White House History: Collection Set 4

White House

HISTORY COLLECTION 4, NUMBERS 19 THROUGH 25

White House History (ISSN 0748-8114) features articles on the historic White House, especially those related to the building itself and life as lived there through the years. The views presented by the authors are theirs and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the White House Historical Association.

The White House Historical Association is a nonprofit organization, chartered on November 3, 1961, to enhance understanding, appreciation, and enjoyment of the historic White House. Income from the sale of White House History and all the Association’s books and guides is returned to the publications program and is used as well to acquire historical furnishings and memorabilia for the White House.

Address inquiries to: White House Historical Association, 740 Jackson Place, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 www.whitehousehistory.org

Opposite: Plasterwork (detail) at Belcamp House in Dublin, Ireland. Its owner, Sir Edward Newenham, was inspired by the American Revolution, and built the first monument to George Washington on the Belcamp House grounds in 1778. Sir Edward corresponded with both President Washington and Benjamin Franklin.

C Copyright 2010 by the White House Historical Association.

ISBN 978-1-931917-09-4 Library of Congress Number 2009939895 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the White House Historical Association.

Printed in China.

Foreword The fourth volume in the collections of articles from White House History, the journal of the White House Historical Association includes thirty-nine articles from seven issues. They vary from biographical articles to various focus pieces on aspects of life in and the operations of the White House.

Our celebration of President Lincoln’s 200th year is in our two issues on his life and presidency. Both are included here. Notable in these issues are heretofore unpublished—and only recently found—photographs of the White House in Lincoln’s time.

They are very rare, giving us glimpses as through windows heretofore unknown, on the presidential enclave during the Civil War. Not always easy to pin down as to their precise dates, they fascinate us because of the details they show of a particular time while in the midst the White House is so unchanged.

Opposite: The Monroe Plateau (detail) in the State Dining Room is surrounded by a balustrade featuring classical figures balanced on spheres atop plinths, with reclining Bacchantes on either side.

Denière et Matelin, Paris, c. 1817.

The biographical articles also surround the White House years of President Eisenhower, who maintained a White House painting studio and pursued his oils devotedly. We also visit his childhood home, which was restored and made central to his presidential library in Abilene, Kansas, with his approval. The original architect of the White House, James Hoban, was given an entire issue, which is reprinted here. His role in the creation of the White House for George Washington was celebrated in Ireland and America, on the 250th anniversary of his birth. Articles from both countries explore his architecture and the architecture of Ireland that may have influenced him.

We visit the White House stables, which flourished during the first century of the White House. The kitchens are not overlooked in seven articles on the kitchens and presidential appetites. And we offer a series of articles on flowers, flower gardens, and floral decorations for state dinners and White House weddings, a special subject in White House life that began in about 1859, when the then-customary artificial wax flowers were removed and fresh flowers first introduced to White House vases. Old worries about flowers thinning the oxygen in the air and causing sickness seem at that time to have been discarded. The White House has been filled with flowers ever since.

William Seale Editor, White House History

W H I T E HOU SE

H ISTORY COLLECTION 4, NUMBERS 19 THROUGH 25

PRESIDENTIAL HORSES • NUMBER 19 8

Foreword

William Seale

10

Presidents as Horsemen

William B. Bushong

26

Arlington’s Ceremonial Horses and Funerals at the White House

Claire A. Faulkner

46

Andrew Jackson’s Constitution Carriage

Marsha Mullin

56

Ten Notable Horses

Gwendolyn K. White

WHITE HOUSE KITCHENS AND COOKING • NUMBER 20 64

Foreword

William Seale

66

Kitchen Past: Thoughts on Open Hearth Cooking for the Presidents

Alice Ross

72

A Look at the White House Kitchens

Lydia Barker Tederick

92

My White House Years

Roland Mesnier

112

Preparation of the Menu for the Prince of Wales Dinner in 2005

Cristeta Comerford

126

White House Wines

Daniel Shanks

134

Home Cooking in the White House

Barbara Haber

146

A Bit of Architectural History Comes In from the Cold

William G. Allman

PRESIDENT EISENHOWER’S WHITE HOUSE • NUMBER 21 154

Foreword

William Seale

156

Dwight David Eisenhower: The First Television President

Martha Joynt Kumar

170

“She’s Making Maturity Glamorous”: Mamie Eisenhower’s White House Style

Edith Mayo

182

President Eisenhower: Painter

Sister Wendy Beckett

192

The Eisenhower Family Home in Abilene, Kansas

Dennis Medina

202

“Proud Housewife”: Mamie Eisenhower Collects for the White House

Melissa Naulin

220

“In the Goodness of Time”: Creating the Dwight David Eisenhower Room at Blair House

Candace S. Shireman

230

Discovered: An Unknown Brady Portrait of President James K. Polk and Members of His Cabinet

Clifford Krainik

JAMES HOBAN: ARCHITECT OF THE WHITE HOUSE • NUMBER 22 236

Foreword

William Seale

238

James Hoban: Builder of the White House

William Seale

252

“The Second City in the British Dominions”: Dublin in the Later Eighteenth Century

Holger Hoock

266

White House Irish Counterparts

Desmond Guinness

282

Imagining James Hoban: Portraits of a Master Builder

William B. Bushong

292

George Washington’s Bow Window: A Lost Fragment of White House Precedence Comes to Light in Philadelphia

Edward Lawler Jr.

296

Four Places in Hoban’s Dublin: A Twenty-First Century Photographer’s View

Bruce White

WHITE HOUSE FLOWERS: EMBELLISHING THE PRESIDENT’S TABLE • NUMBER 23 324

Foreword

William Seale

326

First Lady Edith Kermit Roosevelt’s “Colonial Garden” at the White House

Mac Keith Griswold

340

James Monroe’s White House Plateau: “A perfect riot of festooned railings and graceful figures”

Melissa Naulin

356

Flowers for the President’s Table: State Dining Room Splendor

Nancy Clarke

370

White House Brides and Envisioned Flowers: Two Nineteenth-Century White House Weddings With an Album of other White House Brides

Margaret Huddy

382

“The Most Beautiful Things”: Gifts from France in the Roosevelt White House

Amy Verone

LIFE IN THE LINCOLN WHITE HOUSE: PART ONE • NUMBER 24 390

Foreword

William Seale

392

Tad Lincoln and His Tutor Alexander Williamson

Elizabeth Smith Brownstein

402

Music in Lincoln’s White House

Elise K. Kirk

414

Photographs of the Lincoln White House

Lydia Tederick

432

A Gallery of Individuals, Major and Minor, from Lincoln’s Time in the White House

444

The Locomotive Tea Set: A Gift from France

John H. White Jr.

LIFE IN THE LINCOLN WHITE HOUSE: PART TW0 • NUMBER 25 450

Foreword

William Seale

452

Abraham Lincoln’s White House

Harold Holzer

466

The Other White House

William Seale

490

The White House and Lincoln’s Assassination

Anthony S. Pitch

504

The Lincoln Bedroom: Refurbishing a Famous White House Room

William G. Allman

512

Photographs of Indian Delegates in the President’s “Summer House”

Clifford Krainik and Michele Krainik

518

About the Authors

520

Index