Today in History: The White House

Last Updated on August 17, 2021

Today in History–October 13–the Library of Congress features the White House, celebrating the date in 1792 when the first cornerstone was laid.  Learn more about the Executive mansion by visiting the Today in History section, then click the links below to access more stories and primary sources about the United States presidential home.

White House Expense List, Thomas Jefferson, April 19, 1809

Isometrical view of the Presidents House (map, circa 1857)

White House images from the Horydczak Collection

White House images from the Highsmith Archive

More White House images

White House historical newspaper coverage

19th-century magazine articles

• Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln The Atlantic Monthly Volume 18, Issue 109, November 1866
• The White House The Century Volume 27, Issue 6, Apr 1884
• From the White House to Little Rhody The Bay State Monthly Volume 1, Issue 4, Apr., 1884
• The White House Roof Manufacturer and Builder Volume 18, Issue 4, April 1886
• Abraham Lincoln. Life in the White House in the Time of Lincoln The Century Volume 41, Issue 1, Nov 1890
• Our Fellow Citizens in the White House The Century Volume 53, Issue 5, Mar 1897

Thirty-six years in the White House (Lincoln to Roosevelt) by Thomas F. Pendel, door-keeper 1902

The White House Cook Book 1900

Stories from America’s Library

• The Cornerstone Of The White House Was Laid
• Ten Suffragists Arrested While Picketing at the White House
• President Harding Installed a Radio in the White House

White House resources outside the Library

• The White House Building White House website
• What the White House Could Have Looked Like HouseFresh
• Did enslaved people build the White House? White House Historical Association
• Slavery and the White House White House Historical Association
• African Americans in the White House Documenting the American South
• Classroom Resource Packets White House Historical Association various
• The Story of the White House Scholastica grades 3-5

Related resources

• City Spotlight: Washington, D.C.
• Abolition in D.C.
• The Burning of Washington
• Cherry Blossoms
• Pennsylvania Avenue
• Washington Monument