Timeline
Halloween at the White House
Halloween has been celebrated at the White House in various ways since the mid-20th century. Here is how different administrations recognized the holiday.
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Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Historic First Inauguration
Franklin Delano Roosevelt won his first presidential campaign with messages of optimism and hope. At the Chicago Democratic Convention in June of the previous year, “Happy Days are Here Again” had become the campaign song, inspiring voters to support a candidate who promised a way out of the country’s worsening economic depression.1Roosevelt had won the election handily, but by Mar
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Easter Egg Roll Press Collection
Article
Afternoon Accolades
Since the second inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant in 1873, inaugural reviewing stands— temporary pavilions built in front of the White House for an afternoon’s use—have provided most new presidents the pleasure of reviewing the armed forces of the United States following the inaugural ceremony at the Capitol.1 Over the years the reviewing stands have become more elaborate, as have t
New Official White House China Book Brings Presidential Dining into Focus
The White House Historical Association has released the third edition of the acclaimed book, Official White House China: From the 18th to the 21st Centuries. Expanded by White House Curator William G. Allman to include 85 new illustrations and three chapters detailing the state china services released in the William J. Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama administrations. A participant
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Paul Jennings
Paul Jennings was born in 1799 at Montpelier, the Virginia estate of James and Dolley Madison. His mother, an enslaved woman of African and Native American descent, told him that his father was the local English trader Benjamin Jennings. While Paul had no documented relationship with Benjamin and probably never met him, he did adopt the ‘Jennings’ surname as his own. As a
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The Life of Eugene Allen
Eugene Allen served in the White House for 34 years. Assisting eight presidents, Allen’s top priority was to make the White House a comfortable residence for each chief executive and his family. Allen was born in 1919 on a plantation farm near Scottsville in central Virginia.1 During his youth, he worked as a waiter at a resort in Virginia and at a
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"A Well-Ordered Household"
One morning in early December 1802 a Federalist senator, just arrived from New Hampshire, was ushered into the President’s House with some fellow legislators. After a few moments “a tall highboned man” entered the room, wearing “an old brown coat, red waistcoat, old corduroy small clothes, much soild—woolen hose—& slippers without heels.” William Plumer later wrote a friend, “I thought this m
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The Life and Presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt
The gilded American bald eagle featured on the 2017 White House Christmas ornament is inspired by the eagle cartouche emblazoned on the speaker’s stand at President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s first inauguration, March 4, 1933. With his appearance at that stand, Roosevelt’s remarkable presidential journey began. Three future inaugurations lay ahead—1937, 1941, and 1945. This first of FDR’s inaugurations, however, was to be the las