My Time at the White House - by Landry Schoennauer

The White House houses the President and his family. It has been a scene of many important events in our nation's history. The White House doesn't just house the President either. It is the place where national and international decisions are made and new legislation is approved.

Our tour of the White House started in the Visitor's Entrance Building.

While that name doesn't sound too exciting, this room focuses on White House history and celebrations. Right out the side window, I couldn't help but notice the soccer goal. I thought it was kinda funny that it was there because the White House is this really fancy place and then there is just a soccer goal on a side lawn area. I really wanted to play but I knew I couldn't!

After the Visitor's Entrance Building, we headed into the White House Library.

The room had books running up and down the walls. There were books about history, fiction, the sciences and biographies; books that were all written by American authors. There is a lot of fancy furniture in this room also. For example, the chandelier once belonged to the family of James Fenimore Cooper and the paneling of this room was made from the timber from the reconstruction of the White House in 1948-1952.

Next, we headed to the Vermeil Room. It was covered in gold and silver and many picture frames. In these frames are pictures of recent First Ladies. But, this room hasn't always been the home of these portraits. It used to be a billiard room!

After that was the China Room. This room was established by Edith Wilson in 1917. On display are pieces of china and glass used by the Presidents. I thought it was interesting how the different pieces of china and glass didn't evolve much over the years. Also in this room, was a portrait of Grace Coolidge that was painted in 1924 by Howard Chandler Christy.

Then, we headed up the stairs to the largest room in the White House: The East Room.

The East Room is used for receptions, ceremonies, press conferences and many other events. The East Room has been the place of many weddings, including Nellie Grant, Alice Roosevelt and Lynda Bird Johnson. The bodies of seven dead Presidents have been laid to state there also. The chandeliers on the roof of the East Room where made in 1902.

Up next, was the Green Room. In case you didn't figure it out, the Green Room is covered in GREEN!

It went from green walls to green furniture - everywhere you look there is green! This room was once the dining room of Thomas Jefferson but now it is a parlor and it is used for reception in the White House. Most of the furniture in this room was made by Duncan Phyfe in New York around 1810. The coffee urn in this room was owned by John Adams, and it was covered on each side by French candlesticks that were used by James Madison.

After the Green Room was the Blue Room.

The color blue was first used when Martin Van Buren was in office. It was mainly used for the President to welcome incoming guests. James Monroe purchased many pieces of this room in 1814 after the building caught fire. The portraits in this room consist of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe and John Tyler.

Then, we went through the Red Room.

This room in the White House was used for small receptions and it was one of the favorites of the First Ladies. John Adams used The Red Room as his breakfast room and President Hayes used it to take his oath of office on March 3, 1877. The room is decorated as an American Parlor from the early 1800's.

Last, but not least, was the the State Dining Room.

This room could seat 130 guests for lunch and dinner. The patterns on the walls were painted during the White House renovation in 1902. There is also a quote by John Adams carved into the fireplace. It states: "I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof."

We ended our tour in the Entrance and Cross Halls of the White House, where to floors are covered in Tennessee marble and the construction and renovation dates are engraved into that floor. The second and third floors of the White House are only used by the President, his family, and his guests. Located on these floors are the Lincoln Bedroom, the former President's office and the Queen's bedroom (named for its royal visitors).

By Landry Schoennauer

White House-By Kennedy

                                                    The White House

As many people know, the White House is home to the President of the United States. There have been 45 presidential families who have lived in this building. The current President is Donald J. Trump. Many people dislike him because of his poor decisions, tweeting, and insults to many. During the tour, we visited 7 fancy rooms.

The Vermeil Room was once a billiard room. It had a collection of European and American objects, covered in bronze and silver. There are also portraits of recent first ladies displayed.

This is the East Room.

It is the location of state dinners, receptions, concerts, weddings, and press conferences. Both Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy laid in the room after their assassinations. When the White House was burned in 1814, Dolly Madison removed the portraits of George Washington, for safekeeping.

It's the Green Room!!!

This is where Thomas Jefferson hosted lots of his dinners. It has been a parlor since James Madison's time. In this room, there are John and Abigail Adams' silver coffee urn and James and Dolley Madison's French candlesticks. The furniture was made from 1800-1815.

This oval blue room has been a reception room.

In 1817, President James Monroe furnished the room. Before he did that, there were 7 pieces of furniture: gilded chairs, the sofa, and the clock on the mantel. President Grover Cleveland was the only president to get married at the White House. That was held here in the Blue Room.

The Red Room is often used by first ladies to receive guests, since the early 19th century. President Rutherford Hayes took oath of office in1877. The furniture was made in New York between 1810-1819. The marble mantel has been in the White House since 1819.

The State Dining Room has had the same furniture since 1902, when Theodore Roosevelt was President. As many as 140 people can be seated at dinners and lunches by using the round table. The portrait of Abraham Lincoln was painted in 1869 by George P.A. Healy.

Overall, the White House is a very historic building. There is lots of antique furniture and pictures from all the past presidents. 

My Visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC - by Kennedy

                                   United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

This national museum is a remembrance of all the victims from the Holocaust in Europe. More than 6 million European Jews were murdered at concentration camps including Auschwitz, Balzac, Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Chelmno, Dachau, Ebensee, and Flossenburg. Adolf Hitler was a German politician who was the leader of the Nazi party from 1934 to 1945.





