Presidential Pet Museum

Old Ike

PUSHINKA Arrives September 18!

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The Cold War may be over, but the POTUS Pets series is just getting warmed up! You enjoyed spending time with Woodrow Wilson’s feisty, tobacco-chewing ram in last year’s Old Ike. On September 18, get ready to fall in love with Pushinka!

Follow the antics of Soviet transplant Pushinka as she enters the Kennedy White House at a time when the US and the USSR teetered dangerously close to nuclear war. See history from a dog’s-eye view–up close, personal, and full of curiosity! There’s humor, romance, joy, and tragedy in this dog’s tale.

Historian-in-residence Andrew Hager weaves Pushinka’s fascinating story into the pivotal foreign and domestic events of the early 1960s, offering a behind-the-scenes view of the Kennedy administration. Nora Sawyer’s charming artwork adds a perfect bit of Camelot-era style to the mix.

More information to come!

Do you need a copy of Old Ike? Order one here! (Only 99 cents on Kindle!)

PPM Picks: MADAM PRESIDENT

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PPM Picks is a weekly feature offering film, book, or music recommendations from our staff. The links provided in the article go to product listings on Amazon. Purchases made using these links support the Presidential Pet Museum. That said, we were not paid to review or promote any of the items mentioned. We just legitimately like them.

by Andrew Hager, Historian-in-residence

Woodrow Wilson was born on December 28, 1856. In honor of his birthday, we have two picks for you this week!

The first is, of course, our children’s book Old Ike: The Fictionalized Story of Woodrow Wilson’s Ram. The book details Wilson’s second term in office through the eyes of the ram Wilson brought to the White House for a publicity stunt in 1917. It’s ideal for middle-grade readers, but it will hopefully appeal to adults curious about presidential pets as well.

When I was writing this book, I did quite a bit of research on President Wilson. The most interesting source I found was Madam President: The Secret Presidency of Edith Wilson, by William Hazelgrove. This well-researched biography focuses on the relationship between the president and Edith Bolling, whom he met after the death of his first wife.

Edith was a pioneer, a businesswoman who drove an electric car. (She was the first woman in the District of Colombia to receive a driver’s license.) Wilson was drawn to her immediately. By all accounts, theirs was a passionate romance between intellectual equals.

When the president suffered a stroke while touring to promote the League of Nations, Edith found herself in a rare position: she became the gatekeeper to the president, seeking both to relieve his stress and prevent the full extent of his illness from becoming known. She made decisions on his behalf, delegated tasks to cabinet members, and even forged Wilson’s signature on legislation. Essentially, she became our country’s chief executive–our first (if unofficial) female president.

Wilson was considered one of the great presidents for much of the 20th century, though his reputation has declined in recent years. Hazelgrove’s book does not attempt a rehabilitation, but it offers a fascinating look at the strong woman behind the man and provides a fine overview of the Wilson Era for those with only a cursory knowledge of the period.

Send Us Your Presidential Pet Art!

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Have you ever made a sketch of Caroline Kennedy riding her horse, Macaroni? Did you paint a portrait of Thomas Jefferson singing with his mockingbird, Dick? Do you have a tattoo of Theodore Roosevelt and his badger, Josiah? If you’ve ever created art representing presidential pets, we would love to see it!

Mia, age 9, from Lutherville, Maryland, sent us the above picture after visiting the Presidential Pet Museum table at the Ridgely Middle School Craft Fair. Thank you, Mia! (The coloring pages were designed by Nora Sawyer, who illustrated Old Ike: The Fictionalized Story of Woodrow Wilson’s Ram for us.)

If you have any art you’d like to share, please email it to [email protected]. If we like it, we’ll post it here on our blog!

Museum Publishes Old Ike, First in the POTUS Pets Children’s Book Series

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Old Ike charges onto the scene!

The Presidential Pet Museum is proud to announce the arrival of their new children’s book series, POTUS PETS! Come, learn about United States history through the eyes of the White House’s wildest residents–the presidents’ animals!

In the first book of the series, Old Ike, readers meet Woodrow Wilson’s cantankerous, tobacco-chewing ram who was brought to Washington to help win World War I. What place does a ram have on the White House lawn? How can the world be made safe for democracy? Will the president’s rose bushes survive?

Old Ike was written by the Presidential Pet Museum’s historian-in-residence, Andrew Hager, as a way to introduce children in grades 4-6 to American history. With gentle humor and gorgeous illustration from Nora Sawyer, the book vividly presents the issues of the Wilson presidency through Ike’s fictionalized adventures.


Soon to be available via, Kindle ebook and audiobook.

*****

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