America's First Families: An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House
416America's First Families: An Inside View of 200 Years of Private Life in the White House
416Paperback
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Overview
Carl Sferrazza Anthony opens the door to the world's most famous residence to reveal life as it was actually lived there. He takes readers into the heart of loyalties and estrangements, and the emotional pressures that politics brings to bear upon the forty White House families, from their arrivals to their "notices to vacate." Readers will enjoy an unprecedented tour of the previously unseen private rooms as used and decorated by each family. Revealed too are the personal proclivities of the presidents and how their families both sustained them through public crises and were used for political advantage. They'll get a firsthand look at the preparations for White House weddings and other occasions; meet the parents and children of the presidents as well as eccentric relatives; and discover the patterns of working, resting, and relaxing that shaped the nuts and bolts of family life.
A magnificent combination of visual delights and insider information, America's First Families is an irresistible invitation to spend some time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780684864426 |
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Publisher: | Touchstone |
Publication date: | 11/02/2000 |
Series: | Lisa Drew Bks. |
Pages: | 416 |
Sales rank: | 644,446 |
Product dimensions: | 7.50(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d) |
Age Range: | 14 - 18 Years |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Some Uses of the Family Rooms
1. Yellow Oval Room
Ladies' toilette room under Jackson, probably also under Van Buren, Harrison, Tyler. Library under Fillmore. President's private study and family room from Lincoln to Truman. Study/family room under Lincoln, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover. Formal, private entertaining room since Eisenhower.
2. "Living Room"
"Extra" bedroom for presidential couples from Madison to Pierce. Bedroom for Abraham Lincoln, Mary Johnson Stover and her three children, May and Jessie McElroy (Arthur nieces), Russell and Mamie Harrison and their children, Quentin and Archie Roosevelt, Woodrow and Edith Wilson, Warren Harding, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon. Living room and study since the Fords.
3. "Master Bedroom"
Bedroom to the John Adamses, Jefferson, the Madisons, the Monroes (assumed), J. Quincy Adams, Jackson, Van Buren (assumed), the John Tylers (assumed), the Polks (assumed), the Taylors, the Fillmores (assumed), the Pierces, Buchanan, Mary Lincoln, the David Patterson [Johnson] family, the Grants, the Hayeses, the Garfields, Mary McElroy, the Cleveland daughters, the B. Harrisons, the T. Roosevelts, the Tafts, the Wilsons, the Hardings, the Coolidges, the Hoovers, Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, the Fords, the Carters, the Reagans, the Bushes, the Clintons; sitting room for Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman.
4. "Sitting Room"
Bedroom to Suzannah Adams and Louisa Smith, Tad Lincoln, Robert Johnson, nursemaid to children of Grover Cleveland, Eleanor Roosevelt, Bess Truman. Private study to Rutherford Hayes, Lou Hoover. Dressing room to Julia Grant, William Howard Taft, Grace Coolidge. Tearoomprivate receiving room to Mary Arthur McElroy. Private dining room to Woodrow and Edith Wilson. Clothes storage room for Florence Harding. Dressingsitting roomoffice to: Mamie Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson, Pat Nixon, Betty Ford, Rosalynn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Hillary Clinton.
5. "The Kitchen"
Bedroom to Eliza Johnson, Frances Cleveland, Lorena Hickok (friend of Eleanor Roosevelt), Margaret Truman. Sitting room to Minnie Doud. Nursery-bedroom to Benjamin Harrison grandchildren. Family kitchen since the Kennedys.
6. "The Dining Room"
Bedroom of William Henry Harrison; Willie Lincoln; Grover Cleveland, then shared with Frances Cleveland, then Cleveland alone; Robert and Mary Harrison McKee; McKinleys; Alice Roosevelt, then Ethel Roosevelt; Helen Taft; Eleanor Wilson; Calvin Coolidge Jr.; Louis Howe (FDR advisor) and his wife, Grace; Minnie Doud. Likely bedroom of Nellie Grant, Fanny Hayes, Molly Garfield, Nell Arthur. As a bedroom suite (together with present-day kitchen room), bedroom to Louisa Adams and niece Mary Hellen; Jack and Emily Donelson and their four children; Robert and Priscilla Tyler and their daughter Mary. Living room for Andrew Johnson family. Dining room since the Kennedys.
