The 19th century White House in oil

Peter Waddell is an artist commissioned by the WH Historical Association to recreate rooms from the 19th century. Wow!

Thanks to Steven B for the link!

The Birth of a Nation

As part of a deeper look at silent film, I screened DW Griffith's epic The Birth of a Nation and noted that Lincoln's office is depicted. So I wrote a review for the Movies and TV page.

I also added a couple of new pictures in the last couple of days. Check What's New.

Blair more popular than Queen

As you might imagine, visitorship was up substantially for the weeks of the Queen's and PM's visits, about a 30% and 70% increase in page views respectively. But on the 17th, page views skyrocketed 600% from a usual of 4,000 to 25,000 in one day. "Yo, Blair" indeed.

Now if we could only get the Beatles to visit, followed by Jesus, we could solve that question once and for all too.

Open post: Secret staircase

In the previous post comments, visitor Chris wrote:

Hey, on an unrelated note, I have recently come into some information regarding a hidden staircase passage on the first floor.

Would you guys like to know where it is? I wasnt sure if that kind of thing is allowed here.

Yes! Assuming it is used by regular staff and not strictly by the Secret Service or something, I'm definitely interested. I'm aware of a basement mezzanine, eastward tunnel under the East Wing, and (I've suspected, at least) another small hidden staircase on the West side, but I don't have enough information about these to document them.

Entrance Hall

Time's WH Photo Blog had a nice image of PM Blair departing thru the Entrance Hall, which for some reason, I haven't found many good recent pictures. There is also an interesting one of the new Sit Room, but it seemed redundant with other new ones (ooh, how spoiled I am now!).

Open post: Kisses for My President

I noticed a post on a political blog about a presidential movie I'd never heard of: 1964's Kisses for My President, starring Fred MacMurray and Polly Bergen. Oh, I'm gonna have to check that one out. And, by the way, has anyone seen The Brady Bunch in the White House? We really need a review of that for the movies page.

Meanwhile, check out the "White House" tag on IMDB.

Situation Room

Not only did we get a good photo of PM Blair joining a meeting in the new teleconference room, Pete points out a good one of the ribbon-cutting for the new space.

UPDATE: Link to a new WH video on the Sit Room.