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White House Tour
Following a competition for the design of the President's House in the spring of 1792, Irish architect James Hoban was commissioned to build a home and office for the President of the United States. With guidance from President George Washington, Hoban employed craftsmen brought from as far away as Scotland and oversaw a free and enslaved labor force that constructed one
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About Us
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African American Performers at the White House
Beginning with James Buchanan’s administration in the 1850s, black entertainers have held a prime spot among White House performers. Their contribution to the musical history of the White House has been a rich and generally little known segment of American cultural life. A performance by Thomas Greene Bethune, "Blind Tom" created a sensation in 1859. Although blind and likely autistic, he
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Frederick Douglass
The son of an enslaved woman and an unknown white man, Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey was born into slavery in 1818 on Maryland's eastern shore. He was enslaved for twenty years in city households in Baltimore and on Maryland farms. In 1838, he fled north and changed his name to Frederick Douglass.Douglass was highly active in the abolitionist movement and became
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Living Quarters on the Ground Floor
White House staff who lived at the President’s House during the nineteenth century, including enslaved and free African Americans, usually had rooms in the basement. Open at the ground level on the south, the basement (referred to as the Ground Floor today) had windows on the north side facing a dry moat that was entirely hidden from view. Visitors on
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First Lady Hoover's Tea Party with Mrs. De Priest Creates a Stir
Oscar De Priest’s election to Congress as a Republican representative from Chicago in 1928 created an interesting political and social dilemma for the White House. De Priest was the only black to serve in Congress during his three terms (1928-1935). Even before De Priest took his seat in 1929, Washington buzzed about the arrival of a black congressman and what this me
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The White House, Lafayette Square and African Americans
To imagine what it was like here when the White House was being constructed in the 1790s, erase everything else you see now on and around Lafayette Square. The park was a field—muddy or dusty, depending on the weather. Enslaved workers who were building the White House were housed in temporary shelters—each about 10 feet wide and 10 feet long—lined
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White House Visitor Center
In July 2012, the National Park Service’s White House Visitor Center began undergoing a $12.6 million revitalization through a public-private partnership with the White House Historical Association. The Association's donation of $12.5 million for the project and operating endowment helped make this extraordinary public resource possible. David M. Rubenstein's gift of $5 million to the Association for the White House Visitor Center ensures ce
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In James Buchanan’s Time
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeJames Buchanan's White House Hostess: The Celebrated Harriet Lane, Pamela KilianGuest of the Nation: The Japanese Delegation to the Buchanan White House, Dallas FinnThe USRMCS Harriet Lane, Robert L. AndersonPresident Buchanan Greets a Guest of State: The Prince of Wales at the White House, Claire A. FaulknerThe White House Collection: From James Buchanan's Time, William G.
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The Roosevelt Restoration of 1902
Read Digital EditionForeword, William B. BushongThe White House in the Monumental City, Antoinette J. LeeGlenn Brown, the White House, and the Urban Renaissance of Washington, D.C., William B. BushongTheodore Roosevelt's White House, William SealeThe Executive Offices 100 Years Ago: A Photographic Essay, Lydia TederickThe "Eye of Guardianship:" President Theodore Roosevelt and the American Institute of Architects, Tony P. WrennThe White
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The Gold Spoon Speech of 1840
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeAbout the Gold Spoon Oration, William SealeImagery from the Election of 1840: Myth and Reality, Clifford KrainikThe White House Collection: Those Princely Objects in Charles Ogle's Speech, William G. AllmanA Letter from Home: Martha Custis Peter to Martha Custis Williams, Tudor Place February 13, 1841, Wendy KailSpeech of Mr. Ogle, of Pennsylvania, on The Regal Splendor of the President's
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Documenting the White House
Read Digital EditionForeword, William SealeMaking the Most of the Archives: Finding White House Documentary Sources at the National Archives, Alysha E. BlackVisual Documents: Symbolic and Real Images of the White House, Alan FernPhotographing White House Furnishings, Bruce M. WhiteThe White House Collection: Research Sources in the Office of the Curator, Betty C. MonkmanBuy NowSubscribe to White House History