White House Historical Association tidbits

Mike B notes:

The White House Historical Association has a supplement to the Historic Guide 22ND edition [PDF]. Some great photos here, especially one of the Lincoln Sitting Room I've never seen before!

The Lincoln Sitting Room looks great, and the President's Dining Room is beautiful, altho I'm not crazy about the O'Keefe. There are also some nice photos of the West Wing rooms.

The WHHA site has been somewhat redone. While I was there I ordered a couple of the WHH journals I didn't have yet.

Lincoln Sitting Room

Steven B has come up with a nice pic of the Lincoln Sitting Room from around 2006. Hurray!

South Portico sun room?

Along with the better image of the 1911 lights picture, Robert Martin sent along a good one of Cortelyou in his bay-windowed office in the old West Wing and an interesting one of Coolidge with bankers outside the South Portico, where there appears to be a glassed-in room built between the columns. (LOC page for a higher-res look.)

TR Oval

Just added a great image of the Yellow Oval Room in 1909, sent by Stephen Martin. However, this makes the circa 1910 date of another image a little suspect. Did Taft put moulding on the walls and then someone remove it by 1930?

Chuck and Diane

The visits of Charles and Diana (the Waleses, don't you know) must have been a big deal in the Reagan White House. More photos keep popping up from time to time. The one I've just added is of the second floor dining room set up for a little dinner party.

The one of Diana dancing with John Travolta in the Entrance Hall is famous. There is a nice one of them sitting in the West Sitting Hall. And the State Dining Room has one taken from a high corner, that must have been tricky to rig. Next I suppose we'll see one of them lounging by the pool or perhaps bowling. Better still, we'd see one of Charles reacting to being served a cup of tea with a tea bag in it.

Also just added, the Reagan Green Room.

Third floor

As promised, I added three photos to the Solarium, or Sun Room, and—since I now have more than one photo of it—created a page for the Linenarium, or Linen Room.

Also, the marvelous vice-presidential ceremonial office in the EEOB suffered a fire the other day. Please try to restrain your impulse to joke about Dick Cheney's smoldering good looks.

Solarium and more

Christina has sent along even more terrific photos dug out of Getty Images. I'll post some of the Solarium and others in the next couple of days.

Meanwhile, the WH has pics of the first lady entertaining in her office.

Getty image trove

Christina has passed along a passel of photos from the Getty archive that I neglected in my searches (I was focused on the new Situation Room at the time). It's a dizzying collection of candid moments thruout the Residence mainly from the Johnson and Ford years. I'll be posting them over the weekend.

In the past, I've scraped the brutally ugly watermark off the handful of Getty images I've used, leaving a blurry smudge that isn't necessarily better (the process involves using parts of the tiny thumbnail version). But I'll post most of these as they are, with links to Getty for proper credit. Hopefully, publishers who can actually afford to pay for images for commercial projects will find them here and jump to the Getty site to buy them and thereby make up for my (credited, noncommercial, educational, public service, fair use) appropriation.

UPDATE: Added several photos from Johnson to Bush 1. I'm not 100% confident about the Ford Beauty Salon photo and I'm baffled by one that I initially thought was the Living Room (formerly president's bedroom). It doesn't seem to match the one I already have from that era and the space under the window is missing the characteristic pattered vent.

To Christina, I award the Jackie Kennedy There's-Got-Be-Some-Decent-Antiques-Here-Somewhere Award. Thanks, Christina!

UPDATE: The votes are in on the Ford sitting room photo; it is surely the Presidential Suite of the Bethesda Naval Hospital after Mrs. Ford's surgery.

Girl power

Visitor Christina pointed out that the Ford Library has posted some additional photos of the Fords, including a great one of the first lady in her dressing room with an ERA banner.

Jackson's White House

Got a question about Jackson's White House from a fiction author, so, in addition to replying with details, I added an 1829 diagram to the Residence second floor page.

Magnolia

The Park Service is planting a magnolia tree in front of the Residence. It seems rather... centered. I hope they aren't obscuring the view of the house from the street. Security is one thing, but Lincoln didn't hide behind any foliage. What next—a presidential ghillie suit?

WH Visitors Center rarities

I added a couple of photos that I shot in the WH Visitors Center in DC. They were 19th century images of the executive offices that I hadn't seen before. After some clean-up, they turned out quite nice.

Inside the White House

Added several photos I got from Inside the White House by Betty Boyd Caroli.

Big storm knocked out access to the series of tubes that is the Internets. Just got access back after about 28 hours. What did I do in the meantime? Law & Order marathon on USA. And bailing water out of my basement.

