Have you heard President John Quincy Adams kept an alligator he received as a gift in a bathtub in the White House's unfinished East Room?

He reportedly brought visitors over to view the animal until it was moved to a different home.

Hi, I'm Shannon, your friendly C-SPAN podcast producer, and this week the Lectures and History podcast focuses on White House

Myths. White House Historical Association Historian and American University lecturer, Matthew Costello,

talks about myths from the White House tunnel system to decorating traditions and even Dolly

Madison's rescue of George Washington's portrait. Stay tuned, class starts after this.

All right, so today's portrait. Stay tuned, class starts after this. All right, so today's topic, White House myths and popular culture.

You probably have come across these things multiple times,

whether you're researching things on the Internet,

maybe you even came across them as you were doing research

for your papers in this class.

But there are

a number of stories that just continue to get circulated and circulated and perpetuated.

And what I like about this is because you get to not only sort of debunk these things, but

you get to try to figure out where they really started and why people

grew so attached to them, because that also tells you a little bit more about how people

understand the past and how they use it or misuse it.

So, remember earlier in the semester we talked about the Jackson Magnolia?

In fact, I think a number of you went into detail about the Jackson Magnolia.

And I, was it Alex, was it you who wrote about the Jackson Magnolia?

Okay, so you already know all this.

But for everybody else, you know, think back to when Jonathan Pliska visited our class.

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