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Well, few people ever get to experience the White House the way President Clinton and his family did.

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They lived in a virtual history museum for eight years,

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but each president puts his own touch on the White House. Susan Malveaux toured its art collection.

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This is the red room; it's the sort of mirror image of the green room --

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the two rectangular parlors that flank that oval-shaped blue room in between.

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And what kind of art in general is here at the White House?

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Well, we have...I mean, principally our collection is portraits of presidents and first ladies.

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We'll get to that with White House curator Bill Allman in a minute. First, some surprises.

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The most famous portrait inside the White House is this portrait of George Washington.

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And as famous as it is, it actually has a mistake.

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Here it says "The Constitution and Laws of the United Sates." It's missing a "t." 

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The painting is the only piece of art saved from the original White House that burned down.

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Officially there are more than 500 works of art here,

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but nearly everything is considered part of the collection, from the cloth walls, carpets, furniture and odd objects. 

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One of the most interesting pieces is this silver-plated hot water urn.

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Above the spigot it is engraved with the initials J.A.A. for John and Abigail Adams.

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And this unique chair, can I sit in this chair?

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Sure.

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Tell me who has sat in this chair before.

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Most often it's the first lady.

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I think, you know, Mrs. Bush, Mrs. Clinton both particularly liked that chair and the guests got to sit in this chair.

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And this is considered part of the artwork, this is considered a part of the historical collection?

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Right. Now unlike most museums where everything is under glass and behind ropes, you know,

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here the nature of the White House collection is for people to come in and actually be able to enjoy it in the sense of sitting on the chair,

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walking on the carpet, eating off the china.

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Bill, I have to say, I am enjoying this chair. It's very comfortable.

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You let me know when I can eat off the china, OK?

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Most of the pieces on the first floor are from the 19th century, traditional portraits and landscapes

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with a few recent modern editions like this abstract by African-American artist Jacob Lawrence.

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There are fresh flowers everywhere.

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Fresh flowers were not in the White House until the 1850s. It was considered unhealthy.

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They had glass or cloth flowers, and they ask all the time.

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They're always asking me, you know, what are the species?

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Those are roses. That's roses. I got roses down. Beyond that...

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But very beautiful. Part of the art as well.

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350,000 visitors traipse through each year.

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And like I promised, all the past presidents and first ladies are here.

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President Monroe was painted by Samuel Morse, who invented the telegraph.

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This one [is] based on the idea that Lincoln [is] sitting in this chair

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listening to his generals and his admiral advise him on how to bring the civil war to a conclusion.

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President Kennedy was done by Aaron Shikler. It's a very, sort of, contemplative...looking down,

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you know, with the weight of the world on your shoulders kind of painting.

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And that's what Mrs. Kennedy wanted. So, let's go take a look at the first ladies.

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OK. So, this is the ground floor corridor.

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Here Hillary Clinton, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Bird Johnson and Eleanor Roosevelt.

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The art collection of the first family, their private collection is in the residence in the east and west wings.

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That's where you see their personality and their tastes reflected in their artwork.