White House Updates Public Tour With Enhanced Features: What’s New

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By Weekend Reporter
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First lady Jill Biden unveiled on Monday a new White House public tour with enhanced features designed to provide visitors with an immersive experience of the historic mansion.

In collaboration with the National Park Service and the White House Curator’s Office, the nonprofit White House Historical Association, presidential libraries and the History Channel, the tour has been expanded to include areas previously off-limits and now offers interactive elements that allow guests to engage with the White House’s storied past.

The Diplomatic Reception Room, once restricted from public view, is now accessible. This room is notable for hosting President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s iconic “fireside chats,” and visitors will now be able to listen to clips from these broadcasts. Other newly accessible spaces include the Library, China Room and Vermeil Room, which house presidential artifacts such as tableware and historical documents.

Jill Biden, a long-time educator, emphasized that the revamped tour appeals to various learning styles.

“As a teacher for 40 years, I know that we all learn in different ways,” the first lady, who teaches English and writing at a community college, said Monday at a White House event to mark the unveiling of the updated tour.

In the China Room, guests can listen to recordings about the displayed dinner settings, and in the State Dining Room, a replica of a Abraham Lincoln-era prayer is now accessible for close-up reading. Visitors can also touch replicas of sculptures and fabrics, adding a new layer of engagement with the White House’s decor and history, which had not seen significant updates in decades.

The upgrades also include more access to the State Floor, which features the famed East Room and the State Dining Room, as well as the Red, Blue and Green Rooms. To support the visual aspect of the tour, newly installed digital reader rails provide detailed explanations about each room’s history, furnishings and key moments in U.S. history.

“We’ve made replicas so that you can feel the features of some of the sculpture’s faces and touch the shining fabric on the furniture of the Blue Room,” Jill Biden said, highlighting that the White House tour now allows visitors to “touch, hear, and see their history up close.”

Along with these updates, the tour route now begins with a video greeting from Jill Biden in the East Wing, followed by a video of President Joe Biden in the East Room, recounting some of the historical events that took place there. These videos are designed to continue into future administrations as whoever takes office in January will be able to record their own greetings.

In addition, collages of printed photos that line the hallway are now digital and a 3D model of the White House campus showcases its architectural evolution over two centuries.

The two-year project, made possible by a $5 million donation from the History Channel to the National Park Service, aims to enhance the educational value of the White House tour for the thousands of weekly visitors.

This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.