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The Working White House: Mid-to-Late 20th Century

Gallery

  • The Working White House: Sanding the Floor

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    One of the maintenance headaches for White House workers is the wear and tear on the wood floors. A staff member is shown here using a state-of-the-art floor sander on the East Room floor in 1955 while co-workers attend to various tasks.

    National Archives and Records Administration
  • Doll Collection, Lyndon B. Johnson Administration

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    Clara Richardson dusts some of the dolls collected around the world by Lynda Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s daughter in 1966.

    White House Historical Association
  • Chief Floral Designer at Work in the Green Room

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    White House floral designer Rusty Young uses a variety of colors, patterns, and designs to create a striking arrangement in the Green Room in 1966.

    White House Historical Association
  • The Working White House: Shirley Bailey

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    Shirley Bailey, was a veteran of the hotel industry, inspects one of the White House guest rooms in 1970. The housekeeping staff makes the beds, vacuums the floors and carpets, dusts the furniture, and ensures that the White House is always looking its best.

    White House Historical Association
  • The Working White House: Floor Renovation

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    "When people stopped wearing dress shoes and went to soft-soled shoes we all cheered because we thought this would be great for the floors," former Chief Usher Gary Walters recalled. "We couldn't have been more wrong. What happens with soft-soled shoes is that pebbles get embedded in them, so now you've got 1,500 people walking through with sandpaper on their feet. It was exactly the opposite of what we expected." Here the East Room floor gets renovated in 1977.

    The White House
  • The Working White House: John Scarfone

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    Invitations, menus, place cards, programs, and more are carefully designed and written by the White House calligrapher. Here, John Scarfone prepares the menu for the 1992 State Dinner in honor of President Patricio Aylwin of Chile.

    George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA

About this Gallery

“Tell us about a typical day,” many White House workers are asked. Their usual reply is, “There is no such thing as a ‘typical’ day in the White House!” Not only must workers be flexible in fulfilling a variety of duties, but the historical events and changes in technology, politics, and society that occur during an employee’s tenure have an impact on an individual’s job. Each day in the life of a White House worker brings something new.

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