Nice view titled The Presidents House, from Washington, from steel engraving with fine detail and clear  impression, approx. page size 26 x 20.5 cm, approx. image  size 18 x 13 cm. From: N. P. Willis, American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of Transatlantic Nature, publisher George Virtue, London.

White House,

formerly (1818-1902) EXECUTIVE MANSION, official residence of the  president of the United States at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.  The White House and its landscaped grounds occupy 18 acres (7.2 hectares) of  ground. The main building has been the home of every U.S. president since John  Adams and is the oldest federal building in the capital.

In 1791 a public competition was held to choose the most suitable design for a  presidential residence in the newly designated capital city of Washington.  Thomas Jefferson and others submitted drawings, but the Irish-American architect  James Hoban of Philadelphia won the commission (and a $500 prize) with his plan  for a Georgian mansion in the Palladian style. This structure was to have three  floors and more than 100 rooms, and would be built in pale grey sandstone. The  cornerstone was laid on Oct. 13, 1792, and President John Adams and his wife,  Abigail, became the newly completed mansion's first occupants in 1800. By 1809  it was already called the "White House" because its white-grey sandstone  contrasted strikingly with the red brick of nearby buildings. (President  Theodore Roosevelt adopted "White House" as the building's official name in  1902.)

The White House was burned during the British invasion of 1814, but it was  rebuilt and enlarged under Hoban's direction, and was occupied by President  James Monroe in 1817. During the rebuilding Hoban added east and west terraces  on the main building's flanks, as well as a semicircular south portico and a  colonnaded north portico in the 1820s. Subsequent changes to the building in the  19th century were minor, aside from interior redecorations and the gradual  installation of modern conveniences.

During the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, the mansion's second-floor rooms  were converted from presidential offices to living quarters for his family, and  the West Wing was constructed to provide greater office space for the president  and his growing staff. More office space was made available with the building of  the East Wing in 1942. (The East and West wings are connected to the main  building by the east and west terraces.) In 1948, during Harry Truman's  presidency, the main building was discovered to be badly in need of structural  repairs, and so over the next four years the entire interior was carefully  rebuilt, though the original exterior walls were left standing. The last major  alterations to the White House were made in the 1960s by Jacqueline Kennedy, who  collected items of historic and artistic value with which to decorate its rooms.

The White House building complex has a total of more than 130 rooms. The main  building still contains the presidential family's living quarters and various  reception rooms, all decorated in styles of the 18th and 19th centuries. Parts  of the main building are open to guided tours. The north portico is the public  entrance to the main building, while the south portico is a private entrance  reserved for the presidential family. The west terrace contains a swimming pool  and gym, while the east terrace contains a movie theatre. The West Wing contains  the presidential office (the Oval Office), the Cabinet room, and the press  rooms, while the East Wing contains other offices.

Over the years the White House has become a major American shrine, and its  public areas are toured by about 1,500,000 people every year. The building is a  unit of the National Capital Parks system and was accredited as a museum in  1988.

William Henry Bartlett

William Henry Bartlett (March 26, 1809 – September 13, 1854) was a British  artist, best known for his numerous drawings rendered into steel engravings.

Bartlett was born in Kentish Town, London in 1809. He was apprenticed to John  Britton (1771–1857), and became one of the foremost illustrators of topography  of his generation. He travelled throughout Britain, and in the mid and late  1840s he travelled extensively in the Balkans and the Middle East. He made four  visits to North America between 1836 and 1852.

In 1835, Bartlett first visited the United States to draw the buildings, towns  and scenery of the northeastern states. The finely detailed steel engravings  Bartlett produced were published uncolored with a text by Nathaniel Parker  Willis as American Scenery; or Land, Lake, and River: Illustrations of  Transatlantic Nature. American Scenery was published by George Virtue in London  in 30 monthly installments from 1837 to 1839. Bound editions of the work were  published from 1840 onward. In 1838 Bartlett was in the Canadas producing  sketches for Willis' Canadian scenery illustrated, published in 1842. Following  a trip to the Middle East, he published Walks about the city and environs of  Jerusalem in 1840.

Bartlett made sepia wash drawings the exact size to be engraved. His engraved  views were widely copied by artists, but no signed oil painting by his hand is  known. Engravings based on Bartlett's views were later used in his posthumous  History of the United States of North America, continued by Bernard Bolingbroke  Woodward and published around 1856.

Bartlett’s primary concern was to render "lively impressions of actual sights",  as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). Many views contain  some ruin or element of the past including many scenes of churches, abbeys,  cathedrals and castles, and Nathaniel Parker Willis described Bartlett's talent  thus: "Bartlett could select his point of view so as to bring prominently into  his sketch the castle or the cathedral, which history or antiquity had allowed".

Bartlett returning from his last trip to the Near East suddenly took ill and  died of fever on board the French steamer Egyptus off the coast of Malta in  1854. His widow Susanna lived for almost 50 years after his death, and died in  London on 25 October 1902, aged 91.