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 Notable in these issues are heretofore unpublished—and only recently found—photographs of the White House in Lincoln’s time.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