Collection, was associated with Henry Clay until author Conover Hunt did some detective work. She explains how, as she helped a friend identify a family heirloom, she discovered a chair that had once furnished the early nineteenth-century East Room.

• Fit for the First Ladies: A 1902 East Room Mirror Frame Returns to the White House – Another example of a journey back is shared by Melissa Naulin, who tells of a mirror frame installed in the East Room in 1902, removed during the Truman renovation, repurposed by the Smithsonian Institution, and returned to the White House in 2018.

• After the White House: Edith and Woodrow Wilson Go House Hunting – For White House residents there is also an “after the White House,” and several of our contributors share these stories. Historian Rebecca Boggs Roberts explains that for President and Mrs. Woodrow Wilson the first step was deciding where to live.

• An After the White House Sanctuary: Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Gettysburg Farm – President and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower knew exactly where to head “after the White House”—their Gettysburg farmhouse, a long-awaited sanctuary for their retirement. Colleen Shogan tells the story.

• Worn at the White House: Princess Diana’s “Travolta Dress” Is Celebrated, Auctioned, Exhibited, Replicated, and Preserved – Christina Ewald focuses on a dress worn to the White House by Princess Diana to relate a different kind of a story that demonstrates how even a single event can forever associate an object with the White House.

• From the Archives: Innovation in Action: Jimmy Carter’s After the White House Effort to Eradicate Guinea Worm Disease – For other former presidents, “after the White House” did not mean retirement. Amanda Larson describes how President Jimmy Carter devoted his post presidential years to humanitarian causes

• Presidential Sites Feature: The United States Supreme Court Building: A Memorial to William Howard Taft – Claude R. Marx contributes our quarterly presidential site article on the U.S. Supreme Court Building, which serves as a memorial to Taft.

• Stewart McLaurin, President of The White House Historical Association, concludes the issue with his reflections on 232 Years of White House Comings and Goings

This 116-page issue of White House History Quarterly retails for $12.95. To purchase a single issue, visit shop.whitehousehistory.org.

To subscribe to White House History Quarterly, visit whitehousehistoryjournal.org.

To request a review copy of White House History Quarterly #74, or interview the contributors, contact press@whha.org.

About White House History Quarterly

White House History Quarterly, published by the White House Historical Association since 1983, strives to present the broadest view of this personal American subject—the White House—featuring memoir, biography, history, and cultural context as it opens the doors of “America’s House” to America. Issues are thematic, shaped to tell a story from a particular angle, and the themes—from music, theater, fashion, art, entertaining, flowers and gardens, kitchens and cooking, presidential journeys and travel, memoir, and presidential kin and presidential sites—suggest the broad scope of the content. With editorial offices in Washington, D.C., at the Association's row house facing Lafayette Park across from the White House, White House History Quarterly is published four times each year. One, two, or three-year subscriptions, single copies, and bound collections of back issues are available.