Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The ghost of White House past

Christina R sent a link to Google's scan of Esther Singleton's The Story of the White House, a 1907 two-volume examination of the history of the executive mansion (the link goes to volume 2). The image scans aren't good enough to make use of here, but most are well-known LOC images. Still, it would be nice to get hold of a copy by honest means.

She also mentioned how nice it would be to get color photos of Mamie Eisenhower's bedroom. And it occured to me that, as proud a woman as she was, photos probably do exists. With the release of the new photos on the Eisenhower Library site, maybe we'll eventually see ones of the bedrooms too. Then it occured to me that it would really be something if the WHHA worked with the Ike Library to create a "retro" An Historic Guide, seeing as how the Eisenhowers just missed having one. There are apparently enough good color photos after all. They might even be able to do Truman and FDR eras.

UPDATE: Found a cheap copy on Alibris.

5 comments:

  1. I would also like to see photos of the Master Bedroom and Living Room released from the Clinton and Bush 2 Administrations. If there are photos around, I've never seen them.

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  2. Those are pretty well not released yet. Probably because it might bring to light some sleeping arrangements they don't want revealed. LOL>

    Steve. St. Louis
    www.pinkpillbox.com

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  3. That thought had crossed my mind....

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  4. There was a comment on the blog a while back - can't remember who posted it - that outlined the next few upcoming issues of WHITE HOUSE HISTORY (the White House Historical Association's journal). They mentioned that there would be an issue devoted to the Eisenhower White House. Perhaps there will be color photos of the living quarters in that?

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  5. The more I think about it, I really like Derek's idea of a retro White House Guide Book. There's a good start with the Nat'l Geographic photos from 1961, but there should be many more.

    It's interesting to note that the Ike and Mamie rooms were short lived, from 1952 to JBK.

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