The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, former home of the 23rd President of the United States, is showing “Life in the White House,” looking at the Harrison family’s time living in Washington D.C.
Submitted photosThe White House is known as “the people’s house.”
But what goes on behind its stately white walls is often a mystery. Not only is the house a whirlwind of political business, but it also serves as the home for the president and their family.
A new exhibition hopes to peel some of the intrigue back on what that life was like for the First Family of the only Hoosier to serve as chief executive.
“Life in the White House,” now on display at the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, unveils what the days were like for Harrison and his family.
“It looks at those public events and different things that happened while they were there, but also looks at those private events and family time at the White House with the Harrison family,” said Jennifer Capps, vice president of curatorship and exhibitions for the presidential site.
Enhanced by a number of new acquisitions by the presidential museum, the exhibition features rarely displayed photographs, memorabilia, letters, and personal effects belonging to various members of the Harrison family while living in the White House.
Organizers hope the exhibit sheds some light on the ways the the Harrison family navigated private and public life while living in Washington D.C.
“We hope people take away that these are human — they’re not just public figures. They have their own desires with their family lives,” said Aubrey Miles, a curatorial fellow with the presidential site who helped curate the exhibition. “And I hope people find some similarities between themselves and this First Family. Even though they lived over 100 years ago now, they still do things we all do today.”
The Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site is the former home of Harrison, the 23rd U.S. President, as well as his family. The restored National Historic Landmark shares the legacy of Indiana’s only President and First Lady Caroline Harrison through nearly 11,000 curated artifacts.
Over the course of the year, tens of thousands of people pass through the site on guided tours, educational programs, special events and cultural programs.
“Life in the White House” digs down into the Harrison family’s time in Washington D.C. from 1889 to 1893.
The impetus behind the exhibition was the acquisition by the historic site of a wealth of new materials detailing Harrison’s life.
“With the addition of our new Harrison Family Presidential Research Library in 2023, we received nearly 300 Harrison family artifacts and 700 letters that provide altogether new insight into one of the most prominent and influential presidential families in our country’s history,” said Charlie Hyde, Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site president and CEO. “It is an extraordinary window into the dawn of the modern presidency, and the interactions and conversations taking place between Benjamin and Caroline Harrison, their family members, and inner circle.”
Foremost among those new items was the personal diary of Josephine Kneip, Harrison’s seamstress. Kneip accompanied the Harrison family from Indianapolis to Washington, D.C. and documented her time in the White House and as a companion to the First Family through hundreds of handwritten pages in both English and German.
Her insights offer a firsthand look at experiences with the President and First Lady, and the happenings in the Harrison administration across all levels.
“It’s giving that insiders look to the family and the White House and some of the events happening there in Washington,” Capps said. “So it was a new source of information for us.”
The exhibit also pulled from letters by Mary Harrison McKey, the Harrisons’ daughter.
“Those letters are really fun. For example, there are letters between Caroline Harrison and her grandchildren, and letters from Benjamin Harrison to the grandchildren, who are toddlers in those years. So they’re writing as grandparents to their grandchildren,” Capp said. “There are really fun stories they share in those letters — again, more personal insight to life in the White House.”
“Life in the White House” exhibit is made possible through the Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site’s New Century Curator collaboration with the IUPUI Museum Studies program. Miles, a student at the university and the program’s 2023 curatorial fellow, has worked with the site’s collection, including helping curate the exhibit.
In designing the exhibit, Miles hoped to tell the story of the First Family as a family.
“In the media, we see them as public figures doing these public roles. But they are living their lives in the White House too,” she said. “We looked at how they did things that families across the nation did, but balancing that with their role as public figures.”
“Life in the White House” opened on Jan. 26 and will be on display throughout 2024. The exhibit will be open to the public and be included with general admission seven days a week during tour hours.
Organizers hope it makes an impact on visitors.
“When you’re in the political realm of things, you don’t always see that more intimate, personal, warm side of the President and First Lady, and how much they cared for their family and enjoyed spending time together,” Capps said. “Hopefully, people will have a better understanding of who the Harrisons were.”
IF YOU GO
“Life in the White House”
What: A new exhibition exploring the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, the 23rd President of the Unites States, and his family’s time in the White House.
Where: Benjamin Harrison Presidential Site, 1230 N. Delaware St., Indianapolis
When: Through Dec. 30
Hours: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and noon-3 p.m. Sunday
Cost: $16 adults, $15 active military, veterans and seniors, $11 children ages 5-17 and college students with ID. Free for kids 4 and under.
Information: bhpsite.org
