Please note that the following is a digitized version of a selected article from White House History Quarterly, Issue 72, originally released in print form in 2024. Single print copies of the full issue can be purchased online at Shop.WhiteHouseHistory.org No part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. All photographs contained in this journal unless otherwise noted are copyrighted by the White House Historical Association and may not be reproduced without permission. Requests for reprint permissions should be directed to rights@whha.org. Contact books@whha.org for more information. © 2024 White House Historical Association. All rights reserved under international copyright conventions.
foreword On the Move on the morning of May 16, 1978, White House History Quarterly subscriber number 1984 walked across Pennsylvania Avenue and through Lafayette Park to the McPherson Square Metro Station and boarded the subway. Riding nine stops to D.C. General Hospital, she donned a smock and helped to lay on a fresh coat of paint to brighten the emergency room. This subscriber was First Lady Rosalynn Carter, who, although she would have been welcome to complimentary copies, chose to support the Association’s scholarly journal (which she had shipped to Plains, Georgia) from its earliest days with her personal checks. Likewise, although an official car and driver were always available, she chose to express her support for the city’s ambitious new subway system by buying her own farecard and boarding a train, surrounded by ordinary commuters. The photos that follow of her trip on the Metro are a fitting opening to this “On the Move” issue, a collection of stories of the historic journeys made by both people and things to and from the White House. Historian Alan Capps opens the issue with the story of the first large-scale move of the President’s House, when the presidential household furnishings set sail from Philadelphia to the City of Washington. Capps traces the dangerous water route taken around the Delmarva Peninsula by ships carrying everything from tables and chairs to china and carpets bound for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Less is known about the details of many other early moves to and from the White House. Historian Matthew Costello and White House Associate Curator Melissa Naulin explain the value of collaboration in scholarly research and tell of their recent work to discover more about the objects the Lincoln family likely carried from the White House to the Soldiers’ Home to furnish their summer retreat. This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of perhaps the most celebrated early visitor to the White House, the Marquis de Lafayette, a hero of the American Revolutionary War. Sailing to New York from France in 1824 at the invitation of the United States Congress, Lafayette visited President
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James Monroe’s White House and undertook a thirteen-month journey to all twentyfour states. Richard Grimmett shares the story. An early family visit to the White House is recalled by historian Zacharie Kinslow, who studies the letters of Joanna Rucker. In 1845, Rucker made a ten-day 600 mile journey from Tennessee to Washington, D.C., for a long stay with her aunt First Lady Sarah Polk. She stands beside her in the famous group photograph set on the South Portico that includes past, present, and future first ladies and presidents. Historian Estill Pennington reminds us of a more complicated family reunion in the Civil War–era White House. When President Abraham Lincoln asked that his sister-in-law Emilie Todd Helm, widow of a Confederate general, be sent to him, the northern loyalties and southern sympathies of his extended family drew public attention. Author Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., looks at the complications brought by another era, Prohibition. When President Woodrow Wilson sought to move his collection of wine out of the White House, what would have been a simple trip across town required special permission from the Prohibition commissioner. Historian Clifford Krainik takes us to a palatial Beaux-Arts home on Charleston’s South Battery and shares the story of socialite Daisy Simonds’s ambitions to benefit from the publicity generated by a visit from the unsuspecting President Theodore Roosevelt. Following the visit, her Villa Margherita would in fact become known as “The Southern White House.” The first solo visit by a presidential spouse to an active combat zone is recounted by historian Mary Jo Binker, who follows Eleanor Roosevelt on her twenty-two-stop trip through the South Pacific in 1943. As a Red Cross delegate, she would visit Red Cross facilities and make recommendations for what the soldiers needed. Determined to see the situation for herself, Mrs. Roosevelt, earning the nickname “Public Energy No. 1,” tirelessly endured danger, physical hardships, and political criticism as she met and comforted thousands of U.S. troops. The experience would shape her future determination to help create a more peaceful world.
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Author Emma O’Kane goes behind-the-scenes to tell the story of a move made inside the White House itself, when, in November 1992, a crane pulled into the North Drive and the first dedicated White House Pastry Shop was soon to became a reality. And Sarah Thomson tells the story of the move of an entire pub from Ballyporeen, Ireland, to Simi Valley, California, where it was installed and is now back in business in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
For our Presidential Sites feature we go to Blair House, The President’s Guest House, which celebrates its two-hundredth anniversary this year. Author Frederick Edward Jordan shares the little-known story of his father Lewis Jordan, the first interior designer for the house after it was acquired by the United States government. Jordan was so modest he was rarely photographed, but his work received the personal approval of President Franklin Roosevelt.
marcia mallet anderson editor, white house history quarterly
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When Mrs. Carter rode the Metro in May 1978, the system was just two years old. To travel from the White House to D.C. General Hospital, she boarded the train at McPherson Square and traveled nine stops on the Blue Line to the Stadium-Armory station.
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previous spread, opposite and right Scenes from First Lady Rosalynn Carter’s Metro ride to D.C. General Hospital, where she volunteered to help with a beautification and rehabilitation project at the aging facility. She can be seen using her farecard to pass through the subway system gates, waving at commuters as she rides the escalator after exiting the train, and painting the walls at the hospital.
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