Lorraine Waxman Pearce
- Position
- Curatorial Staff
- Years in President's House
- 1961 – 1962
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- White
- Presidency
- John F. Kennedy
- Biography
Lorraine Waxman Pearce was born on April 14, 1934, in the Bronx, New York. She attended the High School of Music and Arts (now known as Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School) and, in 1955, earned a B.S. in Education from the City College of New York. She received a Fulbright scholarship to study European History in Strasbourg, France, and later continued her studies at the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture through the University of Delaware, graduating in 1958 with a master’s degree.1
On the recommendation of Henry Francis du Pont, chair of the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy hired Lorraine Waxman Pearce as the first White House Curator in March 1961. Du Pont was Pearce’s mentor and had previously hired her as a registrar at his museum, Winterthur. As White House Curator, Perace was initially responsible for cataloging items in and screening objects for the White House Collection, but her role quickly expanded to include “creating the proper museum climate of respect for American antiquities, instructing staff members on care of priceless historic pieces, and conducting scholarly research to determine historic authenticity of items, and finally, to pass the information on to the public.”2
Lorraine Waxman Pearce recalled, “I was the first curator. There was no machinery to be a curator: no backup, no staff, no real money to do the work for which I'd been trained. Just a roomful of mail.”3 During her brief tenure at the White House, Pearce laid the foundation for the Office of the Curator. She transformed piles of letters into acquisitions, created guidelines for the White House Collection, cataloged art and objects, oversaw restoration projects, and was the primary author of The White House: An Historic Guide.
Pearce left the White House in 1962, later running her own antiques business and teaching about decorative arts. She died on March 14, 2017, and was buried at Charlottesville Hebrew Cemetery in Virginia.4 In 2026, the White House Historical Association worked with the Pearce family to digitize the Lorraine Waxman Pearce Collection.5
- Mary L. Vaughan, “A New White House Post: 26 Year Old Washington Mother Named Curator,” The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), March 30, 1961, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn83045462/1961-03-30/ed-1/?sp=55&q=curator+pearce+&r=-0.107..
- “U. Of D. Women to Hear White House Curator,” Smyrna Times (Smyrna, DE), February 1, 1962, https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn84020422/1962-02-01/ed-1/?sp=4&q=curator+pearce+&r=-0.151.
- Lorriane Pearce, The Woman Who Furnished Camelot (Sum 94), interview by Dr. Stephen O’Connor, Udel.edu, 1994, https://www1.udel.edu/PR/Messenger/94/4/35.html.
- “Lorraine Waxman Pearce,” Hill & Wood Funeral Service, https://www.hillandwood.com/obituaries/Lorraine-Waxman-Pearce?obId=12135115.
- “Lorraine Waxman Pearce Collection,” White House Historical Association, https://www.whitehousehistory.org/digital-archives/projects/the-lorraine-waxman-pearce-collection.
- Birthplace
- Bronx, New York, USA
- Burial Place
- Charlottesville Hebrew Cemetery
- Blue markers indicate birthplaces and green markers indicate burial places. Black markers are used for places of both birth and burial.
- Related Association Content
- Hail to the Chief Curator: A HistoryLearn about the role of White House curator and the individuals who have held it throughout time.
- The Lorraine Waxman Pearce CollectionExplore digitized images, documents, and audio recordings from the private collection of Lorraine Waxman Pearce.