What Happens in the White House?

—Curriculum Unit Overview—

Whatever one's opinion of the original design, our nation is now inseparably associated with the White House. There, the essential business of the land is conducted every day. There, our history has been made and reflected.

In this unit, students take a close look at the White House in recent times and throughout our history.

Note: This lesson may be taught either as a stand-alone lesson or as a complement to the EDSITEment curriculum unit From the White House of Yesterday to the White House of Today.

Guiding Questions:

What functions does our presidential residence serve?

How has the White House been touched by the great events of our nation's history?

Learning Objectives

• List activities that take place at the White House.
• Create a chronology of important events that have occurred at or directly affected the White House.

• Review the lesson plans. Locate and bookmark suggested materials and other useful websites. Download and print out documents you will use and duplicate copies as necessary for student viewing.
• Download the blackline master for this unit, available here as a PDF file. Print out and make an appropriate number of copies of any handouts you plan to use in class.
• Download and make one copy each of the archival images for the activity in Part 2, below. Many images have been selected to facilitate flexibility. Use as many or as few as appropriate. Assign them to groups as best suits your class. Keep some aside, for example, for groups that finish more quickly, or use all of them to make groups as small as possible.
• Prepare a place in the classroom for a History of the White House Timeline, on which you will post the images from Part 3, below. You or your students with technical expertise may wish to create an html document with links to relevant images.
• Extensive background information on every aspect of the White House is available from the White House Historical Association, a link from the EDSITEment resource Explore DC.

Lesson One: What Happens in the White House?

Lesson Two: What Has Happened in the White House?

