Two good friends of the White White House historical association. Allman has literally held in his hand the history of the white house since joining the white house Curators Office 38 years ago. For the past 12 years, mr. Allman has led that very Important Office as white house curator. This is one of the best jobs there is, to care for one of the most historic and stored elections in the world. The office of the curator is charged with the preservation and study of the collection of art, furniture, and decorative objects used to furnish both the public and private rooms of the white house. As an official residence and an accredited historic housemuseum , a house that has been home and office 243 president s of the United States. Friend to is a vital the White House Historical association and we welcome him tonight to share the history of a very significant happening with the white house collection. Following mr. Allman, we will hear from mr. William seale. He is a great treasure to the White House Historical association. We call him the master and maestro of white house history. In addition to being the editor of white house history, he is an important author on books on white house history and i have just a few of them here tonight for you to see. In addition to his expertise on the white house, mr. Seale is a scholar and sought after wise preservation of a range of historic american buildings. His preservation work is evidence in state c apitols and Historic Homes across the heartland of america. We are in for a very special treat this evening. Although the white house is just across the street, only 200 yards from where we sit tonight, these two men will bring white house history to life for us tonight, right here. Please welcome william allman, followed by william seale. [applause] roger mudd just said, dont blow it. [laughter] now i am nervous. I was not before. Except one attending such a in 1814 inposium washington, we would concur with author beth taylors 2012 observation that americans today , instead of ducking the anniversary of the burning of the white house, celebrate the rescue of the portrait of george washington. All of the longestheld objects in the white house collection date from the postfire renovation. All but 1 the portrait of george washington. The one that first Lady Dolley Madison famously saved from the white house. [applause] the fulllength image, eight feet by five feet in size, is one of four of the lands down tight, name for the painting at the National Portrait jelly that was commissioned by a philadelphia merchant and 7096. 1796. It had been marked by the development of the first terms of peace with the new United States. Stewart, the master portraitist of the federal. , selected a formal, oratorio pose to picking washington dressed in a black suit. Soningtons adopted considered the head to be the keness best, but failed in the person, meaning that the body was too fleshy. Symbolic parts, to the right is a chair, the seat of authority. , a red cloth is pulled back to expose a gilded table, its legs formed out of bundled rods, a roman symbol of authority, topped by eagles. Books under the table reflect ,ashingtons publics career bearing the titles american resolution and constitution and laws of the United States. The silver inkwell on the table is actually engraved with washingtons coat of arms. Newspaper claimed that washington was standing in treaty,of the 1795 jay recommending a union between america and great britain. This did not see hostilities for 15 years hansen which the white house version of the portrait it wasecome an icon probably sold to the u. S. Government twice. Stewart sold it to paris. When the appointee was not recognized by the french government, stewart did not deliver the painting but seemed to sell it to a second buyer. Later, he would compound his duplicity by did mine by denying it was his work at all. Four example of the lansdowne type were written by of service, that they felt that all four versions were painted by a single hand. The white house portrait is believed to be the last of the four, the one least marked by experimentation. It is marked by a curious error. One book title is misspelled. Under the table is the book constitution and laws of the United States. There is a missing t in the word states. Stewarts second customer was gardner baker, who bought the portrait for exhibition in new york city. He died six months later and it passed to a creditor. For whom from whom the governor would purchase it. It was in 1800. The purchase order for 1800, a profit on acres 500 investment, was signed by harry lee, famous for having eulogized washington but six months before as first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen. The painting was hanging in the not fully completed president s house when it was first occupied in november, 1800 by president john adams. By 1809 at the end of the jefferson administration, it was hanging in the oval room on the state floor, what is now the blue room. Occupants, james and Dolley Madison, converted the room that had been jeffersons office into a state dining room, the washington portrait was moved there and that was where it was hanging on august 24, 1814. The most famous account of the rescue of the painting is and Dolley Madisons hand. In her papers at the library of congress. She called this document an extract from a letter written to my sister publishing the sketch of my life. An editor of the papers of both james and Dolley Madison wrote in a 1998 issue of the journal of the White House Historical association that it was not one off, gossipy letter she normally wrote. He thought it had a formal, composed quality, suggesting it was likely a later recollection. In this document, having instructions to flee the white house, mrs. Madison wrote a description that defines the whole saving of the portrait. I insist on waiting until the large picture of general washington is secured and it requires to be unscrewed from the wall. Tediousss was on too for these perilous moments. I ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas taken out. It is done, and the