Mary Baun
Cite this Page
"Mary Baun," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/180.
- Position
- Kitchen Assistant
- Years in President's House
- circa 1829
- Legal Status
- Free Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Unclear from Context
- Presidency
- John Quincy Adams
- Biography
- In February 1829, President John Quincy Adams listed the members of his White House staff in his diary, including Mary Baun, whom Adams identified as a cook maid. She worked under Berney the cook, and alongside fellow cook maid Fanny Thomas.1 Mary does not appear in any other of Adams’s diary entries. As such, it is unclear when she began working at the White House. An inventory of Adams’s household employees taken in 1830 after his presidential term ended does not include Mary, indicating she did not follow Adams to Massachusetts to stay in his employ as some of the other White House staff did.2 Nothing else definitive is known about Mary.
- John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, February 1829, https://www.primarysourcecoop.org/publications/jqa/document/jqadiaries-v36i-1829-02-p129--entry29?navmode=searchresults&doci=0&ss=Baun
- John Quincy Adams Digital Diary, June 30, 1830, https://www.primarysourcecoop.org/publications/jqa/document/jqadiaries-v36-1830-06-p465--entry30?doci=19
- Birthplace
- Unclear from context
- Unclear from context
- Related Workers
- Auguste BernayKitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1828 – 1829
- Fanny ThomasKitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1829
- Berney
- Charlotte JenerKitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, circa 1829