Buddy the dog swimming in the fountain at the White House
If you need more adorable pet pictures for your Tuesday, check out our Flickr stream where the William J. Clinton Presidential Library has just added lots of great Buddy pictures to the First Family’s Pets collection.
Who is your favorite White House pet?
Source: clintonlibrary.gov
Oh Socks, you ham. Here are some fun facts courtesy of Dear Socks, Dear Buddy; Kids’ Letters to The First Pets by Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Socks Stats
Type of Cat: Domestic Short Hair
Date of Birth: Unknown
Member of the Clinton Family since: March 1991
Height (Head to Paw): 14.5 inches
Weight: 9 pounds in 1998
Favorite Activity: Taking a Catnap
Favorite Bug to Catch: Spiders
Favorite Hideout in the White House: In a chair outside the Oval Office
Want more photos of Socks? - Meow!
-from the Clinton Library
(via discoverynews)
Source: thedorseyshawexperience
Cutest Head of State Gift - EVER
The United States received two giant pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing, from the People’s Republic of China in April, 1972. The pandas were given as a token of friendship in response to President Nixon’s goodwill trip to China.
First Lady Pat Nixon officially accepted the fuzzy goodwill ambassadors at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. She had been charmed by the pandas she had seen in China and declared at the welcoming ceremony, “I think ‘panda-monium’ is going to break out at the zoo.”
Pat was right, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were the top attractions at the zoo until their deaths in in the 1990s.
Here, Ling-Ling munches on her snack on her first day in the new Panda House at the National Zoo in Washington, DC. 4/16/1972. Noms.
First Lady Centennial Celebration of Pat Nixon and Lady Bird Johnson
Source: blogs.archives.gov
Ike and his Weimaraner dog, Heidi
President Eisenhower’s beloved pet Heidi spent time at the White House as well as Ike’s Gettysburg farm.
In a letter to Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, who gave the dog to him, Ike wrote:
“Heidi is definitely an asset to life in the White House. She cavorts on the South Lawn at a great rate, with such important projects as chasing squirrels and investigating what might be under bushes. She is beautiful and well-behaved (occasionally she tends towards stubbornness but is then immediately apologetic about it.)”
from the Eisenhower Library
Presidential Groundhog
Our resident groundhog at the Hoover Library made an early appearance yesterday (cute, cute, cuteness). Looks like West Branch, Iowa is ready for spring.
Happy Groundhog Day!
-from the Hoover Presidential Library and Museum
Elephants in the Room - Presidential Gifts
President Reagan was given 788 elephant-related gifts during his time in the White House. This action figure, hand-knit vest, crystal-studded ostrich egg, and porcelain figurine are a small sampling of the presidential pachyderms at the Reagan Library. BTW, the ostrich egg is a music box that plays “Hail to the Chief.”
See more crafty, cute, and over-the-top gifts in our gallery: Elephant Gifts from the People
![In which President Ford gets a dog:
“Our family didn’t have a dog when we moved into the White House. Susan [the Fords’ daughter] and David [David Kennerly, the White House photographer] thought that situation should be rectified before Betty came home from the hospital.
Without telling me his intention, David did some research and discovered that a fine retriever had recently given birth to a litter in Minneapolis. David called the kennel’s owner and said he wanted to buy a puppy for a friend of his.
That was fine, the owner said, but what was the name of David’s friend?
David said it was a surprise; he wanted to keep the name secret.
‘We don’t sell dogs that way,’ the owner replied. ‘We have to know if the dog is going to a good home. ‘
‘The couple is friendly,’ David said. ‘They’re middle-aged, and they live in a white house with a big yard and a fence around it. It’s a lovely place.’
‘Do they own or rent?’ the owner asked.
David thought for a minutes ‘I guess you might call it public housing,’ he said.”
-Gerald R. Ford, 1979, in his memoir “A Time To Heal”
The Ford’s acquired Liberty, a Golden Retriever, as a puppy in the fall of 1974. She grew up in the White House and gave birth to her first litter of puppies there.
-from the Ford Library](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxovd1sX8O1qjih96o1_400.jpg)
In which President Ford gets a dog:
“Our family didn’t have a dog when we moved into the White House. Susan [the Fords’ daughter] and David [David Kennerly, the White House photographer] thought that situation should be rectified before Betty came home from the hospital.
Without telling me his intention, David did some research and discovered that a fine retriever had recently given birth to a litter in Minneapolis. David called the kennel’s owner and said he wanted to buy a puppy for a friend of his.
That was fine, the owner said, but what was the name of David’s friend?
David said it was a surprise; he wanted to keep the name secret.
‘We don’t sell dogs that way,’ the owner replied. ‘We have to know if the dog is going to a good home. ‘
‘The couple is friendly,’ David said. ‘They’re middle-aged, and they live in a white house with a big yard and a fence around it. It’s a lovely place.’
‘Do they own or rent?’ the owner asked.
David thought for a minutes ‘I guess you might call it public housing,’ he said.”
-Gerald R. Ford, 1979, in his memoir “A Time To Heal”
The Ford’s acquired Liberty, a Golden Retriever, as a puppy in the fall of 1974. She grew up in the White House and gave birth to her first litter of puppies there.
-from the Ford Library
Source: fordlibrarymuseum.gov
Our featured cat is Socks, who was photographed at the White House in December of 1993. So we asked Terri Garner, director of the Clinton Presidential Library, to be our guest judge. There was a lot of debate and discussion in Little Rock, but she emailed us a winner today.
Congratulations to Jean West! Terri chose your caption on Facebook as the winner for the special LOL cat edition.
And if you would like to see more of Socks, check out the full set of photographs on Flickr from the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.
The Thursday Photo Caption Contest will return in January 2012 with more humorous images from our holdings.
Happy Holidays!
Source: usnatarchives
First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and Socks the cat hang out for the holidays in the White House. December, 1995.
The Clinton Presidential Library is launching a collection of photos in the Flickr Commons. To start, there’s photos of President Clinton at work, with foreign Heads of State, and for some holiday cheer we’ve found pics of Socks the cat at Christmas time.
Still to come: sets featuring Hillary, Chelsea, events from the Clinton administration, and of course, Buddy, the Clinton’s dog. Check it out in the U.S. National Archives Flickr Photostream.
Source: Flickr / usnationalarchives
