President Lincoln's Christmas Gift, 1864 - Photo 4

The origin of the "American Presidents" by Genevieve Ryan Bellaire is somewhat unique. One year, Genevieve's father asked her to memorize the order of the Presidents of the United States for Father's Day. As she did, she began to come up with rhymes to help her remember each President. After sharing this method with her family, they told her that

Read Digital Edition Foreword, William SealeThe Man Who Came to Dinner at the White House: Alexander Woollcott Visits the Roosevelts, Mary Jo Binker The Curse of the Presidential Musical: Mr. President and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Amy HendersonFord's Theatre and the White House, William O'Brien The American Presidents and Shakespeare, Paul F. Boller Jr.Opera for the President: Superstars and Song in

Before the twentieth century, the presidents' vehicles were not armored-plated or specially built. Their carriages were similar to those of citizens of wealth. Often they were gifts from admirers. George Washington had the most elaborate turn out of the presidents for state occasions, sporting a cream-colored carriage drawn by six matched horses "all brilliantly caparisoned." Coachmen and footmen wore livery

No sport created more excitement, enthusiasm and interest in the colonial period and the early republic than horse racing. Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson took immense pride in their horses and bred them to improve the bloodlines of saddle, work, carriage and racehorses. Early presidents loved horse racing, the most popular sport in America at that time. George Washington,

Read Digital Version Forward by William SealeThe Presidents and Baseball: Presidential Openers and Other Traditions by Frederic J. FrommerUlysses S. Grant's White House Billiard Saloon by David RamseyTheodore Roosevelt: The President Who Saved Football by Mary Jo BinkerHoover Ball and Wellness in the White House by Matthew SchaeferCapturing A Moment in Time: Remembering My Summer Photographing President Eisenhower by Al