Former White House workers gather on stage
at the 1992 Folklife Festival.
Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian
Institution.
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"Workers at the White House"
Coinciding
with the 200th anniversary of the White House,
the Festival of American Folklife featured
a program entitled "Workers at the White
House" on the National Mall in Washington,
D.C. Between June 25 and July 5, 1992, more
than thirty former White House employees
participated in small panel discussions,
and took questions from delighted audiences
of Festival visitors.
The group's chain of
living memory extended as far back as 1909.
Contributing stories about their White House
experiences were plumbers, maids, chefs,
butlers, ushers, and doormen, as well as
calligraphers, stonecarvers, and police officers
on the White House beat. Panelists recounted
amusing anecdotes about the presidential
families, and about world leaders such as
Winston Churchill; and they recalled serious
matters such as racial discrimination in
the White House, and the making of blackout
curtains during World War II.
"Workers at the White House" grew
into a traveling exhibition, circulated by
the Smithsonian Institution during 1993.
It also resulted in a video, and an illustrated
booklet. Marjorie A. Hunt, who coordinated
these efforts, summarized their theme as
an examination of "the relationship
between occupational culture and place, [and]
the distinctive ways in which the White House,
as a unique occupational setting, shapes
work experience."1
1 Marjorie A. Hunt, "Making the
White House Work," in Workers
at the White House (Washington, D.C.:
Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural
Studies, Smithsonian Institution, 1993),
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