The First White House Library: A History and Annotated Catalogue. Edited by Catherine M. Parisian. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2010. xvi, 398p. ISBN 978-0271037134. $55.00

Abstract

It might be easy to assume that the White House has always included a library. The first two presidents to reside there, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, were both well known for their extensive libraries and, as noted in the opening paragraph of the first essay in this book, either of them “would seem to make more sense” (Wilentz, p. 1) as the founder of the library. But in fact, the White House was without a permanent library for its first fifty years, as early presidents brought their personal collections with them to the mansion and returned home with them . . .