An exhibition of 200 years of White House traditions and memories makes its world debut in Iowa next week. The items are on loan from the Smithsonian Institution and the State Historical Museum in Des Moines will be the display’s first host. Museum spokesman Jeff Morgan says the exhibit is called "The Working White House."
Morgan says the artifacts from the inner workings of the White House tell the story of all the people who’ve worked there from the current Bush administration all the way back to William Taft. He says the exhibit focuses on the maids, cooks, butlers, doormen, electricians and other people who kept the nation’s most famous mansion running efficiently.
Morgan says the items include: menus handwritten by the White House calligrapher for State Dinners, invitations to White House events, a silver-plated crumb tray and the gray gloves worn by Robert F. Kennedy as pallbearer at his brother John F. Kennedy’s funeral. The exhibit opens next Friday, September 5th, and there’s a special event that evening.
Morgan says Roland Mesnier, the White House’s executive pastry chef from 1979 to 2004, will be there to serve treats he’s made with culinary arts students from Des Moines Area Community College. They’ll be preparing five different desserts that were originally created and served at various White House functions and serving them at a free reception that will start at 5:30 PM. The exhibition will be on display at the museum through March 1st. For more information, visit the facility’s website .