Collection By Land, By Sea, By Air
Whether by hoof, air, waterway, road, or rail, the President’s access to reliable transportation is essential during their time in...
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Running water was introduced into the White House in 1833. Initially its purpose was to supply the house with drinking water and to fill reservoirs for protection against fire. An engineer named Robert Leckie built the system of reservoirs, pumps, and pipes that supplied the White House, and the Treasury, State, War, and Navy buildings with water. Very soon, a "bathing room" was established in the east wing to take advantage of the fine water supply. The room featured a cold bath, a shower, and a hot bath heated by coal fires under large copper boilers.
A hand pump, similar to the one depicted in this optical illusion disc, was used to get water into the White House bathing room in the 1830s.
Whether by hoof, air, waterway, road, or rail, the President’s access to reliable transportation is essential during their time in...
The computer, the car, space travel. These technologies, while seemingly old hat now, are examples of monumental technological advancement. Even...
Construction on the President's House began in 1792 in Washington, D.C., a new capital situated in sparsely settled region far...
Construction on the President’s House began in 1792. The decision to place the capital on land ceded by two slave st...
After 1802, James Hoban concentrated on his successful business partnership with Pierce Purcell in Washington, distancing himself from the politics and...
James Hoban's life is a memorable Irish-American success story. In his boyhood he learned the craft of carpenter and wheelwright,...
Pierre Charles L'Enfant selected the site for the President's House and proposed a grand palace four times larger than the...
The white marble walls of the Ground Floor corridor complement the vaulted ceiling arching gracefully overhead. Architect James Hoban installed...
When James Hoban set sail for America, and where he landed, are not certain. By 1785, Hoban was advertising his services...
To imagine what it was like here when the White House was being constructed in the 1790s, erase everything else...
Oscar De Priest’s election to Congress as a Republican representative from Chicago in 1928 created an interesting political and social di...
White House staff who lived at the President’s House during the nineteenth century, including enslaved and free African Americans, us...