Temples of democracy: The state capitols of the U.S.A

History

William Seale

Henry-Russell Hitchcock

Americas

Harcourt, Brace. Jovanovich

This beautiful collection of photographs recaptures the history of American home interiors. Filling almost every page are vivid pictures of historic rooms from across the country accompanied by enlightening descriptions.

The tasteful interlude: American interiors through the camera's eye, 1860-1917 (American decorative arts series)

Europe

Praeger

Although Sam Houston has been the subject 6f several biographies and· many historical articles, little attention has been paid to his third wife, whose enormous influence on the Liberator of Texas has never before been examined closely. In this first biography of Margaret Lea Houston, a remarkable woman is finally awakened from the historical sleep which has enveloped her for over a century.Alabama-born Margaret Lea was just a schoolgirl when she first saw Sam Houston arrive at New Orleans after the Battle of San Jacinto to have his wounds tended. "She later described having a premonition that she would some day meet Sam Houston," says· William Seale. "But she told that story many years later, after she had become his wife."For marry Sam Houston she did–in the face of strong opposition of family and friends and of Houston's friends and advisers. Twenty-six years younger than her husband, this protected child of a Baptist minister set out to change the life of the frontier hero. Aware that alcoholism and the sorrows of personal misfortune weighed upon him, she battled the former and sought to alleviate the latter.Her abiding faith in him, coupled with his unceasing devotion to her and to their children, is a central theme of this book. The author explores the personality of Margaret, the idealist whose absorption in religion often led her to melancholia, the reader of romances who was never able to come to terms with the Texas wilderness, the wife who strummed her guitar and wrote love poems during her husband's absences on affairs of state.This account of Sam Houston's wife, which presents details of the general's life not hitherto explored, is in addition a colorful picture of the time in which she lived. It is a realistic appraisal of Sam and Margaret Houston, to which the author has brought a fresh and sympathetic understanding. In writing the richly human story, he has made extensive use of unpublished manuscripts and original documents in private hands and public archives.

Sam Houston's wife: A biography of Margaret Lea Houston

University of Oklahoma Press

Virginia's Executive Mansion

Designed by Alexander Parris and first occupied by Governor James Barbour in 1813, Virginia's Executive Mansion, the nation's oldest in continuous use, has been the Richmond home of the Old Dominion's governors for more than one hundred and ninety years. Virginia's Executive Mansion, by William Seale, is richly illustrated with historic photographs, paintings, and prints, as well as contemporary photographs.

Library of Virginia

President's House : A History. Two Volumes

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

White House Historical Association

After the Fire, issue #35 of White House History, marks the bicentennial of the burning of the White House, which took place on August 24, 1814. The fire calls up many stories-the flight of the President and Mrs. Madison, the published account of the slave youth, Paul Jennings, the presidential dinner consumed by the British officers, the javelins of fire. And, after the smoke cleared, and the worst was over, President Madison faced the question of what to do about the American capital now. The White House was a burnt-out shell. Rebuild it or not? Beauty had nothing to do with restoring the burned White House. When members of congress debated moving the capital further west, the alarmed administration called for "repairing" the public buildings, to anchor Washington where it was. Madison's colleagues achieved in congress a bill to rebuild. Proposals for improvements by the architect B. Henry Latrobe were noted, but, wrote Madison, "It will be best . . . not to deviate from the models destroyed." He summoned the original builder of the house, James Hoban. Work began at once. James Monroe came into the presidency in 1817 just in time to make only minute changes and the finished house was opened New Year's Day 1818, twenty-eight months after the fire. This issue of White House History revisits the burning and reconstruction of the White House from a variety of points of view, featuring individuals involved in the fire, rescues, dangers and aftermath, a little archaeology, and biography. In the auction inventory of Dolley Madison's possessions you will find the mementos she treasured from the great melodrama, of which she stands first in legend and memory.

White House History #35: After the Fire

An Artist Visits the White House Past: Paintings By Peter Waddell

The White House Historical Association

In 2004, The White House Historical Association commissioned Tom Freeman, one of the most prolific painters of historical subjects in the United States, to paint a panoramic representation of the White House in flames at the hands of the British on the night of August 24, 1814. Freeman studied the literature, consulted with historians, and researched the British uniforms and the fire dynamics. He succeeded in bringing us back in time to the moments when the flames consumed a landmark at the symbolic heart of the young democracy-he captured the roaring orange flames made more ferocious in contrast with darkest indigoes of a stormy sky. We see the torches, the broken windows, the burning interiors, and collapsing roof. Two centuries later, we have become witnesses to the fire. Ten years after the original commission was made, as the bicentennial of the burning approached, the popularity of the painting inspired the association to return to the artist with a new commission-to expand his storytelling with pencil, paper, and a touch of watercolor in the orange flames. The resulting collection of images are presented here, as a commemorative account of The Night They Burned the White House.

The Night They Burned the White House - The Story of Tom Freeman's Painting

Collection 5 contains full-color reprints of thirty-three articles from five issues of White House History: At Work In The White House (Issue 26), The White House Neighborhood (Issue 27), Presidential Journeys (Issue 28), Special Spaces (Issue 29), and The Presidents And The Theater (Issue 30). Indexed.

White House History Collection 5 (Numbers 26-30)

This book is about the stones of the White House and the stonemasons from Scotland who created the finest stone carving in eighteenth-century America. The walls of the President's House are not silent if you look beneath the paint that makes them white and focus your attention on their placement, marks, scars, floral carvings, and varied shapes. Down the Potomac River, the Aquia quarry from which the stones came remains. Abandoned and apparently left as it was two centuries ago, it yields volumes to the eye about how hundreds of men transformed the raw outcroppings into building blocks.The stone walls they created are all that is left of the original White House. They remember great moments and the full succession of presidents. No one knows more about the White House than William Seale. His extensive knowledge gives form to the living history of the monumental building, supported by newly commissioned photography by Martin Radigan and Bruce M. White.

A White House of Stone: Building America’s First Ideal in Architecture

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Books by William Seale