Collection Intrepid Innovation
The computer, the car, space travel. These technologies, while seemingly old hat now, are examples of monumental technological advancement. Even...
Main Content
Have you ever wondered...
Electricity was first installed at the White House in 1891 during President Benjamin Harrison’s administration as part of a project for wiring the State, War, and Navy Building next door, today’s Eisenhower Executive Office Building. The Edison Company installed a generator for both buildings, with wires strung across the lawn and into the White House. Wires were buried in plaster, with round switches installed in each room for turning the current on and off.
Irwin “Ike” Hoover, an electrician who later became White House Chief Usher, recollected that “the Harrison family were actually afraid to turn the lights on and off for fear of getting a shock…I would turn on the lights in the halls and parlors in the evening and they would burn until I returned the next morning to extinguish them.” (Forty-Two Years in the White House, 7).
Read more about Hoover’s career.
We've Also Been Asked...
The computer, the car, space travel. These technologies, while seemingly old hat now, are examples of monumental technological advancement. Even...
Whether by hoof, air, waterway, road, or rail, the President’s access to reliable transportation is essential during their time in...
In this special episode of The 1600 Sessions, financier and philanthropist David Rubenstein interviews White House Historical Association President Stewart McLaurin...
April 29, 1876 – President Ulysses S. Grant signed legislation protecting the public turf and grounds of the U.S. Capitol; egg rolling wa...
A group of physicians and surgeons meeting in Washington 1891 was treated to a reception at the White House on the...
Bill BarkerVeteran historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker is widely recognized as the nation’s foremost interpreter of Thomas Jefferson. After portraying Th...
Luncheon PresentersRandolph ChurchillRandolph Churchill was born shortly before the death of his great-grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, in January 1965. After attending...
"Largely through television," notes historian William Seale, the White House "is the best known house in the world, the instantly...
When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, he became the first African American to hold the office. Obama faced major...
The Kennedy White House and the PressSince Woodrow Wilson held the first presidential press conference in March 1913, all sixteen of...
At the beginning of the twentieth century, some people believed that the automobile was a toy for the rich that...