Presidents and Animals rss

Rats in the White House: Pestering Tales of Barbara Bush in the Pool & Others

As First Lady, Caroline Harrison was perhaps the first genuine Domestic Goddess of the White House. Her grey hair and round figure belied her sharp wit, interest in history, progressive ideas on health and women’s equality, and activist personality. It… Read More ›

The Cool Cats of Coolidge (Cats in the White House, Part 6)

This article resumes the series begun last autumn on Cats in the White House, previous installments covering the Fillmore, Lincoln, Hayes and Theodore Roosevelt Administrations. Coolidge liked cats. But you’d never know it from popular history. It’s the startling vision… Read More ›

The Teddy Cats: Slippers & Quartz Roosevelt, (Cats in the White House, Part 5)

When Theodore Roosevelt succeeded to the presidency upon McKinley’s assassination in September of 1901, he brought not only his wife and five children but soon enough accumulated a breadth of other beings which constituted a bona fide White House zoo…. Read More ›

The Foreign Feline of President Hayes: First Siamese Cat in the U.S. (Cats in the White House, Part 3)

The cat who lived in the White House as part of the family of President Rutherford Hayes and his wife Lucy is particularly significant on two accounts. First, the relatively brief life and times of the cat were well-chronicled during… Read More ›

Jackie Kennedy’s Dogged Influence on JFK Jr. & Canine-Themed Homes

While yesterday’s article, The Dogs of Jackie O: Jackie Kennedy’s Lifetime of Canine Companions, detailed the First Lady’s life alongside a series of pooches during almost fifty of her sixty-four years, even after there were no longer four-legged friends in… Read More ›