Lesson Three: History and the White House: A Timeline

• Africans in America [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/home.html]
• Indian Removal
  [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html]
• American Memory [http://memory.loc.gov/]
  • A view of the Presidents house in the city of Washington after the
    conflagration of the 24th August 1814
    [http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a10000/3a10000/3a10200/
    3a10222v.jpg]
  • President's Levee, or all Creation going to the White House,
    Washington,
    [March 4, 1829]
    [http://memory.loc.gov/rbc/rbcmisc/pin/pin1104/1104001v.jpg]
  • Small Image and Brief Background (President's Levee)
    [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/pin:@field(NUMBER+
    @band(rbcmisc+pin1104))]
  • Adams Letter, May 15th , 1800, ordering relocation to
    Washington, D.C.
    [http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mcc/071/0001.jpg]
  • Adams Letter: Small Image and Information
    [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/mcc:@field
    (DOCID+@lit(mcc/071))]
  • Today in History: October 13
    [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/oct13.html]
  • Women suffragists picketing in front of the White House
    (February 1917)
    [http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a30000/3a32000/
    3a32300/3a32338v.jpg]
  • Indian Delegation at White House
    [http://gowest.coalliance.org/cgi-bin/imager?10033904+X-33904]
  • American Memory: Sources
    [http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/today/sources.html]
  • PBS History
    [http://www.pbs.org/neighborhoods/history/#us]
  • American Experience: Chronology of U.S. Military Actions and Wars
    [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/warletters/timeline/]
  • The White House
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/]
  • Dolley Madison
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/firstladies/dm4.html]
  • Family Life in the White House
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/familylife.html]
  • Life in the White House (includes links to all video tours)
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/kids/whlife/]
  • Life in the White House
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/]
  • Tour the Oval Office with President Bush
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/life/ovaloffice.v.html]
  • White House History
    [http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/facts.html]
  • White House for Kids
    [http://www.whitehousekids.gov/]
• American President
  [http://www.americanpresident.org/history/h_home.shtml]
• Digital Classroom
  [http://www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/index.html]
  • 1935 Fireside Chat
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/9/18/09-1785a.gif]
  • Check Presented to President Roosevelt (1942)
    [http://www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/23-0014a.gif]
  • Anwar Sadat, Jimmy Carter and Menachem Begin at the Camp
    David Accords Signing Ceremony. , 09/17/1978
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/10/24-0910a.gif]
  • Congress and the Civil Rights Act of 1964
    [http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/treasures_of_congress/page_24.html]
  • General view of the city from the south toward the Treasury Building and
    the White House. Cows are grazing Circa 1864-
    [http://www.archives.gov/research_room/research_topics/
    civil_war/images/civil_war_127.jpg]
  • Jimmy Carter and Rosalynn Carter host State Dinner honoring Prime Minister
    Pierre Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau of Canada
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0467a.gif]
  • Jimmy Carter in the White House library during a televised
    Fireside Chat on Energy
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/1/24-0068a.gif]
  • Oval Office (Carter Administration)
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0456a.gif]
  • Photograph of Harry S. Truman taking the oath of office as President
    of the United States in the Cabinet Room of the White House,
    following the death of President Roosevelt
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/3/12-0284a.gif]
  • Photograph of reporters rushing excitedly through the White House
    with news of the Japanese surrender. , 08/14/1945
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/4/12-0393a.gif]
  • President Carter Hosts a Working Dinner
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0479a.gif]
  • President Carter Press Conference
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0457a.gif]
  • President Carter Signing the Energy Bill at His Desk
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0452a.gif]
  • President Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev signing the INF
    Treaty in the East Room of the White House , 12/08/1987
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/2/12-0114a.gif]
  • President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher talking on
    the patio outside of the Oval Office , 07/17/1987
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/2/12-0141a.gif]
  • President Reagan and Vice-President Bush eating lunch in the
    Oval Office Study , 03/31/1988
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/1/12-0100a.gif]
  • President Reagan holding a National Security Council Meeting on
    the TWA hijacking, Situation Room , 06/16/1985
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/1/12-0096a.gif]
  • President Reagan leading a Cabinet Meeting , 09/11/1986
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/2/12-0127a.gif]
  • Signing Cuba Quarantine Proclamation. President Kennedy.
    White House, Oval Office. , 10/23/1962
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/4/2/04-0132a.gif]
  • Suffragists picket White House. Banner posted in front of the
    White House, Washington . . ., 07/1917-
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/25/30/25-2982t.gif]
  • Swearing-In of Secretary of Labor
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/24/5/24-0453a.gif]
  • The Reagan's being greeted by their dog "Rex" after arriving at the
    White House in the helicopter (Maine-1) , 04/20/1986
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/2/12-0154a.gif]
  • The Reagans eating on TV trays in the White House residence ,
    11/06/1981
    [http://media.nara.gov/media/images/12/2/12-0152a.gif]
  • The War of 1812
    [http://www.archives.gov/exhibit_hall/treasures_of_congress/
    page_8.html]
  • White House History
    [http://clinton4.nara.gov/WH/glimpse/top.html]
  • Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum
    [http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/]
  • Lyndon Johnson Signing 1964 Civil Rights Act in East Room
    of White House
    [http://www.lbjlib.utexas.edu/johnson/av.hom/images/
    276-10-64.JPG]
• Explore DC
  [http://www.exploredc.org/index.php]
  • The White House
    [http://www.exploredc.org/index.php?id=65]
  • White House Historical Association
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/]
  • Advertisement for Best Design Competition
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_4/photos_4/
    frame_photo_403e.html]
  • African Americans and the White House Timeline
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04_history/subs_timeline/
    c_africans/frame_c_1790.html]
  • Did Slaves Build the White House?
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04_history/spotlight_d.html]
  • Did You Know? (a large collection of trivia, statistics,
    and White House History)
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04_history/
    subs_fyi/frame_a04.html]
  • Dolley Madison, the White House, and the War of 1812
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_docs/
    frame_a_doc_1812.html]
  • First Kids
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_4/
    frame_b_404.html]
  • History Timeline
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04_history/
    subs_timeline/frame_a01.html]
  • Lesson: Dolley Madison to the Rescue
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_docs/
    frame_a_doc_1812b.html]
  • Photograph of Damage from Burning of the White House
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_4/activities_4/
    frame_photo_403d_g.html]
  • White House Chronology
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/04_history/subs_timeline/
    frame_a01_chrono.html]
  • Letter from Dolley Payne Madison to Anna Cutts,
    23 August 1814. Library of Congress
    [http://moderntimes.vcdh.virginia.edu/madison/exhibit/washington/
    letters/082314.html]
  • Letter: Dolley Madison to Mary Latrobe, December 3, 1814
    [http://www.whitehousehistory.org/02_learning/subs_docs/
    images_photos/1812_f_text.html/]
  • National Geographic Inside the White House
    [http://www.pbs.org/weta/whitehouse/whhome.htm]
  • Kids in the White House
    [http://www.pbs.org/weta/whitehouse/world.htm]
  • Design the Oval Office for Yourself
    [http://www.pbs.org/weta/whitehouse/ovalfrm.htm]
• National Park Service: Links to the Past
  [http://www.cr.nps.gov/]
  • Georgian Architecture
    [http://www.nps.gov/inde/Franklin_Court/Pages/archgeorge.html]