This portrait of Montgomery Blair was competed by Thomas Sully in 1845. Montgomery was one of three sons of Francis Preston and Violet Blair, the first of the Blairs to reside in Blair House. Blair House is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Visiting diplomats and dignitaries stay at Blair House while on official visits with the White House and is historically where the president-elect and first family reside prior to taking the oath of office. Prior to his return home to Washington D.C., Blair was a real estate speculator and lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri. When he returned to Blair House, he started making renovations in 1855. Blair served as Postmaster General for President Abraham Lincoln from 1861 to 1864.

This portrait of James Blair was completed by Thomas Sully in 1843. Currently this portrait hangs in the Truman Study in Lee House. Lee House is a part of the Blair House complex, which is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The house has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Visiting diplomats and dignitaries stay at Blair House while on official visits with the White House and is also where the president-elect and first family reside prior to taking the oath of office. James Blair was one of Francis Preston Blair's three sons and the liveliest of them. He was a member of the Wilkes Expedition before becoming a businessman in San Francisco. Blair passed away in 1853 at age 33. After his death, his brother Montgomery Blair took charge of his estate to secure James' wife and children's financial future.

This is a portrait of Elizabeth Blair Lee completed by Thomas Sully in 1840. Blair Lee was the only daughter of Francis Preston Blair and Violet Gist Blair of the eponymous Blair House. Blair House is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Blair spent most of her time with her parents and shared her father's love of books and her mother's common sense. In 1843, at age 24, she married Samuel Phillips Lee. Thomas Sully was an American portrait artist who painted portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and many musicians and composers.

This is a portrait of Adm. Samuel Phillips Lee completed by Thomas Sully in 1845. Lee joined the Navy when he was 13 years old and rose in the ranks quickly. In 1843 Lee, then a lieutenant, married Elizabeth Blair. The couple resided in Lee House, next door to her family home, Blair House. Blair House is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Thomas Sully was an American portrait artist who painted portraits of Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and many musicians and composers.

This is a portrait of Mary Elizabeth Blair, completed by Thomas Sully in 1846. She was the second wife of Montgomery Blair after his first wife died during childbirth. When Montgomery and Mary Blair returned to Blair House, they moved back in with Montgomery's parents. Mrs. Blair had a very strained relationship with the elder Blairs. This led Preston Blair to build an attached house next to Blair House. The new house became what is now known as Lee House. Blair House is located across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House and has been used as the president's guest house since the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration.

This portrait of British actress Frances Anne Kemble, commonly known as Fanny Kemble, is by British-American painter Thomas Sully. Sully painted Kemble while she was visiting the United States and performing in various cities such as New York and Philadelphia. After a performance in Washington, D.C. in 1833, Kemble was presented to President Andrew Jackson at the White House. The provenance of this painting is hazy because Sully painted two portraits of her. The one in the White House Collection is presumed to have been given to Kemble, who then passed it on to her daughter, Frances. Born in Britain, Sully's family emigrated to the Charleston, South Carolina when he was still a child. He studied portrait painting with Gilbert Stuart as a young man and earned a reputation as a premiere portrait painter in his own right.