Collection
Presidential and First Lady Portraits
First Ladies
Gallery
The Nixon White House: 1969-1974
Collection
The Nixon White House 1969 - 1974
Scholarship
Women's Groups and First Ladies' Portraits
Portraits have long served the purpose of connecting contemporary audiences to people of the past. Portraits not only depict the appearance of their subjects and the fashions of the time, but they provide insights about the artists and those who commissioned them. At the end of the nineteenth century, several women’s groups engaged in all steps of the process of
Scholarship
The Life and Presidency of Richard M. Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9, 1913, in Yorba Linda, California. The second of five sons, he graduated from Whittier College and Duke University School of Law and returned to California to practice law. Around this time, he met Patricia Ryan, and the couple began dating. They were married on June 21, 1940, and raised two daughters together—Patricia (called “Tricia”) and Julie.
Scholarship
Dan Jansen
Speed skater Dan Jansen’s gold medal victory is one of the most inspiring Olympic stories in American history. The four-time Olympian and seven-time World Cup champion won a gold medal in his final Olympic race in the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Jansen’s road to the gold was riddled with disappointments, family illness, and personal challenges, yet he pers
Scholarship
White House Hostesses: The Forgotten First Ladies
First ladies hold a unique place in American history. The collection of first ladies' gowns and artifacts remains one of the most popular exhibitions, visited by millions of annual visitors at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C..1 First ladies are the focus of documentaries, podcasts, books, and scholarly works that examine their lives and contributions
Scholarship
Sugar, Slavery, and the Washington China
Upon stepping into the White House China Room, visitors encounter tableware from nearly every presidential administration or first family. Tucked into one of the impressive glass display cases is a small, porcelain sugar bowl. To many viewers, the bowl may seem like an ordinary piece of White House tableware. But what if a bowl could tell a bigger story? A
Scholarship
Lyndon B. Johnson: Forgotten Champion of the Space Race
The hot Florida sun beat down on a crowd gathered at Cape Kennedy on July 16, 1969. As the Apollo 11 mission blasted off and climbed through the blue sky, on its way to land the first astronauts on the moon, a former president stood in the viewing stands. Looking up into the sky, Lyndon Baines Johnson watched intently as a long-awaited and