Circulating Now welcomes Cody A. Moore, from the U.S. Department of State, to talk about the connection between Blair House and the first Surgeon General, Joseph Lovell, a portrait of whom, on long term loan from the National Library of Medicine, conveys this history to visiting diplomats.
National Library of Medicine #101447908
Settled in the entrance hall of Blair House, also known as the President’s Guest House, a portrait of Joseph Lovell—in a manner similar to that of the noted American artist Charles Bird King—awaits newly elected presidents and foreign heads of state as they make their way into history as guests of the famed home. Located mere steps away from the White House, the home was built as a private residence in 1824 for Dr. Joseph Lovell, who would become the nation’s first Surgeon General after the U.S. Army reorganization in 1818. In 1836, following the death of Dr. Lovell, Francis Preston Blair, a highly touted journalist, and friend to then-President Andrew Jackson, moved into the home with his wife and children.
In the spring of 1861, the Blair family house would be a part of a particularly notable event in U.S. history. A meeting between Francis Blair and an accomplished Colonel in the U.S. Army by the name of Robert E. Lee of Virginia took place there only a few days after the start of the American Civil War. President Abraham Lincoln had asked Blair to offer Lee command of the Union Forces, but Lee declined, saying that he could not fight against his own people. This exchange took place in what is now known as the “Lincoln Room” and remains a pivotal point in U.S. history.
Photograph by Carol M. Highsmith
Courtesy Blair House Foundation
Three generations of the Blair family occupied the house until 1942, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt directed the U.S. government to purchase Blair House for the use of guests of the president. Traditionally, guests of the president were invited to stay in the White House. However, once World War II began in Europe there were just too many guests. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt sought other arrangements after an encounter with Winston Churchill, who stayed at the White House for several weeks over Christmas in 1941. When she encountered him on his way to wake the president at odd hours of the night in a silk gown decorated with a Chinese dragon she decided on other lodgings for the man later known as the “British Bulldog.”
The legacy of Blair hospitality continues through the work of public diplomacy each day. Since 1942, Blair House has played host to worlds leaders such as President Nelson Mandela of South Africa and Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain. When guests are greeted in the hall just past the famous black door, Dr. Joseph Lovell is there also to welcome them to the President’s Guest House.
Cody A. Moore is a student trainee at the U.S. Department of State, a U.S. Air Force veteran, and student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. His interest in history and fine arts brought him to work under the Office of Fine Arts and its historic collections in the Diplomatic Reception Rooms and Blair House.