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This photograph by White House Photographer Michael Geissinger is of John Adams' blessing, which is engraved in the mantel in the State Dining Room. The benediction reads, “I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of
Blessings On This House And All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.” The words are taken from a letter written to Abigail Adams from the President's House by Adams in 1800 and were engraved on the mantel in 1945 during the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This photograph was taken in 1968, during the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration.
Launching in 2020, the White House Historical Association will serve as the premiere partner for the D.C. Declaration of Learning,...
After Washington, D.C. was established as the nation’s capital, Black people found themselves in a precarious position. While so...
Born in 1784, Zachary Taylor grew up on a plantation in Virginia. His father, Richard Taylor, was an officer in the...
Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. During his childhood, the wife of one...
The White House Historical Association’s new podcast episode of the 1600 Sessions, “Entertaining at the White House,” released today features a conv...
In 1836, a striving, twenty-four-year-old New England shoemaker took an excursion southward to recuperate from a bout with ill health. By...
While many tend to think that slavery was strictly a “southern” issue, this system of racial captivity and exploitation existed acro...
At the time of his death in 1820, Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. was one of the most revered public figures in...
The White House has many holiday traditions, some of which are historic and others more recent. New arrivals to the...
For nearly four decades until 1836, John Gadsby was the premier hotelier of Alexandria, Baltimore, and, Washington, D.C. He owned...
Several cultural organizations have come together to launch the D.C. Declaration of Learning (DOL) program. This immersive teacher professional...