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Turning Points at the White House: Great Expectations
Read Digital Version Foreword, William SealeThe First Ladies as Scene Builders: An Artist’s Gallery of Changes at the White House, Lauren McGwin, illustrated by Peter WaddellCreating a Room of its Own: The Evolution of the White House China Room, Melissa NaulinAn Artist’s Drawings for a New White House Piano: Dunbar Beck and the Art of the Nation’s Second
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LGBTQ+ Protests in Lafayette Square
Lafayette Square, the neighborhood just north of the White House, has long been the site of protests, marches, memorials, and celebrations for LGBTQ+ activists.1 Throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, segments of the American public have demanded equal treatment in the workplace, in healthcare, and at home, regardless of sexual orientation. Inspired and often excluded by other social movements, including
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An Essay on "Lafayette Square" by Peter Waddell
Peter Waddell's painting re-creates the historic square north of the White House in 1902, the year President Theodore Roosevelt remodeled the house. To the right of the White House, one can see that the conservatories have been removed from the roof of President Thomas Jefferson's west terrace. At the end of this terrace the Temporary Executive Office is under construction. It
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The Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square
The Dolley Madison House, a yellow structure on the corner of H Street and Madison Place in “The President’s Neighborhood” surrounding Lafayette Square near the White House, was built in 1818-1819 by Richard Cutts, a congressman from Massachusetts who was married to Dolley Madison’s sister Anna. The mortgage passed to President James Madison, and, after his death, to his wife
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Murder and Untimely Tragedy: The Haunting of Lafayette Square
Places believed to be "haunted" are often the setting of an assortment of numerous grisly stories. Lafayette Square, the area directly north of the White House, is frequently considered a "ghostly" site. Several gruesome tales contribute to its deservedly spooky reputation. The most harrowing occurrence is a legendary Washington, D.C. story involving murder, intrigue, lust, and revenge. On February 27, 1859,
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Andrew Jackson Statue, Lafayette Square
A slave helps craft this statue and the Capitol's statue of freedom... A statue of Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans occupies the center of Lafayette Square. Erected in 1853, it was the first bronze statue cast in the country and the first equestrian statue in the world to be balanced solely on the horse's hind legs. The sculptor,
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Lafayette Square
The 18th century uses of Lafayette Square included a family graveyard, an apple orchard, a racetrack, and a market. The federal government eventually purchased the land as part of the White House grounds and workers, including numerous enslaved African Americans, camped there during its construction. To create a grand avenue in front of the White House, President Thomas Jefferson ordered
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Ellen Arthur
Chester Alan Arthur’s beloved “Nell” died of pneumonia on January 12, 1880. That November, when he was elected vice president, he was still mourning her bitterly. His grief was the more poignant because she was only 42 and her death sudden. Just two days earlier she had attended a benefit concert in New York City—while he was busy with politics in Albany—a
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Dolley Madison
Dolley Payne was born on May 20, 1768, the third of Mary Coles and John Payne Jr.’s nine children.1 Dolley was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, where her parents briefly moved to establish a Quaker community before returning to Virginia. Although John Payne owned enslaved people during Dolley’s early childhood, he freed them in 1783. It is unknown where Dolley was
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Hannah Van Buren
Hannah Hoes was born on March 8, 1783 to Johannes Dircksen Hoes and Maria Quakenbush. Cousins in a close-knit Dutch community, Hannah Hoes and Martin Van Buren grew up together in Kinderhook, New York. Evidently he wanted to establish his law practice before marrying his sweetheart — they were not wed until 1807, when he was 24 and his bride just three months younger. Apparently th