Exploring The White House Inside America S Most Famous Home

#1 New York Times bestselling author Kate Andersen Brower shares a special inside look into the most famous home in America—and the lives of hardworking staff members and first ladies who’ve maintained it. Have you ever wondered what exactly goes on inside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? Sure, the president of the United States works and resides there, but do you know who helps keep this historic house running? It’s no simple task, especially when there are important state events and foreign dignitaries—in addition to presidential pups, mischievous children, and even a couple of ghosts. And its Residence workers and first ladies make sure everything is in check and running smoothly. Featuring fascinating photos, fun facts, and memorable quotes from the residents and first ladies of the White House, Exploring the White House: Inside America's Most Famous Home is the perfect read for any curious kid!

Explore the White House upstairs and down, experience great historical events, and share informal moments with the nation's first families. Over 200 photographs and illustrations, including floor plan.

In collaboration with the White House Historical Association, National Geographic presents this authoritative overview of America's first home featuring never-before published stories and photographs. Organized by theme, discover what makes the White House tick--from its beginnings to the modern day, from the architecture, to the staff, to the first families. Learn fascinating details of the real-life Downton Abbey staff who run this grand home. Marvel at the elaborate detail that goes into hosting a state dinner. Meet the beloved pets who've inhabited 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Read about celebrity visitors, the media, and the security so critical in today's world. Sidebars contain tidbits of rare information, and an appendix includes an illustrated time line of all White House First Families as well as a complete index. Photos include intimate and candid glimpses of life inside the White House--some never before seen, others long forgotten, and most never displayed in such large format.

An irresistible chronological overview of daily life in the presidential residence. Divided into 42 chapters representing each succeeding administration, this survey is brimming with fun facts, tantalizing tidbits, and memorable anecdotes detailing two centuries of domestic bliss and strife in the White House. From George Washington, who chose the sight and initiated work on the presidential mansion, to Bill Clinton, whose well-documented White House escapades titillated and scandalized the nation, each individual president has contributed to the mystique of the most readily recognized home in the U.S. Together with scores of drawings, portraits, and photographs, the breezy text chronicles the significant physical, social, and emotional changes wrought by each First Family as they sought to personalize daily life in the White House.

This unrivaled story of political ambition and technical skill chronicles the biggest home-improvement job the nation had ever seen in 1948 when President Harry Truman, after almost falling through the ceiling in a bathtub, decided to rebuild America's most famous historic home. 40,000 first printing.

#1 New York Times Bestseller “A revealing look at life inside the White House. . . it’s Downton Abbey for the White House staff.”— The Today Show A remarkable history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas. America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. In her runaway bestseller, former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain on the world’s most famous address. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First Family. These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion’s 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases, and prepare everything from hors d’oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level’s basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love. Combining incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with scores of White House staff members—many speaking for the first time—with archival research, Kate Andersen Brower tells their story. She reveals the intimacy between the First Family and the people who serve them, as well as tension that has shaken the staff over the decades. From the housekeeper and engineer who fell in love while serving President Reagan to Jackie Kennedy’s private moment of grief with a beloved staffer after her husband’s assassination to the tumultuous days surrounding President Nixon’s resignation and President Clinton’s impeachment battle, The Residence is full of surprising and moving details that illuminate day-to-day life at the White House.

The White House for Kids provides an intriguing, in-depth history of the White House and its role as a home, an office, and a powerful symbol of the United States, making it a unique resource for kids visiting Washington D.C. with their family or class and those studying American history, presidential history, and American government. Through numerous primary sources and kid-friendly anecdotes, the history of the building is detailed including the many renovations and redecorations made over the years, and the daily lives of the White House’s inhabitants are illuminated including presidents and their families as well as the enormous staff that makes the White House run smoothly. Kids will learn that George Washington never slept in the White House and Abraham Lincoln never slept in the Lincoln Bedroom; why the Trumans had to move out of the White House for three years during Harry Truman’s presidency; which president’s daughter held her high school prom in the White House; the evolving layout of floors and rooms including today’s, and much more. Crosscurricular activities allow readers to walk in the footsteps of presidents and those around them. Readers can play key passages of “Hail to the Chief” and practice signing a bill the way presidents do, as well as make White House Punch and re-create an aerobic game designed for President Hoover. Katherine House was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in nearby Arlington, Virginia. She is the author of Lighthouses for Kids and has written articles about US and Iowa history for children’s magazines including AppleSeeds, Cobblestone, and the Goldfinch.

Formerly known as the President’s House, then the Executive Mansion, and now for a long time the White House, this famous structure has a fascinating architectural history of ongoing change. The white painted façade of James Hoban’s original structure has been added to and strengthened for more than 200 years, and its interior is a repository of some of America’s greatest treasures. Artists such as Benjamin Latrobe, Pierre-Antoine Bellangé, the Herter Brothers, Louis Tiffany, Charles McKim, Lorenzo Winslow, Stephane Boudin, Edward Vason Jones, and a host of others fashioned interiors that welcomed and inspired visitors both foreign and domestic. This meticulous history, featuring more than 325 photographs, diagrams and other illustrations, captures each stage of the White House’s architectural and decorative evolution.