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Scholarship
Seances in the Red Room
Death plagues us all: it is the only certainty in life and plays an integral role in the human experience. When a loved one perishes, it is their survivors who are left to pick up the pieces. In a time of mourning, grief-stricken loved ones turn to a plethora of coping mechanisms, and over time the way we mourn has
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Scholarship
Spies, Lies and Disguise
“This trip of ours has been very laborious and exciting. I have had no time to think calmly since we left Springfield. There is one reason why I write tonight. Tomorrow we enter slave territory. Saturday evening, according to our arrangements we will be in Washington. There may be trouble in Baltimore. If so, we will not go to Washington, un
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Scholarship
An Author and a President
Two of the nineteenth century’s most prominent American men, Ulysses S. Grant and Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, developed an unlikely friendship extending from the White House to Grant’s deathbed. The steely, quiet demeanor of the former Union Army general contrasted sharply with the jocular nature of the celebrated author. Nevertheless, over the year
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Scholarship
Gracy Bradley's White House
On November 24, 1831, Andrew Jackson, Jr. married Sarah Yorke. President Andrew Jackson, a devoted father, wanted to give his son’s new bride a wedding present. In March of 1832, he purchased what he thought would be most helpful for a young woman setting up her own domestic household for the first time – an enslaved woman named Gracy Bradley.1
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Scholarship
Benjamin Banneker
Benjamin Banneker, a free African-American man living in a slave state in the eighteenth century, never knew the weight of iron shackles or the crack of an overseer’s whip. A native of Baltimore County, Maryland, his experience diverged from those of most African Americans living in the early United States. He received a formal education during his youth, maintained hi
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Scholarship
The Enslaved Household of President George Washington
On April 16, 1789, George Washington left his home at Mount Vernon to travel to New York City to be inaugurated as the first President of the United States. He was accompanied by Charles Thomson, the secretary of Congress, and Colonel David Humphreys, Washington’s longtime friend and secretary. Although the president-elect made no mention of their presence in his diary, he wa
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Scholarship
Before the White House
On May 14, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford announced that construction of a new outdoor swimming pool on the White House South Lawn was underway, just south of the West Wing.1 During construction, National Park Service Curator Robert S. Marshall conducted archaeological analysis of the fill removed from the hole dug for the pool. In the fill, Marshall discovered: “seventeen chips, flakes, an
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Scholarship
Spanish Influenza in the President's Neighborhood
When Americans consider threats to democracy during President Woodrow Wilson’s administration, they usually think of the bloody world conflict that became World War I. As the war was ending in 1918, another often-forgotten adversary arrived in the United States: an outbreak of the Spanish influenza, a deadly pandemic which significantly impacted global populations, including Washington, D.C. Scientists estimate that th
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Scholarship
A Celebration for Veterans
At the end of World War I, over 200,000 wounded soldiers returned home to the United States. To help these veterans cope with their physical and psychological injuries, post-war presidents hosted annual garden parties at the White House. These events took place on the South Lawn and included wounded veterans from local military and naval hospitals. The veterans, along with their
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Scholarship
The Enslaved Household of President Thomas Jefferson
These powerful words open the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, the document by which the Second Continental Congress announced its intention to separate the American colonies from Great Britain in 1776. The primary author of this famous document was none other than Thomas Jefferson. Although these words have been quoted and repeated countless times throughout history to underscore American values
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Scholarship
John Gadsby: Hotelier and Slave Owner in the President's Neighborhood
For nearly four decades until 1836, John Gadsby was the premier hotelier of Alexandria, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. He leased and operated the City Hotel and Tavern in Alexandria, as well as, the Indian Queen in Baltimore, and ended his career in Washington, D.C. with the Franklin House and the highly esteemed National Hotel. His hotels were considered state
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Scholarship
Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. During his childhood, the wife of one of his owners taught Douglass the alphabet. Later, she was forbidden to continue because slave literacy was illegal in Maryland. Undeterred, young Douglass taught himself, recognizing that education could be “the pathway from slavery to freedom.”1 Experiencing the cruelty and mora