Collection The Decatur House Slave Quarters
In 1821-1822, Susan Decatur requested the construction of a service wing. The first floor featured a large kitchen, dining room,...
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A slave helps craft this statue and the Capitol's statue of freedom...
A statue of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans occupies the center of Lafayette Square. Erected in 1853, it was the first bronze statue cast in the country and the first equestrian statue in the world to be balanced solely on the horse's hind legs. The sculptor, Clark Mills, had never seen an equestrian statue before, let alone one where the horse balances on two legs. When Mills came to Washington from South Carolina to work on the statue, he brought with him an enslaved apprentice named Phillip Reid. While we don't know exactly what Phillip Reid did for the Jackson statue, his contributions to another Mills project—the statue called Freedom that now sits a top the United States Capitol dome—give some indication of how important he was to Mills's work. Reid was responsible for casting the statue of Freedom and for loading the 5 sections of the statue onto wagons that transported them from Mills's foundry in Bladensburg, Maryland to the Capitol. Phillip Reid was praised on the floor of the US House of Representatives in 1928 for his work on the Statue of Freedom, which succeeded largely due to "the faithful service and genius of an intelligent negro in Washington named Philip Reid, a mulatto slave owned by Mr. Clark Mill [sic] . . .much credit is due him for his faithful and intelligent services rendered in modeling and casting America's superb Statue of Freedom. . ." (Congressional Record (1928), 1200)
In 1821-1822, Susan Decatur requested the construction of a service wing. The first floor featured a large kitchen, dining room,...
Since the James Madison presidency, St. John’s Church has been an important part of the life of Lafayette Square an...
For two hundred years, Decatur House has stood as a near neighbor to the White House across Lafayette Square. Stewart...
Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an "egg roll" party. Held on the South...
For more than a century, thousands of Americans have gathered in Lafayette Park across from the White House to exercise...
In this special episode of The 1600 Sessions, financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein interviews White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin...
Biographies & Portraits
Presidents have found different ways to escape the pressures and politics of the position. For early leaders, it was a...
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First Lady Lou Hoover's invitation to Jessie L. DePriest to a White House tea party in 1929 created a storm of...
The White House Grounds began as approximately 85 acres of land chosen by George Washington and was refined and cultivated by...
Since the White House was first occupied by President John Adams in 1800, influential people and organizations—or those who hoped to...