About this Event
Since 1962, the White House Historical Association has produced award-winning books on many subjects related to the history of the President's House—from its architecture, gardens, fine and decorative arts to the presidents and first ladies who lived there over the years. Our titles appeal to history buffs and art lovers, connoisseurs and curious amateurs, scholars and tourists, adults and children. We are pleased to invite you to meet the authors of these award-winning books at our Holiday Book Festival on December 4, 2026.
Featured Authors:
Leslie Greene Bowman will be signing her forthcoming title, to be released in October 2026, Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America.
Author John Wrory Ficklin will be signing his new book An Unusual Path: Three Generations from Slavery to the White House.
Former White House Chief Usher Gary Walters will be signing his new memoir White House Memories, 1970–2007: Recollections of the Longest Serving Chief Usher.
Thomas Jefferson (as portrayed by historical actor-interpreter Bill Barker of Monticello), will greet the public and be available to sign his book, Becoming Jefferson.
Bruce M. White, a fine art and architectural photographer, will be available to sign many White House Historical Association titles, of which he was principal photographer.
Christina Ewald will sign articles written for White House HIstory Quarterly.
Artist Peter Waddell will be available to speak about his paintings in progress and sign articles written for White House HIstory Quarterly.
Author Rocco Smirne will sign his latest release Rocco Celebrates America's 250th Birthday at the White House. With his fifth book on White House history, he takes us on a journey through the White House where 250 years of America’s history can be found in the halls and collections.
Editor Mary Jo Binker will sign "If You Ask Me," an annonated collection of advice columns written by Eleanor Roosevelt.
An anthology of poetry by first ladies, edited by Michael Croland, will be available.
More authors to be announced!
Conceived in celebration of the 250th birthday of the United States of America, Art for the White House: A Changing Portrait of America reveals how America’s history is told through the more than five hundred paintings, illustrations, and sculptures collected for the President’s House since President John Adams moved into the barely finished mansion November 1, 1800.
Leslie Greene Bowman is an author, historian, and president emerita of Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. She has devoted her career to art and history museums. After serving as curator of decorative arts and assistant director of exhibitions at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, she was named director of the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library in Delaware. From 2008 to 2023 she was president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello.
The Ficklin family name has been associated with White House service for nearly a century. In fact, so many family members once worked there that the Washington Post even quoted a butler who observed, “A Ficklin here, a Ficklin there, I see Ficklins everywhere.” Author John Wrory Ficklin who retired in 2015, after his own forty years of White House service, presents his family history with this heart warming and inspiring new book.
The story begins with the author's grandfather James Strother Ficklin, who was born enslaved in about 1854 and conscripted to serve as a water boy to Confederate army troops quartering in rural Virginia. Following Emancipation, he worked as a houseman, laborer, and in coal mining before purchasing 37 acres of land in Virginia where he farmed, produced molasses, and raised ten children.
John Woodson Ficklin, the seventh of those ten children, and the author's father, moved to Washington, D.C., as a teenager and like many African American men at the time, found work as a butler in the city. His older brother Charles began working as a butler at the White House during the Franklin D. Roosevelt presidency and he soon joined him. Over the course of forty-three years in service at the White House John Woodson Ficklin was promoted to the esteemed positions of head butler and maître d’hotel.
Growing up, the author worked part-time for his father, as staff at White House State Dinners and social events. He continued his service with an extended summer job as a messenger where, among other tasks, he transported documents from the Nixon White House to the Watergate Special Prosecutor’s office. Eventually he went on to become the longest-serving member of the National Security staff, faithfully serving seven U.S. presidents.
Former White House Chief Usher Gary Walters will be signing his new memoir White House Memories, 1970–2007: Recollections of the Longest Serving Chief Usher. With this illustrated memoir, Walters shares for the first time the extraordinary history he witnessed during thirty-seven years of White House service. While thousands of people have worked in the White House, a much smaller number have continued in their roles for more than one presidency, and even fewer have, or will ever, serve seven presidents and their families. One of those few is Gary J. Walters. Walters began his service in 1970 as an Executive Protective Service officer and joined the Usher’s Office as an assistant usher in 1976. In 1986, he assumed the responsibilities of chief usher, a position he held until January 26, 2007. In these roles he was in a unique position to observe life as lived on a daily basis in the White House by presidents Richard M. Nixon, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and their families.
He will also be available to sign his article "Organized Chaos: A Chief Usher Remembers Moving Days at the White House," in issue 75 of White House History Quarterly.
At Home in the President’s Neighborhood: A Photographic Tour presents a contemporary view of the city through the lens of Bruce M. White’s camera. Through nearly 200 never before published images, we see the neighborhood as the president sees it from the White House to the surrounding parks, Washington’s historic homes and hotels, neighborhood landmarks, government and commercial architecture, and city streets.
Christina Ewald explains how the end of the war was the beginning of a very different life for Martin Greenfield. Liberated from Buchenwald by troops under the command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Greenfield went on to tailor fine clothing for six presidents, including his hero, President Eisenhower.
In this first-person account, Bill Barker talks about his interest in Thomas Jefferson, how he became a Jefferson historical interpreter, how he developed and maintains his craft, and how his interpretation has expanded over time. Along the way, he includes historical information about Thomas Jefferson, using it to explain points about historical interpretation.
Fifth grade student and popular award-winning children's book author Rocco Smirne is back with a new title: Rocco Celebrates America's 250th Birthday at the White House. "Like the birthdays we celebrate for ourselves, some birthdays are extra special," observes Stewart D. McLaurin, President of the White House Historical Association. "With this book Rocco Smirne celebrates America’s extra special 250th birthday as he shows us that 250 years of America’s history can be found in the halls and collections of the White House."
In 1941, Eleanor Roosevelt embarked on a new career as an advice columnist. She had already transformed the role of first lady with her regular press conferences, her activism on behalf of women, minorities, and youth, her lecture tours, and her syndicated newspaper column. When Ladies Home Journal offered her an advice column, she embraced it as yet another way for her to connect with the public. “If You Ask Me” quickly became a lifeline for Americans of all ages. Editor Mary Jo Binker will be available to sign this title.
Edited by Michael Croland, this first-ever anthology of poetry by first ladies features captivating poems by fifteen of these remarkable women. Among the highlights are Louisa Adams’s verse about the passing of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson on the same day, Mary Todd Lincoln’s satire that nearly led to her husband’s death in a duel, sonnets by Dolley Madison, valentines by Eleanor Roosevelt and Michelle Obama, and Lou Hoover compares “Presidents’ Wives” to “twins.”
Event venue & nearby stays
Carriage House, 1610 H Street Northwest, Washington, United States
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