Featured The Life and Presidency of Harry S. Truman
The White House Historical Association’s 2018 White House Christmas Ornament honors Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president of the United St...
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This oil painting by artist Peter Waddell depicts a historical scene that occurred during John Quincy Adams' presidency. Adams liked to swim in the Tiber Creek, which ran to the south of the White House where Constitution Avenue is today.
The White House Historical Association2 of 18
This photograph of the South Lawn of the White House Grounds was taken around 1875. The South Portico of the Executive Mansion is clearly visible in the background, standing high above the ornamental gardens of the era and the first White House greenhouse (the small structure to the left), which was a relocated orangery.
Library of Congress3 of 18
This lithograph published in Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper in 1858 depicts the newly added White House Conservatory. In the print, presumably, is Harriet Lane, President James Buchanan's niece who served as White House hostess during his administration, standing in the Conservatory. The Conservatory was built during Buchanan's administration and stood on the grounds of what is today the West Colonnade and West Wing.
Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper4 of 18
This photograph of the White House Conservatory was taken by Frances Benjamin Johnston in 1889. The massive Conservatory contained houses dedicated to specific plants such as orchids, ferns, grapes, geraniums, roses, and camellias and even had a house only for the propagation of plants.
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This portrait photograph of First Lady Ida Saxton McKinley was taken as she sat in the White House Conservatory in 1900. Mrs. McKinley suffered from epilepsy and often took refuge from the public in the Conservatory because of the greenhouse's privacy and splendor.
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This 1890 photograph is of the fountain on the North Lawn of the White House surrounded by tubs of live plants borrowed from the conservatory during the warmer months. Bringing plants from the conservatory was intended to reduce costs, rather than tending to plants and shrubs that were permanently embedded in the lawn.
Collection of William Seale7 of 18
This photograph shows the north lawn and fountain as it looked around 1902 during the administration of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt had remodeled the White House in the Beaux-Arts style, including the exteriors. In the photograph, gardeners work to plant flowers around the fountain.
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The colonial East Garden was designed by First Lady Edith Roosevelt, and is shown here in 1904, shortly after its completion. The East Garden is now called the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden.
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Sheep are shown on the South Lawn of the White House ca. August 27, 1919. To encourage Americans to conserve resources for the war effort, President Woodrow Wilson replaced lawn mowers with a flock of sheep. Additionally, the flock's wool was auctioned off to raise funds for the Red Cross.
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This pair of photographs are two aerial views of the White House in the early 20th Century. The top view is from 1927 and shows First Lady Ellen Axson Wilson's gardens: to the left of the South Portico is the West Garden, to the right is the East Garden. Today the West Garden is known as the Rose Garden and the East Garden is known as the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden. The bottom image is from an unknown date.
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This a photograph of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's grandchildren, Eleanor Roosevelt and Curtis Roosevelt, or "Sistie" and "Buzzie", playing on a slide on the South Grounds of the White House in 1933.
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Men oversee the transplantation of a tulip poplar on the grounds right in front of the North Portico of the newly renovated White House in 1952. President Harry S. Truman oversaw the eponymously named Truman renovation from 1948 to 1952.
National Archives and Records Administration13 of 18
President Lyndon B. Johnson, accompanied by his wife, First Lady Lady Bird Johnson, and Superintendent of Grounds Irvin Williams, helps dig a hole for a willow oak planted in his honor in 1964. The willow oak was planted on the west side of the South Lawn near the Oval Office.
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This photograph shows President Lyndon Johnson's "Country Fair" on the South Lawn, which he brought to the White House in 1967. The small amusement park included rides, games, and farm animals.
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President Gerald R. Ford and his daughter Susan Ford survey the progress of construction on the new outdoor swimming pool on the South Grounds of the White House in 1975.
Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and Museum/NARA16 of 18
Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and President George H. W. Bush plant a little-leaf linden tree on the South Lawn of the White House in May 1991. She planted the tree to replace the one her father, King George VI, planted in 1937 that was lost in a storm in September 1990. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth's husband, and First Lady Barbara Bush observe the ceremony.
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum/NARA17 of 18
Bo, President Barack Obama's Portuguese water dog poses for a picture on the South Lawn of the White House in 2012.
Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy18 of 18
First Lady Michelle Obama is seen harvesting vegetables with schoolchildren in the White House Kitchen Gardens in 2013. Mrs. Obama started the garden in 2009 with the hopes of educating school-age children about the values of healthy eating, often enlisting their help and using the harvested vegetables in the White House kitchen and for State Dinners. The Kitchen Garden is located on the South Lawn of the White House Grounds.
Official White House Photo by Chuck KennedyAbout this Gallery
Today's White House grounds are a site to behold. What started as 85 acres of land chosen by George Washington, was refined and cultivated through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In 1933, the President's Park, and all national capital parks, were placed under the jurisdiction of the National Park Service. Daily and seasonal maintenance of the President’s Grounds is currently carried out by a dozen or so landscape architects, horticulturalists, and gardeners. It is to them and to the National Park Service that the president and the public alike are indebted for the well-manicured green spaces, magnificent trees, and many gardens full of flowers that lift the spirit and rest the soul in the heart of the nation’s capital.
The White House Historical Association’s 2018 White House Christmas Ornament honors Harry S. Truman, the thirty-third president of the United St...
Since 1878, American presidents and their families have celebrated Easter Monday by hosting an 'egg roll' party. Held on the South...
It's hard to imagine that it was something as casual as a lunch conversation between a newly elected president and...
Today's White House grounds are a site to behold. What started as 85 acres of land chosen by George Washington, was...
1850sJames Buchanan, at the urging of his niece and White House hostess Harriet Lane, added a wooden greenhouse on the...
The first really grand White House wedding was Nellie Grant’s. For this President and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant had th...
On July 12, 1957, Dwight D. Eisenhower became the first president in office to employ a helicopter in his transportation service. This...
1900sOne of Theodore Roosevelts earliest acts as President was to issue an order establishing the "White House" as the buildings...
President’s Park is approximately 80 acres of urban landscape surrounding the White House. A fence encloses the house, providing 18 acres of...
Few first ladies have been so attuned to the natural beauty inside and outside the White House as First Lady...
The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., has often been referred to as “The Nation’s Attic” for its vast holdin...
WASHINGTON, Monday—We came down to Washington yesterday evening to find the trees in bud, the fountains playing outside the Wh...