New WHHA online shop

The White House Historical Association has a new online shop that promises "several new sections and improved navigation." Take a look.

The site is still a bit slow, and the categories are a little too small ("Serving Accessories"?).

Open post: What this country needs....

After an e-mail exchange on the subject of Tade Styka's equestrian portrait of TR in the Roosevelt Room, it occurred to me that what this country needs is a dollar coin with TR's portrait. Was there ever a face better suited to the obverse of hard specie? I ask you, what face has this nation chosen to chisel in stone 60 feet high and yet not mounted on a minted round? And don't tell me he's already on the reverse of the South Dakota quarter. Theodore Roosevelt should not have to appear in the company of a ring-necked pheasant!

I know that he'll get his moment in a few years, but he'll be lumped in with McKinley, Taft, and Wilson, for pity's sake. Maybe TR's could be a two dollar coin. The man needs his own denomination! And for the reverse? A bull moose whacking a Spaniard with a big stick.

Dispatch from Fort Necessity

Lousy connectivity from the Doubletree in Pittsburgh this week is making it difficult to do any kind of online activity. Nevertheless, I managed to just acquire this fine miniature of the White House from the Danbury Mint via Ebay.

I already have the 5-inch version, which is considerably less detailed and accurate. This one is the 9-inch version and much better all around. I also recently acquired a 1950s-era plastic model that is quite accurate, altho it seems to have the 1917 roof.