NEW ISSUE of White House History Quarterly “On the Move”

Mar 04, 2024 Washington, D.C. —

The White House Historical Association today released the 72nd issue of its award-winning magazine, White House History Quarterly, “On the Move,” a collection of stories of the historic journeys made by both people and things to and from the White House.

On the morning of May 16, 1978, First Lady Rosalynn Carter crossed Pennsylvania Avenue and walked through Lafayette Park to board the subway at McPherson Square. She rode nine stops to D.C. General Hospital where she donned a smock and helped to lay on a fresh coat of paint to brighten the emergency room. The photos of her trip on the Metro are a fitting opening for White House History Quarterly #72, “On the Move."

Stories in this issue of White House History Quarterly include:

• “Moving On: The President’s Household Sets Sail for the City of Washington” — Historian Alan Capps opens the issue with the story of the first large-scale move of the President’s House, when the presidential household furnishings set sail from Philadelphia to the City of Washington. Capps traces the dangerous water route taken around the Delmarva Peninsula by ships carrying everything from tables and chairs to China and carpets bound for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
• “The Marquis de Lafeyette’s Return to the United States, 1824-1825”— This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of perhaps the most celebrated early visitor to the White House, the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. Sailing to New York from France in 1824 at the invitation of the United States Congress, Lafayette visited President James Monroe’s White House and undertook a thirteen-month journey to all twenty-four states. Richard Grimmett shares the story.
• “Joanna Rucker’s Extended Stay in the White House and the Nation’s Capital: A First Lady’s Niece Records Her Experience in Nineteenth Century Washington, D.C.” — An early family visit to the White House is recalled by historian Zacharie Kinslow who studies the revealing letters of Joanna Rucker. In 1845, Rucker made a ten-day 600-mile journey from Tennessee to Washington, D.C., for a long stay with her aunt First Lady Sarah Polk. She stands beside her in the famous group photograph set on the South Portico that includes past, present, and future first ladies and presidents.
• “Considering the Furnishing of the Lincolns’ Summer Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home” — Less is known about the details of many other early moves to and from the White House. Historian Matthew Costello and White House Associate Curator Melissa Naulin explain the value of collaboration in scholarly research and tell of their recent work to discover more about the objects the Lincoln family likely carried from the White House to the Soldiers’ Home to furnish their summer retreat.
• “Send her to Me": Emilie Todd Helm’s Civil War Visit to the Lincoln White House” — Historian Estill Pennington reminds us of a more complicated family reunion in the Civil War-era White House. When President Abraham Lincoln asked that his sister-in-law Emilie Todd Helm, widow of a Confederate general, be sent to him when she tried to cross enemy lines, the northern loyalties and southern sympathies of his extended family drew public attention.
• “A Presidential Wine Cellar Survives Prohibition” — Author Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., looks at the complications brought by another era, Prohibition. When President Woodrow Wilson sought to move his collection of wine out of the White House, what would have been a simple trip across town required special permission from the Prohibition commissioner.
• “The Southern White House, The Villa Margherita: A Socialite Welcomes White House Travelers” — Historian Clifford Krainik takes us to a palatial Beaux-Arts home on Charleston’s South Battery and shares the story of socialite Daisy Simonds’s ambitions to launch a successful hospitality business with the benefit of publicity generated by a visit from the unsuspecting President Theodore Roosevelt. Following the visit, her “Villa Margherita” would in fact become known as the “Southern White House.”
• “Front Line First Lady: First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Wartime Tour of the South Pacific” — The first solo visit by a presidential spouse to an active combat zone is recounted by historian Mary Jo Binker, who follows Eleanor Roosevelt on her twenty-two-stop trip through the South Pacific in 1943. As a Red Cross delegate, she would visit Red Cross facilities and make recommendations for what the soldiers needed. Determined to see the situation for herself, Mrs. Roosevelt, earning the nickname “Public Energy Number One,” tirelessly endured danger, physical hardships, and political criticism as she met and comforted hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. The experience would shape her future determination to help create a more peaceful world.
• “A White House Pastry Chef Makes a Move: The Creation of the Mezzanine Pantry” — Author Emma O’Kane goes behind-the-scenes to tell the story of a move made inside the White House itself when the first dedicated White House Pastry Shop was soon to become a reality.
• “From Ireland to California: Moving the Ronald Reagan Pub” — Sarah M.G. Thomson tells the story of the move of an entire pub from Ballyporeen, Ireland, to Simi Valley, California, where it was installed and is now back in business in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
• “Presidential Sites Quarterly Feature: The Legacy of Lewis Edward Jordan: First Interior Designer of Blair House, The President’s Guest House” — For our Presidential Sites feature we go to Blair House, The President’s Guest House, which celebrates its two-hundredth anniversary this year. Author Frederick Edward Jordan shares the little-known story of his father Lewis Jordan, the first interior designer for the house after it was acquired by the United States government. Jordan was so modest he was rarely photographed, but his work received the personal approval of President Franklin Roosevelt.
• “Reflections: Embracing the Future”— With his “Reflections” Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association, explains that, just as President Adams embraced the future when he moved into the new President’s House in 1800, the Association is embracing the future as it prepares to open The People’s House: A White House Experience at 1700 Pennsylvania Avenue this fall.
  

This 120-page issue of White House History Quarterly retails for $12.95. To purchase a single issue, visit shop.whitehousehistory.org.

To subscribe to White House History Quarterly, visit whitehousehistoryjournal.org.

To request a review copy of White House History Quarterly #72, or interview the contributors, contact press@whha.org.

About White House History Quarterly

White House History Quarterly, published by the White House Historical Association since 1983, strives to present the broadest view of this personal American subject—the White House—featuring memoir, biography, history, and cultural context as it opens the doors of “America’s House” to America. Issues are thematic, shaped to tell a story from a particular angle, and the themes—from music, theater, fashion, art, entertaining, flowers and gardens, kitchens and cooking, presidential journeys and travel, memoir, and presidential kin and presidential sites—suggest the broad scope of the content. With editorial offices in Washington, D.C., at the Association's row house facing Lafayette Park across from the White House, White House History Quarterly is published four times each year. One, two, or three-year subscriptions, single copies, and bound collections of back issues are available.