precious portrait place in the hands of two man from new york for keeping. And now i must leave the house. At jas at the house thaton, had been writing when mrs. Madison escape from the white house, she cut out from the frame the portrait of washington and carried it off. This is false. She had no time for doing it. He credited the steward and the gardener with the actual removal of the painting from the wall. Thatteward later said Young Jennings himself had held the ladder. It is unclear that if jennings meant to suggest that madison was not involved at all. It was seen at certain that she at least gave the order for the removal of the painting. Years later she would write to robert up eyster, one of the two gentleman from new york would carry the painting to safety, saying, i acted thus because of my respect for general washington. R kerr, wouldcob write that mrs. Madison had ordered him to destroy the painting if it could not be saved. Rker wrote that madison returned to the white house before they had left of the painting and sat down and told them something about the battle at leydens bird. Perhaps the president also saw the painting of washington down from its perch. Ther madison had departed, painting when off to safety and eventual return is the only object to have been continuously held by the white house since it opened in 1800. It is the white house treasure. Thank you. [applause] good evening. If you cant hear me, please hold up your hand. I think we are pretty well wired. Here. An honor to be that a pleasure to address seminal episode and the american war of 1812, the burning of the white house. The completion and occupation of the white house in 1800 again a long journey for the house. The old Stone Building eventually became that was to extend through American History all the years with a single interaction with its destruction by fire in 1814. To present to you details of the actual burning of the white house as a means of slipping into the White House HistoricalAssociation Symposium a puzzle piece, i guess you could call it, about the evening when the british soldiers and a housecame to call to in tact and left it on the night , 1814,st 24 and 25th stone walls and ashes. Drawits and pieces i will for you came from many sources such as diaries, letters, newspaper commentary, and not the least as far as the house is concerned and its activities, the splendid day today records preserved in the National Archives for most of that time. These are incredible. On the morning of the day the white house burned, the white house was animated and in full operation. The day with scorching, but the air by been morning had begun to stir little. Dinner was being laid for 40 guests, each invited with a blank card that mrs. Madison had filled out and sent by coachman to deliver by hand. Regrets filled the mail basket in the mail hall. Madisonident and mrs. Planned on proceeding with their plan. Stories have spread in the press producing innovation and destruction of the city. The butler, john freeman, was busy arranging the dining room. A was a slave allowed to take salary by madison to help by his freedom. He was assisted by paul jennings, an africanamerican youth of maybe 15 owned by madison. A in theled details of setting up a dining room. They set low fires behind the plate warmers on the hearth and most certainly boiled and scrubbed the chamber pot, a for the gentleman after the ladies who had left the room. The lamps and candles stood ready to light. Everything in the dining room was about ready. In the stonevaulted kitchen below in the basement of jeffersons great iron stove, fired up, meet laid alongside wooden table. Some being washed of stored salt, others being pounded by wooden malice. The man supervising this was a man named stephen, who is terrified of the british and what would happen. He would refer to his childhood memories of the bloody streets of revolutionary paris, when he was raised. Nervousison, about as as her steward, and her made stuck in the over room looking with a telescope out the window to the selfies and horizon were smoke from cannon fire to the southeastern horizon where smoke from cannon fire rose. British general ross and his soldiers advanced. Ross advisor,n, was traveling up the potomac with his sailors from alexandria, which they had looted. The house was stripped to bear for summer. Wererplate wall lamps drained and wrapped in domestic gauze, as were the pictures. The fancy carpet was rolled away in the attic, leaving the rock, unfinished mahogany floors uncovered. Mrs. Madisons beloved red velvet curtains were taken down and packed for summer, protected for the heat, humidity, mops, and flies. Traditionally the white house was shut down after the fourth of july reception. The president returning usually in late september or october, taking their business with them. This summer with the threat of the british invasion, no time could be spared away from the capital for the president ial vacation. Congress was casting hellfire at the president on any point. More than a dozen in the house call for impeachment. Public opinions harz judgments made a return to mount pill ear little more than a dream. Madison was not a warrior but a thinker and a planner. Small and wizened, he was an amusing contrast to his outgoing and buxom wife, the widow dolly. Madison and monroe and others left the white house around noon and made the arduous ride on horseback to view the battle as closely as they could. After their departure, a messenger wrote into the white house on a sweat, shouting the british were on their way to the city and all should evacuate. The players of the lazy morning scattered. John freeman gathered up his wife and children in one of the madison coaches and headed for safety towards the blue ridge. Tophen ran around trying think of ways to arm the house, his plan being to load the two cannons on the yard facing northwest mrs. Madison discouraged. Before she left, she remembered a manhe had promised across the river to protect the large portrait of general washington, his foster grandfather, feared that it would be carried about and