White House History Profile picture
Sep 27, 2020 10 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Innovation has had a home in the Executive Mansion from its very beginning. So has mythology...

According to journalist Henry Louis (H.L.) Mencken, 1917 marked the 75th anniversary of the invention of the bathtub. (1/10)
His work commemorating the occasion, originally published in The New York Evening Post, was titled “A Neglected Anniversary” because no one seemed to bother acknowledging such an important American innovation. (2/10)
Mencken provided a persuasive and seemingly accurate account of how Adam Thompson created the bathing appliance in 1842 in Cincinnati, Ohio. (3/10)
According to the story, Millard Fillmore "risked a plunge” in the new invention while traveling in Ohio as vice president and became so enthralled with the tub that he demanded one be installed in the White House after he became president in 1850. (4/10)

Image: @WhiteHouseHstry Image
But Mencken later admitted the narrative was a hoax: “My motive was simply to have some harmless fun in war days,” he commented in a 1942 edition of The Daily Sentinel." It never occurred to me that it would be taken seriously because it was packed full of absurdities.” (5/10)
Years later, however, Mencken “began to encounter my preposterous ‘facts’ in the writings of other men…They began to be cited by medical men as proof of the progress of public hygiene. They got into learned journals. They were alluded to on the floor of congress.” (6/10)
Alas, Mencken attempts to clarify his fabricated bathtub story did not make it disappear. (7/10)
A former Librarian of Congress gave credit to the story and President Harry S. Truman even used the story in an address in 1952. (8/10)
In celebration of Millard Fillmore’s birthday in 1977, one newspaper described Fillmore as “a statesman, scholar, patriot, and the finest plumber who ever lived in the White House.” (9/10)
The false tale even appeared in a television commercial in 2008. Despite H.L. Mencken’s clear denunciation of his spurious 1917 article, the myth of Millard Fillmore’s introduction of the “first” bathtub in White House history still persists. (10/10)

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More from @WhiteHouseHstry

Oct 18
Since 1817, President James Monroe's gilded bronze and mirrored plateau has impressed White House visitors.

Image: White House Historical Association Image
After the British burned the White House in 1814, President Monroe purchased Parisian furniture to refurbish the scorched Executive Mansion. Among the newly acquired furniture was the gilded centerpiece, made by the Parisian firm Denière et Matelin.

Image: White House Collection/WHHAImage
Described as "mat gilt with garlands of fruit and vines," Monroe's plateau featured 16 figures presenting wreaths and pedestals. It is accompanied by three baskets, a pair of urns, and stands, which remain today.

Image: White House Historical Association Image
Read 10 tweets
Jun 10
One of First Lady Edith Roosevelt’s White House legacies was the introduction of garden parties (pictured). Before becoming first lady, she held extravagant garden parties at the Roosevelt’s family home in Oyster Bay, New York.

📷: @SagamoreHillNHS Image
@SagamoreHillNHS Mrs. Roosevelt’s White House garden parties gained such traction that local papers announced that her inaugural party as “the first time in the history of the White House that the mistress of the mansion has given this kind of function.”

🖼️: White House Collection/WHHA Image
@SagamoreHillNHS With hundreds of guests attending her inaugural party, she wore an elegant white taffeta and organdy dress, trimmed with ruffles and lace. Pictured is Mrs. Roosevelt’s 1905 garden party on the South Lawn of the White House. 

📷: @librarycongress Image
Read 8 tweets
Mar 12, 2021
It’s #FirstLadyFriday, and today we’re highlighting the life of First Lady Jane Pierce, born in New Hampshire on this day in 1806.

Image: Library of Congress

1/7
Jane Appleton married Franklin Pierce in 1834, though she was uninterested in politics and the spotlight that came with it.

Image: White House Collection/White House Historical Association

2/7
Their marriage was marked by tragedy, as they had lost two young children before Pierce’s election to the presidency in 1852. Unfortunately, death followed them to the White House.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
Feb 27, 2021
Salvadore Catalano, a Sicilian-born sailor, became an American naval hero as a critical player in a secret mission during the First Barbary War.

A native of Sicily, his composure and knowledge of Tripoli Harbor were essential to the mission.

Image: Library of Congress

1/7
In one of the most courageous actions in American naval history, Catalano piloted the Intrepid for Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s destruction of the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor in 1804.

Image: U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection/U.S. Navy Photograph

2/7
The mission to destroy the USS Philadelphia was perilous. Pirates (also called Corsairs) on board the Philadelphia hailed Decatur, but it was Catalano who answered, buying time for the Intrepid crew to attach ropes to the Philadelphia to pull the vessels together.

3/7
Read 7 tweets
Feb 26, 2021
This #FirstLadyFriday, we recognize the many women who served as “surrogate” White House hostesses. Typically, first ladies are the wives of presidents, but daughters, nieces, sisters, daughters-in-laws, and friends have stepped into this significant role.

1/6
President Thomas Jefferson, whose wife, Martha, passed away nearly two decades before his inauguration, was the first president to be joined by surrogate hostesses at the White House.

2/6
His daughters, Martha Jefferson Randolph (pictured here) and Maria Jefferson Eppes, welcomed guests to the Executive Mansion, dined with visitors, and managed enslaved and free servants.

Image: Library of Congress

3/6
Read 6 tweets
Feb 25, 2021
After his farewell speech at the entrance to the White House on September 7, 1825, an emotional Marquis de Lafayette embraced President John Quincy Adams, signalling the end of his yearlong triumphant return to the United States.

Image: White House Historical Association

1/5
Originally intended as a four-month tour, the general’s visit stretched into a thirteen-month journey to all twenty-four states, and inspired patriotic celebrations and expressions across a young country during the waning days of the “Era of Good Feelings.”

2/5
President Adams could not allow the general to leave without one last celebration in his honor. Adams celebrated Lafayette’s September 6 birthday with a White House dinner.

Image: White House Collection/White House Historical Association

3/5
Read 6 tweets

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