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The President's House: A Notorious Haunt for Ghosts
Americans love ghost stories, and the White House, a large and imposing mansion where things go bump in the night, has been considered a prime spot for the paranormal for many years. The ghosts of William Henry Harrison (the first president to die in the White House), Abigail Adams hanging her laundry in the East Room, and Dolley Madison overlooking
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The Origin of the Abraham Lincoln Ghost Story
When it comes to White House spirits, Abraham Lincoln’s ghost is the most famous of them all. The legend of Lincoln’s ghost may have emanated from stories that Jeremiah “Jerry” Smith would spin for reporters. Smith started working at the White House during the Ulysses S. Grant administration in the late 1860s as a footman, and also served as a but
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Notable African Americans in the Early Nineteenth Century White House
While not as famous as the presidents they served, several African American slaves who lived inside the White House went on to gain recognition of their own. While many people can name all of the presidents of the United States, few people can tell you about the slaves several of those presidents kept while inside the White House. Many presidents,
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Canadian Visits to the White House
“Geography has made us neighbors,” President John F. Kennedy told the Canadian Parliament in May 1961, “History has made us friends. Economics has made us partners. And necessity has made us allies.”After Canada became a nation in 1867, ties between it and the United States grew closer. In 1927, the two countries received ambassadors. On December 6, Canadian Governor General Freeman Freeman-Thomas, 1st Marquess
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Establishing the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
When President Herbert Hoover laid the cornerstone of the National Archives Building in Washington, D.C., on February 20, 1933, the president told those assembled, “this temple of our history will appropriately be . . . an expression of the American soul.”1 Twenty-nine years later, President Hoover would be present at another National Archives dedication, this time of his own presidential library.
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John and Abigail Adams: A Tradition Begins
John and Abigail Adams had a wealth of experience in establishing and living in official houses prior to their move into the new President's House in Washington, D.C., in 1800. Adams had represented the United States in diplomatic missions to Europe during the Revolution, and in Paris and London in the 1780s when Abigail Adams joined him. They lived and
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History in the Camera's Eye
Versailles, Potsdam, and other grand relics of power are all imposing architecture and vistas, one always leading to another— Ossa piled upon Pelion and Olympus over all. It is a difficult feat to summon up in these surroundings the ghosts of vanished absolutism or to imagine real people actually living and working in them. The President's House, in Washingt
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A "Dark Horse" in Sunlight and Shadow
When Whig opponents chanted “Who is James K. Polk?” throughout the presidential election of 1844, it was more an attempt to influence perception than a reflection of reality. The image of Polk as an obscure protege of Andrew Jackson stood in contrast to the successful career of the nationally known governor of Tennessee and speaker of the United States House of Repr
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Presidents and the Potomac
For the politicians, civil servants, and accompanying citizenry of the new federal government—freshly arrived in 1800 from comfortable, sophisticated Philadelphia—the young capital that sprawled along the banks of the Potomac was a disheartening scene. Dispersed among the woodlots and along the sparsely inhabited river shore, the city of Washington’s four-mile expanse was a scattering of fewer than four hundre
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The White House Collection: The Truman Interiors
On March 27, 1952, President and Mrs. Truman returned to a freshly renovated White House after living at Blair House since November 1948. They were delighted with the success of the three-and-one- half-year project in spite of all its problems and disruptions. A week later they welcomed their first house guests, Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands, and on April 22 the
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The White House Collection: George Washington
“It is of very great importance to fix the taste of our Country properly, and I think your Example will go so far in that respect. It is therefore my Wish that every Thing about you should be substantially good and majestically plain; made to endure” wrote Gouverneur Morris, the American businessman and diplomat in Paris, to President George Washington in 1
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Historic First Inauguration
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won his first presidential campaign with messages of optimism and hope. At the Chicago Democratic Convention in June of the previous year, “Happy Days are Here Again” had become the campaign song, inspiring voters to support a candidate who promised a way out of the country’s worsening economic depression.1Roosevelt had won the election handily, but by Mar