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When Whig opponents chanted “Who is James K. Polk?” throughout the presidential election of 1844, it was more an attempt to influence perception than a reflection of reality. The image of Polk as an obscure protege of Andrew Jackson stood in contrast to the successful career of the nationally known governor of Tennessee and speaker of the United States House of Repr
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
The President's House: A History by noted historian William Seale, published by the White House Historical Association in two rich volumes, chronicles both the unique continuum of the White House in American history and its human side as home to presidents and their families. It chronicles every president from George Washington to George H. W. Bush. The William J. Clinton
Installation of a gravity hot-air heating system began in the spring of 1840. The system used a self-contained furnace with an inner firebox of iron enclosed by a shell of plastered brick where the air was warmed. Ducts ran from both the outer shell and the furnace room itself (oval room in the basement, now the Diplomatic Reception Room) and extended
Although President Abraham Lincoln had friends and supporters in the press such as Pennsylvania newspaper editor John Forney; Henry J. Raymond, editor and owner of the New York Times; and Lawrence A. Gobright of the Associated Press, probably none was closer to him than Noah Brooks (1830-1903), the Washington, D.C. reporter for the Sacramento, California Daily Union. The two