WHITE HOUSE HISTORY FACTS: Technology & Communications
President Wilson talks with a pilot circling overhead in a demonstation of air-ground communication on November 22, 1918. National Archives
The White House installed its first telegraph office in 1866.
The White House staff started using typewriters in 1880.
Electricity was installed in the White House in 1891.
Electric vacuum cleaners were used for the first time on White House carpets in 1922.
The White House acquired its first electric refrigerator in 1926.
Technicians installed air conditioning in the White House’s private quarters in 1933.
President Truman used the White House as a film backdrop for presidential addresses and hosted a televised tour of the newly renovated White House with news reporter Walter Cronkite in 1952.
President Eisenhower gave the first televised presidential news conference in 1955; the first live televised news conference was broadcast during the Kennedy administration.
