please welcome leslie jones. [ applause ] >> good evening. thank you for choosing to spend your thursday night here with us at the maryland historical society. that was a very generous introduction. thank you, mark. so we're just going to go ahead and get started. i believe i'm cueing to you for slides. thank you. so, oh, the terrible velvet curtains. benjamin henry latrobe and the madisons decorate the white house. this image right here on the very front is actually the earliest known published image of the white house from a travel book. at this time when the madisons came into the white house, only part of the white house had been finished before the british came, marched into washington and ended up burning the city to the ground. its original architect, irishman james hoban, won the competition set forth by washington and jefferson in 1792 to build what washington envisioned for the president's house, i would design a building that should look forward and execute no more of it at present than might suit the circumstances that shall be fi