Meet Abby Gunn Baker – the woman responsible for the creation of the White House China Collection. In 1901, Baker was tasked with turning public opinion toward preservation by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham after he discovered previous presidential State Services had been discarded.

📷: White House Historical Association To combat the poor preservation of the State Services, Colonel Bingham asked Baker to write a scholarly article on the subject, which led her to spend four months studying the remaining presidential china in the White House.

First Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s iconic hairdo was the work of renowned salon owner Elizabeth Arden. Though Mrs. Eisenhower sported the hairstyle since the 1920s, it was perfected at Arden’s Paris salon while she and General Dwight Eisenhower lived abroad during the 1940s.
When Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election, Arden offered to dispatch a hairdresser to Washington to help the new first lady style her “precious, much discussed bangs.” Mrs. Eisenhower graciously accepted the offer.

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

Image: White House Historical Association 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/WHHA

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 @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

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

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

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

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

Vice President John Tyler, a former Democrat from Virginia, ascended to the presidency as a member of the Whig Party following the death of President William Henry Harrison in 1841. (1/6)

Image Credit: Bureau of Engraving and Printing As president, Tyler vetoed a bill to recharter the Second Bank of the United States, along with several bills proposed by fellow Whigs and sponsored by Henry Clay, a prominent Whig member of the U.S. Senate. (2/6)

Image Credit: Library of Congress

Upon moving into the White House, each president redecorates the Oval Office to make it their own. The president’s desk is perhaps the most important piece of furniture chosen for the room. (1/8)

Image Credit: White House Historical Association Many American presidents have elected to use historical White House desks for their workspace. (2/8)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was an avid collector of stamps, coins, first edition books, and naval art. (1/12) While he is best known for his stamp collecting, President Roosevelt also amassed a collection of over 400 model ships throughout his lifetime and displayed many of them at the White House. (2/12)

Image Credit: Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library & Museum / NARA

The Resolute desk is one of the best-known objects in the White House, having been used by many presidents as their Oval Office desk. A brass plaque on the desk reads: (1/6)

Image Credit: White House Historical Association “The H.M.S. Resolute, forming part of the expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852, was abandoned in Latitude 74º 41' N. Longitude 101º 22' W. on 15th May 1854.” (2/6)

Following the British burning of the White House in 1814, the house was reconstructed quickly. When President James Monroe moved into the unfinished White House in October 1817, he was tasked with refurnishing the residence. (1/12) To demonstrate the grandeur and power of the young nation, Monroe sought many elegant pieces including French-made clocks, mirrors, a china dinner service, and perhaps most famously, the fifty-three-piece set of Bellangé furniture for the Oval Room (today’s Blue Room). (2/12)

Pictured below is the portrait of Hayne Hudjihini, or Eagle of Delight, painted by Charles Bird King. (1/6)

Image Credit: White House Historical Association Hudjihini was a member of the Eagle clan of the Jiwere-Nut’achi, or Otoe-Missouria, tribe located in the Great Lakes Region near present-day Nebraska, and the wife of Chief Sumonyeacathee of the Otoe-Missouria Bear clan. (2/6)

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)

Abraham Lincoln maintained an open-door policy throughout his presidency, inviting visitors from all walks of life to meet with him at the White House. (1/5)

Image Credit: Library of Congress In 1864, Sojourner Truth—a former slave, renowned abolitionist, and women’s rights activist—decided to make the long journey from Battle Creek, Michigan, to the nation’s capital to speak to the president. (2/5)

Image Credit: Library of Congress

During her first visit to the United States in 1951, Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) presented a late 17th century overmantel to President Truman. (1/7)

Image Credit: Harry S. Truman Library & Museum/Abbie Rowe, National Park Service The overmantel, a still life sitting on top a mirror with a gilded frame, was gifted to President Harry S. Truman on behalf of her father, King George VI. (2/7)

Image Credit: Library of Congress

On December 17, 1914, a solitary American Indian on horseback arrived at the White House after a journey of some 3,000 miles. His name was Red Fox James and he came from the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana. (1/6)

Image Credit: Library of Congress The journey began on March 30. Red Fox James was riding a white pony named Montana that was said to be “the last of a strain of real Indian ponies from a noted outlaw horse known as Tombstone.” (2/6)

Today, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial will be publicly unveiled to the world. Situated between the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum and the Department of Education, the site reflects different elements of Eisenhower's legacy as an Army general and as president. (1/11) In honor of the memorial's unveiling, enjoy this gallery of photographs from the Eisenhower White House. (2/11)

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act, also known as the draft, on September 16, 1940, in the Oval Office. (1/6)

Image Credit: U.S. Department of Defense While the United States previously implemented wartime conscription during the American Revolution, the Civil War, and World War I, the Selective Training and Service Act established the nation’s first peacetime draft. (2/6)

When Thomas Jefferson moved into the President’s House in 1801, he was quick to make many changes and additions to the Executive Mansion. Among them was an ice house, a primitive method of refrigeration. (1/7)

Image: White House Collection During the winter, ice and snow would be cut from rivers and lakes and taken to the ice house, where the blocks were packed with sawdust or straw to act as insulation. This allowed the White House to serve cold dishes throughout the summer. (2/7)