William Seale

William Seale is an American historian and author.
He attended Southwestern University (BA 1961) and Duke University (MA 1964 and PhD 1965). He taught for several years at Lamar University, the University of Houston, the University of South Carolina, and Columbia University. From 1973-1974 he was curator of cultural history at the Smithsonian Institution. Since 1975 he has been an independent scholar concerned with historical writing and the restoration of historic American buildings, notably state capitols.
His books include, The President’s House: A History, 2 vols. (White House Historical Association, 1986 and 2008), The White House: History of an American Idea (White House Historical Association, 2005); The Tasteful Interlude: American Interiors Through the Camera’s Eye (Praeger Publishers, 1975), Recreating the Historic House Interior (American Association for State and Local History Press, 1988), Restoration of the Kentucky Governor’s Mansion (State of Kentucky, 1984), Restoration of the Michigan Capitol, State of Michigan, Kent State University Press, 1988), with Erik Kvalsvik, Domestic Views (Abrams, 1992), and various guide books and local histories relating to architecture, such as The Virginia Governor’s Mansion (1986), with Henry-Russell Hitchcock, Temples of Democracy: The State Capitols of the USA (Harcourt 1976), and Courthouse (Bonanza, 1977).
His restoration projects include the state capitols of Michigan, Ohio, Kansas, Florida, Mississippi, Alabama, and historical consultation on the capitols of Minnesota, Alaska, and New Jersey. Historic houses include Dodona Manor, the Gen. George C. Marshall House, Leesburg, Virginia, Ten Chimneys, home of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne, Genessee Depot, Wisconsin, George Eastman House, Rochester, New York, Ximenez-Fatio House, St. Augustine, Florida, Old Governor's Mansion (Milledgeville, Georgia), and many others over a period of twenty-five years.
Seale is editor of White House History, the award-winning journal of the White House Historical Association.
In 2013 he served as a consultant and panelist for the Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN) production, First Ladies: Influence and Image, that would run for two seasons.[1]