7. "Cosmetology Room"
Offices of Eleanor Roosevelt and Bess Truman. Painting room of Dwight Eisenhower. Nursery room for John F. Kennedy Jr. Study of Luci Johnson. Makeup, hairdressing, and barber room since the Nixons.
8. Bedroom A (west)
Bedroom for Willie Lincoln, Andrew Johnson and son Andrew Jr., Robert and Charlie Taft, Joseph Lash (friend of Eleanor Roosevelt), Reathel Odum (secretary to Bess Truman), John F. Kennedy Jr., Chuck and Lynda Johnson Robb and their daughter. Playroom for Amy Carter. Gymnasium for Reagans.
9. Hall Room
Room where Lincoln made public speeches from window. Schoolroom for Scott and Fanny Hayes. Bedroom for two Theodore Roosevelt family maids, then Maude Shaw, nurse to Kennedy children. Storage room for dresses of Lady Bird Johnson, Nancy Reagan.
10. Bedroom B (east)
Bedroom for Frederick Dent (father of Julia Grant); Chester Arthur; Mary Dimmick (niece of Caroline Harrison) and John Scott (father of Caroline Harrison); Kermit Roosevelt; Madge Wallace (mother of Bess Truman); Caroline Kennedy; Pat Nugent and Luci Johnson Nugent and their son; Tricia Nixon; Susan Ford; Amy Carter; Chelsea Clinton. Office of Nancy Reagan. Either bedroom A or B was used by Scott, Birch, the sons of Hayes, Garfield, and Taft.
11. The Queen's Bedroom
Formerly called the Rose, or Pink, Bedroom, this is a guest room, once the bedroom of Anna Roosevelt, for example. Before the 1902 renovation it was the usual bedroom for presidential private secretaries, which meant many male relatives, including sons of presidents.
12. The Queen's Sitting Room
An office for the secretary prior to 1902; Ruddy Hayes used it for his botany experiments, and Jim and Harry Garfield studied here.
13. Lincoln Sitting Room
Was used as a small bedroom and office space; it was Florence Harding's social office, for example.
14. Lincoln Bedroom
Once Lincoln's Cabinet Room, it was then the "Blue Suite" bedroom where, for example, Margaret Wilson lived. It became "the Lincoln Bedroom" under Truman.
15. Treaty Room
Was Cabinet Room in the Victorian age, became a study after the 1902 renovation, and was made into the "Monroe Room" by Lou Hoover, then "Treaty Room" under Kennedy. President's private study under Bush and Clinton.
Copyright © 2000 by Carl Sferrazza Anthony
Table of Contents
Introduction: Plain and Fancy | 13 | |
Part I | Entrances | |
1. | The First White House Family | 19 |
2. | The Family's First Day | 27 |
3. | A Home Within a Symbol | 37 |
Part II | Relationships | |
4. | The Spouse | 73 |
5. | The Children | 87 |
6. | The Grandchildren | 101 |
7. | The Parents | 121 |
8. | Extended Family | 141 |
Part III | Life in the White House | |
9. | Celebration and Ceremony | 167 |
10. | Well-Being | 197 |
11. | Faith | 217 |
12. | The Home Office | 231 |
13. | Pets and Pastimes | 241 |
14. | Recreation | 265 |
15. | Hospitality | 287 |
16. | Young Life | 307 |
17. | Looking the Part | 329 |
18. | Farewells and Reunions | 347 |
Appendix | Members of All the White House Families | 367 |
Bibliography | 385 | |
Acknowledgments | 397 | |
Index | 399 |