Before she became first lady, presidents and their families had taken furniture and other items from the White House when they left office; this led to the lack of original historical pieces. She personally wrote to possible donors in order to track down these missing furniture and other historical pieces of interest. Kennedy Onassis supported a Congressional bill saying that the White House furnishings would be the property of the Smithsonian Institution rather than available to an ex-president to claim as their own. She also founded the White House Historical Association, the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, the position of a permanent Curator of the White House, the White House Endowment Trust, and the White House Acquisition Trust.