Slavery in the President's Neighborhood: Press Album

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This photograph was taken at the unveiling of the Lafayette Park wayside exhibit on July 28, 2021. The three historical markers are situated at the northern entrance of the park along H Street and were created in partnership between the White House Historical Association and National Parks Service. Three waysides recount the history of the involvement of enslaved labor in the construction of the White House, the preservation and commemoration of the White House and Lafayette Square – including Jacqueline Kennedy’s actions to save the neighborhood from development – and the history of Lafayette Square as a site for demonstrations and protests. The markers include an audio-description tool for people who are visually impaired. Allison Shelley took this photograph for the White House Historical Association.

This painting by W.T. Carlton, also known as William Tolman Carlton, captures the moments before the Emancipation Proclamation took effect at midnight on Thursday, January 1, 1863. A group of enslaved people surrounds a crate with an older man at the center holding a large pocket watch as the group counts down the remaining time till New Year's Day. The crowd of figures is illuminated only by a torch at the right edge of the canvas, beside which is a print of the Emancipation Proclamation posted to the wall. At left is a doorway, beyond which is an illuminated cross and, in the doorway, stands the silhouette of a figure holding the Union flag. There is one white woman present, sitting left of the center, looking toward the black woman beside her. Across the bottom, Carlton has inscribed the title of the painting on connecting links of a chain. The original painting was a gift to President Abraham Lincoln in July 1864 and left the White House with First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln after his assassination. Its whereabouts are now unknown. The current version in the White House Collection is likely Carlton's first study and is not signed or dated and was acquired during the Richard M. Nixon administration. Carlton was born in Boston and spent much of his life in Dorchester, Massachusetts.

This photograph of William Andrew Johnson was taken in February 1937. William Andrew Johnson was born into slavery in the household of Andrew Johnson and brought to the Johnson White House to work as a free servant after his emancipation. In 1937, after being interviewed by journalist Ernie Pyle, William Johnson gained national recognition as the last surviving individual to be formerly enslaved by an American president. As a result, he was invited to the White House to meet President Franklin D. Roosevelt, where the president gifted Johnson a silver-headed, engraved cane. In this photograph, Johnson is pictured with the cane on the steps of the United States Capitol Building.

This photograph shows a plaque embedded in the mantelpiece of the Lincoln Bedroom. It reads, "In this room Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863 whereby four million slaves were given their freedom and slavery was forever prohibited in these United States." The Lincoln Bedroom is located on the Second Floor of the Executive Mansion.

This painting by George Peter Alexander Healy depicts four significant Union figures toward the end of the Civil War. In the cabin of the steamer River Queen are seated (from left to right) Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, President Abraham Lincoln, and Rear Admiral David D. Porter. The meeting took place in March 1865 on the James River in City Point, Virginia, less than a week before the fall of Petersburg, Virginia. According to Porter, the discussion flowed mostly between Lincoln and Sherman, which is reflected in all four subjects' body language. Sherman had previously sat for a portrait by Healy and commissioned the artist to paint the meeting, providing him with first-hand accounts by himself and Porter and even a diagram of the cabin. Born in Boston, Healy was a popular portrait painter who had sketched and painted Lincoln multiple times during his presidency.

This photograph of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in the recently restored Green Room was taken by Cecil Stoughton on February 12, 1963 during a reception to mark the centennial year of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, and granted freedom to enslaved people residing in Confederate states. The Green Room is located on the State Floor of the Executive Mansion. It was the first room named after the color of its textiles and has Federal-style furnishings. The elegant but relaxed parlor is used for small gatherings, interviews, and teas.

This photograph of President John F. Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy receiving guests in the Cross Hall during a reception to mark the centennial year of the Emancipation Proclamation was taken by Cecil Stoughton on February 12, 1963. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863, and granted freedom to enslaved people residing in Confederate states. Located on the State Floor of the White House, the Cross Hall runs the length of the Executive Mansion and offers views of the East, Red, Green, and Blue Rooms.

This 1866 engraving by Alexander Hay Ritchie is based on the 1864 painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. The widely circulated engraving depicts the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Cabinet Room of the White House, in what is now the Lincoln Bedroom. The Emancipation Proclamation was signed on January 1, 1863 and granted freedom to enslaved people residing in Confederate states. Those present were (from left to right): Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase, President Abraham Lincoln, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Interior Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of State William H. Seward, Postmaster General Montgomery Blair, and Attorney General Edward Bates.

This stereograph of the Jackson Statue was taken by Clark Mills in 1853. It shows the bronze statue of Andrew Jackson in President's Park. Dedicated in 1853, it was one of the first bronze statues cast in the country and the first equestrian statue in the world to be balanced solely on the horse's hind legs. The statue was cast by Mills with help from his enslaved apprentice, Phillip Reid.

This engraving of artist Clark Mills is undated. It shows the self-taught sculptor who was commissioned by the Jackson Monument Committee to create the Andrew Jackson equestrian statue in 1848;it was dedicated in 1853 in Lafayette Square. He made his casting in a temporary foundry on the Ellipse. It was the first bronze statue cast in the United States and weighs 15 tons. There, with the help of his enslaved apprentice Phillip Reid, he also cast an equestrian statue of George Washington that stands in Washington Circle on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

This painting of President Abraham Lincoln was created by R. D. Bayley. The painting depicts Lincoln showing abolitionist Sojourner Truth a bible gifted to him by African Americans from Baltimore, Maryland. Bayley completed the painting on October 29, 1864. The image of the painting is mounted on a cabinet card.

These porcelain serving pieces were made in the late 18th and early 19th centuries and used by early presidents. The Chinese export porcelain sugarbowl on the left was part of Martha Washington's personal china and bears her initials, as well as the names of the first states. The cup and saucer on the right were part of a service that James and Dolley Madison purchased from James Monroe, featuring a monogram designed by Mrs. Madison.

This color illustration depicts what the south view of the White House might have looked like while major construction was just completed. The House itself is intact but the lawn is full of mud and carts.