This beautiful collection of photographs recaptures the history of American home interiors. Filling almost every page are vivid pictures of historic rooms from across the country accompanied by enlightening descriptions.

The tasteful interlude: American interiors through the camera's eye, 1860-1917 (American decorative arts series)

History

William Seale

Europe

Praeger

Virginia's Executive Mansion

Designed by Alexander Parris and first occupied by Governor James Barbour in 1813, Virginia's Executive Mansion, the nation's oldest in continuous use, has been the Richmond home of the Old Dominion's governors for more than one hundred and ninety years. Virginia's Executive Mansion, by William Seale, is richly illustrated with historic photographs, paintings, and prints, as well as contemporary photographs.

Americas

Library of Virginia

President's House : A History. Two Volumes

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

White House Historical Association

After the Fire, issue #35 of White House History, marks the bicentennial of the burning of the White House, which took place on August 24, 1814. The fire calls up many stories-the flight of the President and Mrs. Madison, the published account of the slave youth, Paul Jennings, the presidential dinner consumed by the British officers, the javelins of fire. And, after the smoke cleared, and the worst was over, President Madison faced the question of what to do about the American capital now. The White House was a burnt-out shell. Rebuild it or not? Beauty had nothing to do with restoring the burned White House. When members of congress debated moving the capital further west, the alarmed administration called for "repairing" the public buildings, to anchor Washington where it was. Madison's colleagues achieved in congress a bill to rebuild. Proposals for improvements by the architect B. Henry Latrobe were noted, but, wrote Madison, "It will be best . . . not to deviate from the models destroyed." He summoned the original builder of the house, James Hoban. Work began at once. James Monroe came into the presidency in 1817 just in time to make only minute changes and the finished house was opened New Year's Day 1818, twenty-eight months after the fire. This issue of White House History revisits the burning and reconstruction of the White House from a variety of points of view, featuring individuals involved in the fire, rescues, dangers and aftermath, a little archaeology, and biography. In the auction inventory of Dolley Madison's possessions you will find the mementos she treasured from the great melodrama, of which she stands first in legend and memory.

White House History #35: After the Fire

The White House: the history of an American idea

American Institute of Architects Press

An Artist Visits the White House Past: Paintings By Peter Waddell

The White House Historical Association

In 2004, The White House Historical Association commissioned Tom Freeman, one of the most prolific painters of historical subjects in the United States, to paint a panoramic representation of the White House in flames at the hands of the British on the night of August 24, 1814. Freeman studied the literature, consulted with historians, and researched the British uniforms and the fire dynamics. He succeeded in bringing us back in time to the moments when the flames consumed a landmark at the symbolic heart of the young democracy-he captured the roaring orange flames made more ferocious in contrast with darkest indigoes of a stormy sky. We see the torches, the broken windows, the burning interiors, and collapsing roof. Two centuries later, we have become witnesses to the fire. Ten years after the original commission was made, as the bicentennial of the burning approached, the popularity of the painting inspired the association to return to the artist with a new commission-to expand his storytelling with pencil, paper, and a touch of watercolor in the orange flames. The resulting collection of images are presented here, as a commemorative account of The Night They Burned the White House.

The Night They Burned the White House - The Story of Tom Freeman's Painting

Collection 5 contains full-color reprints of thirty-three articles from five issues of White House History: At Work In The White House (Issue 26), The White House Neighborhood (Issue 27), Presidential Journeys (Issue 28), Special Spaces (Issue 29), and The Presidents And The Theater (Issue 30). Indexed.

White House History Collection 5 (Numbers 26-30)

America's Blair House welcomes the most powerful diplomatic and political officials in the world through its doors to enjoy its comforts and historical surroundings during their stay in Washington, D.C. Built in 1824 and purchased by the Blair family in 1836, it long served as a home-away-from-home for American presidents, such as Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. In 1942, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States government purchased the house and its historic contents for use as a guest house for official visitors to the White House. Since then the federal government and private contributors have made this a retreat of special charm and beauty, “very American,” as its visitors often say. This book takes you through the long history of the house, now a complex of buildings, and inside its rooms today, with their elegant mingling of antiques and present-day furnishings. Illustrated throughout with newly commissioned photography of objects and interiors by Bruce M. White and Durston Saylor. Published by the White House Historical Association.

Blair House:

This book is about the stones of the White House and the stonemasons from Scotland who created the finest stone carving in eighteenth-century America. The walls of the President's House are not silent if you look beneath the paint that makes them white and focus your attention on their placement, marks, scars, floral carvings, and varied shapes. Down the Potomac River, the Aquia quarry from which the stones came remains. Abandoned and apparently left as it was two centuries ago, it yields volumes to the eye about how hundreds of men transformed the raw outcroppings into building blocks.The stone walls they created are all that is left of the original White House. They remember great moments and the full succession of presidents. No one knows more about the White House than William Seale. His extensive knowledge gives form to the living history of the monumental building, supported by newly commissioned photography by Martin Radigan and Bruce M. White.

A White House of Stone: Building America’s First Ideal in Architecture

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Books by William Seale