Profs and Pints Online presents: “Pets of the Presidents,” with Edward Lengel, former chief historian of the White House Historical Association, former professor at the University of Virginia, and author of books such as General George Washington: A Military Life.

[This talk will remain available at the link given here for tickets and access.]

The White House has seen its share of occupants who were oversexed, ill-behaved, or easy targets for editorial cartoonists.

Sometimes the pets that took up residence there have themselves received unflattering attention.  Just ask Major, one of the Biden family’s two German shepherds, whose recent biting episodes suggests he is having a ruff time adapting to life in his new home.

Join Edward Lengel, a masterful storyteller and former White House historian, for a look at the exciting—and often hilarious—history of the nation’s “first pets.”

Since its initial construction in 1800, the White House has been home to a delightful, and sometimes strange, menagerie. Thomas Jefferson kept bear cubs and a mockingbird. John Quincy Adams kept an alligator in the East Room. Andrew Johnson entertained mice. Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt’s children brought ponies into the house.

The real stars, however, have always been dogs and cats, who included Ulysses Grant’s Newfoundland, Faithful, FDR’s Scottish terrier, Fala, and the Siamese cats that roamed the Executive Mansion during the Rutherford B. Hayes and Gerald Ford administrations.

You'll learn how a horse named Old Whitey charmed Washington D.C., how a dog named Pete tore the pants off a French ambassador, and how even the most skilled politicians have literally faced the risk of “stepping in it” while in the White House or on its lawn.

Profs & Pints Online: Pets of the Presidents