mocked by the invaders. It hung on the wall in the dining room where the frame was secured by screws. When stephen and others could not take it down, they broke the frame, extracted the canvas on its stretcher. Two young visitors during the house assured mrs. Madison that they would see to its protection elsewhere. Was cut off oft it stretcher with a kitchen knife, but he likes to tell stories. [laughter] that was one of them. Fairly well and the of people by 6 00 by the end of the day. Madison, monroe, and their party returned briefly and sat in the dining room for a glass of spirits. When they were gone except for paul jennings, whom the president had told to remain long enough to bank the fires in the kitchen and diagram and lock kitchen and dining room and lock the house. Jennings saw scavengers enter the house. Nothing more is known about them, whether he ordered them out, or whether they chose to ttic, which a would have been a bad decision. Jennings walks the house and left to find the president. It would appear the white house was silent for a few hours. Some lamps may have flickered in the hall, a custom at night. At 11 00, the first contingent of soldiers appeared it down pennsylvania avenue. Their backs eliminated by the burning capitol building. With noponsors response, the men broke open the door and entered, joined by sailors. The company of 150 wondered the house for about an hour, soaking what they saw and perhaps excited by the historical moment. Once the officers thoughts were together, they began preparing the house to burn. There had never been much question whether or not the fire would take place. The decision was already made. They want to the dining room to eat the dinner that had been prepared. Dinner was brought up from below. The soldiers and sailors labored ,n the heat of the night working upstairs. The officers enjoyed themselves with the dinner, their tongues loosening more of the toasts proceeded. Admiral cockburn invited every souvenir, nothing of value. To set the tone, he held up a silk cushion and claimed it was his souvenir by which you would remember mrs. Madisons seat. The newspapers did not like that. The british officers and men were exhausted not only because of their days of invasion but for their nine years of fighting in spanish campaigns of wellington. It had been hard duty with many casualties, much distraction in the deadly sweep of the countryside and burning towns and villages. One of the experts that directed many burnings was captain thomas blanchard, a great favorite of general ross. He was put in charge of the burning of the white house. Admiral cockburn committed contributed anson james pratt. Blanchard knew well how to design a fire that had military dignity and did not smack of arson as the american arson at york and canada. Structurally, the house was built like an English House of the same type. An outer skin of stone with thick backing walls of brick to stabilize it. The white house had about 14 inches of stone and about three feet of salt brick backing. Inside the structural walls and thintions was covered with split wood, like kindling, upon which the plaster was laid. Was all of wood, and so was the attic structure. To blanchard, the wood imparts with a focus. The plan for the fire was to ignite the house on the second floor. No other part of the house was of any interest. The kindling was all to be on the second floor. This would quickly burn into the attic, causing it to collapse into the second floor. Its weight would carry it on to the main floor. The massme design, would fall into the basement, where it would burn as in a there wasit until all to burn was gone and this is what happened. On the second floor, the men were tracking mattresses and textiles to piles in the centers of the room. The windows were smashed out, giving the windows openings. From the basement came 10 containers of highly flammable lard and whale oil which the madisons cap in quantity for their lamps to illuminate their evening entertainment. It was poured over the pile of debris in the secondfloor rooms. This took several hours. When it was done, the men left the house as ordered. A certain number of them formed a circle around the building, provided by long wooden javelins. They saw them wrapped in straw and cloth and saturated with lamp oil. Then came the fire. Legend said it was carried over from roses tavern, a block away. A lot of locals will remember. I dont know why that would be the case. The kitchen and the dining room in the house had healthy fires going. Perhaps it was brought to provide a little drama for the crowd of spectators. That is a stretch, of course. The men with the flaming javelins were in place. On a pistol shot from blanchard, they hurled the polls up into the second floor. Roseire came at once and quickly. Annamaria thornton stuck on the porch of tudor place in georgetown and saw the whole thing. It plays like a giant plum pudding. Night, one observer said, shone like day. In daybreak in heavy rain, one could see that captain blanchard had done his work well. The house was a stone box of ashes. No trash around it, nothing. Daylight shining shafts through the ruin, which was the knees to bruins. Test of ruin. Nea the entire basement survived, but the only object we know that was retrieved with the kitchen range. It was reused for many years. All of the stonework of the south wall survived. Both ends of the house had to be torn down to the basement ceiling level. On the north front, only the central park that would one day be sheltered by the north portico still stood. Foot rowned by its 14 surely the finest example of stone carving in the 18th century. , athe battle of new orleans Movement Began it wants to move the burnedout capital city to another location began at once to move the burnedout capital city to another location. River andsippi largest nation and possibility and washington was no longer geographically the center of things. Why not st. Louis . Why not cincinnati . President madison block the action by politicking behind the scene. Ended,fore the war had and active progress an act of congress pr