When each person arrived at the       concentration camps, the Nazi's cut off that person's hair. They collected seven thousand kilograms of hair and delivered them to nationalized upholstery industries. Each person had mugshots taken before he or she was horribly murdered.

As shown in this picture, not only adults were killed, but young, innocent children as well. One million Jewish children were killed by burning, starvation, poisoning, and many other brutal actions. Although many people died in the Holocaust, many of them survived by being hidden in buildings.

Many prisoners were forced to join a slave labor system. Some of the jobs were sewing, building and other difficult tasks. Though they worked hard, they weren't treated well. They only got fed twice a day and the food servings were little and unpleasant. Overall, many of the prisoners would rather do hard labor than be killed.

Most deported Jews endured a torturous train journey to death camps in bare freight cars. They had conditions of hunger and thirst, overcrowding, and bad sanitation. In the winter they would deal with freezing temperatures and in summer they dealt with suffocating heat. Unfortunately, most of the elderly people and young children died during the journey.

There are thousands of burned shoes saved from the holocaust. The shoes belonged to poor Jews exterminated in the Holocaust. They lived to tell the sad story. There were about 43,000 pairs of shoes found when the Soviet Union liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945. Soldiers from the United States, Canada, England, and France liberated the other concentration camps.

These photographs were taken between 1890 and 1941 in Eishishok. The photographs, gathered from more than 100 families, who spent the early childhood with many of the Jews, who's lives were taken. All you have to remember is that the Jews were great people. They were wonderful, innocent people who had a painful end of their lives.

The National Air and Space Museum-By Kennedy

                                           National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum is 1 in 19 museums in the Smithsonian. Many real air crafts and spacecrafts are on display. There are also famous pictures and materials from space. Some are tiny and some are huge. 

This F-1 engine is 1 of 4 engines ised for the Saturn 5 AFT End. The engine is from the rocket of the 1st stage of the Apollo/Saturn 5 launch vehicle. It is 5.6 meters in length and weighs 18,000 pounds. It was manufactured by Rocketdyn, A division of North American Rockwell Corporation. 

Between 1969 and 1971, 12 Americans walked to the Moon. This achievements was one of the greatest accomplishments of exploration in human history. 

This picture has the astronauts from Apollo 11. These 3 men are the most successful of them all. Neil A. Armstrong became the first person on the moon. Edwin "Buzz" E. Aldrin was a pilot in the Korean War and was selected to be the pilot for the Gemini mission. And, Michael Collins took charge in commander in chief of the pro-treaty, Free State Army.

This Apollo command module is a replica of the real mission vehicle. It was used to transport the crew of the last Skylab mission, astronauts Gerald P. Carr, Edward G. Gibson, and William R. Pogue, to the Skylab Orbital Workshop and back to Earth again. They lived in the Skylab for 84 days. They performed many experiments and proved that humans can live in space for a long period of time.            
                                                 

The 1903 Wright Flyer was built by two brothers, Wilbur Wright and Orville Wright. It made four flights at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903. It was the first ever plane to be flown in control by a pilot. The key to their success was the three-axis control system, which had wing-warping for lateral balance.

In the 1960's, NASA developed grooved runways to direct water flow and improve fraction for air crafts. By directing water else ware, it prevents the chance of aircraft sliding off the runway. This design was so helpful that it is now applied to highway designs to improve safety. 

The Apollo-Soyuz was the first ever spaceflight to include two nations. The Americans sent up an Apollo command module, while the Russians launched a Soyuz spacecraft. The crew of 3 Americans and 2 Soviets combined their modules and shook hands. After this mission, history was made between the enemies.

My Trip to the Holocaust Museum

The Holocaust Museum is a place of remembrance for tragic and grief-inducing events during the mid/early 1900's. It shows the struggle that millions of Jewish people went through and shares their stories.

The museum starts on the fourth floor with Adolf Hitler's appointment as Chancellor. But the tragedy started before 1933 when World War I hit Europe and created new countries. At that time, over nine million Jews lived in Europe.

Between 1933 and 1938, the Nazi state rose to power and became a place where citizens had no guaranteed basic rights. In 1933, the Nazis established their first concentration camp, where they imprisoned homosexuals, Jehovah's Witnesses, and others classified as "dangerous".

On May 10, 1933, the Nazis held a book burning event. There, they burned "un-German" books that came from public and university libraries, including all books written by Jewish authors.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland in hopes of wiping out each and every Jewish citizen. Over the next year, Nazi Germany conquered much of Europe.

In many places, Jews were required to wear identifying armbands. In June of 1941, Germany turned against the Soviet Union. On September 2, 1945, World War II came to an end. But by then, over six million Jews had been murdered by the German Nazis.

The museum exhibition came to an end after we walked through a room where the ground was covered in shoes of the many victims of the Holocaust. Seeing these shoes made me realize just how harsh it was to live in these concentration camps.

While there are no Jews in concentration camps in current times, genocide still exists in our world. For example, in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad has turned against, and started murdering, his own people. This makes me realize how fortunate we are to live in a country where genocide does not currently exist. But our country needs to do more to help others who face these attrocities.

By: Landry Schoennauer