Collection Cherry Blossoms
Since the first cherry blossom planting in 1912 by First Lady Helen Herron Taft, Washingtonians have celebrated the scenic beauty and...
Helen Herron Taft
- Artist
- Bror Kronstand
- Date of Work
- 1910
- Medium
- oil paint
- Type
- Portrait
- Credit
- White House Collection/White House Historical Association
Helen Herron Taft
This oil on canvas portrait of First Lady Helen Herron Taft was done by Bror Kronstand. Mrs. Taft grew up well-educated in an actively political family and had a career as a teacher before her marriage to then-attorney William Howard Taft. As First Lady, she instituted the longstanding traditions of musical entertainment after State Dinners and Marine Band performances in Potomac Park. Mrs. Taft is also responsible for the planting of the 3,020 Japanese cherry trees along the Tidal Basin and grounds of the U.S. Capitol. William Howard Taft was president from March 4, 1909 until March 4, 1913.
You Might Also Like
-
-
National History Day Resources
The White House Historical Association (WHHA) offers many different resources for students working on National History Day projects.
-
Bio William Howard Taft
Distinguished jurist, effective administrator, but poor politician, William Howard Taft spent four uncomfortable years in the White House. Jovial and...
-
Bio Helen Taft
As “the only unusual incident” of her girlhood, “Nellie” Herron Taft recalled her visit to the White House at 17 as the gues...
-
Motor Cars Come to the White House
At the beginning of the twentieth century, some people believed that the automobile was a toy for the rich that...
-
The Presidents and the National Parks
The national parks preceded the National Park Service, but the first great natural park was a state park. California’s Yo...
-
Foreword; White House History Number 34
The preoccupation of those who occupied the White House for most of the nineteenth century was settlement of the West....
-
A Small Slice of Kennedy Decor: The Queens’ Sitting Room
Although the legacy of Jacqueline Kennedy’s interior decoration at the White House is fixed in Americans’ minds, there seems to b...
-
Mrs. Taft and the Cherry Blossoms
When Helen Herron Taft became the nation’s first lady in March 1909, Eliza Ruhamah Scidmore had been vainly struggling for al...
-
"Proud Housewife": Mamie Eisenhower Collects for the White House
Every presidential family that resides in the White House leaves a mark on the building and its traditions. The extent...
-
Housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray Makes Some Changes
Historian William Seale identifies a "strange hierarchy" that had developed among the White House domestic staff by the first decade...
-
First Ladies and Cherry Blossoms
Every spring, the National Cherry Blossom Festival commemorates the 1912 gift of 3,020 cherry trees from Mayor Yukio Ozaki of Tokyo, Japan,...