Miscellany

Added a few various photos, including a couple sent by Stephen B that include the Carter bedroom. Anybody know what issue that came from?

Chocolate mystery

During the trip home, I read most of the kitchens issue of WH History (issue 20). In it, former pastry chef Roland Mesnier mentions that, on the morning of September 11, 2001, he was in "what we call the Chocolate Room, which is located near to the exit door on the Ground Floor." A PVC Chocolates page mentions it also, saying it's a "recent addition... the size of a large closet." I'm guessing that this is the space referred to in the HABS photos as the Refrigerator Room, but the picture of Mesnier in the "Chocolate Shop" (p 41) doesn't look like the HABS picture of the Refrigerator Room.

Kitchen day

It's kitchen day! Get your kitchen photos. And read all about the kitchens, courtesy of the WH Historical Association.

Jefferson's White House and ours

Finally got a chance to read thru WH History #17, which explores Jefferson's White House and includes a few terrific recent photos, which I've added. The part on Jefferson is rather thin on details about the house itself and deals more with servants and dining, but it did provide some interesting tidbits that I added to the 1803 first floor plan. I've also added a separate page for Jefferson's enhancements to the house.

UPDATE: New Green Room from Time.

Green Room makeover

The Green Room has gotten new carpet and some reupholstered chairs, according to the Wa Po.

Coolidge

Added a few Coolidge-era photos from the WH History collection, including state rooms and West Wing.

Kennedy revisit

Added several images from the Kennedy era showing some of the renovation. Also included the layout of the West Wing at the time.

Sofas

Joe asks:

Any reason the Monroe era sofa in the Blue Room has been replaced by the McKim, Mead, and White sofa? And if so what happened to the earlier sofa?

I don't know of a reason, so we might put it down to taste. And sometimes furniture is switched so it can be repaired or reupholstered. I don't think the Monroe sofa would be put anywhere else.

1970s again

Added more of the 1970s photos and one from 2001. The Carter West Sitting Hall was a real mish-mash of pattern and color. Ugh.

1970s and others

Added several great photos from the Nixon renovation and a few others, sent by Christopher S. Several more coming.

1952 and 1962 second floor

I cleaned up the 1952 and 1962 second floor plans. The 1952 plans came from the Report of the CREM and had every single door numbered and several other extraneous markings. The 1962 plans are a reconstruction based on the 1952 plans. The result is much cleaner and still accurate.

Miscellany

Added a few more images that were left over.

UPDATE: Fixed a couple of mistakes and added a couple of extras that I had gotten from the LOC and never added.

Intereriors

Finally got thru the last of the interiors from the NYPL and the remainder of the good plates from Singleton's Story.... Singleton's book came out shortly after the turn of the century, so there was a good selection of 1890s as well as 1900s photos, which is just what was missing from the NYPL selection.

Etchings

Several new additions of the mid-1800s, mostly sent by Christopher S.

Now that I have so many great images from that era, I'm breaking out a new page or two in the history to provide more detail.

It occurs to me that the Bush renovations may warrant a page of their own. The list of rooms they have renovated is substantial: the Family Theater, Press Briefing Room, pool cabana, Sit Room.... And they've redecorated several family rooms and West Wing rooms.

Red Room and more

Added several photos to the Red Room page, as well as a couple of strays elsewhere, including a great one of the FDR West Sitting Room from Christopher S.

Green Room and more

Added some pictures of the Green Room room and one stray pic of the old main staircase with the Clevelands leaving for their honeymoon, at least as it was imagined by a Harper's Weekly illustrator. Not as much change in the Green Room as in others. The the chandelier globes and ceiling decor are about the only clues in 1880s and 90s. It's possible that I just haven't found a real 1893-1902 photo yet.

State Dining Room

Added some photos to the State Dining Room page showing the same kind of changes—chandeliers, Johnson's geometric walls being repainted—thru the 1870s and 1880s that are apparent in other rooms.

It's too bad that Johnson didn't have the whole mansion properly photographed before his daughter made it over, so that we'd have a better historical record of the house in Lincoln's time. After all, they knew they were living in an extraordinary time and that Lincoln was destined to be a major historical figure.

UPDATE: Holy crap, I rushed my birthday. When I wrote this post late last night, I post-dated it and skipped a day. Hurray! I'm still only 39! In your face, Jack Benny!

Family rooms

Now available: old photos of the Family Dining Room, Master Bedroom, and Living Room in the 19th century. These were tricky to date, and I might not have them right yet.

UPDATE: I went back in and found a few pictures that offered zoom functionality. This allowed me to get more detailed captures of parts of the image, which was helpful in the case of the stereographs. Still working on the Red and Green, State Dining, Yellow Oval, and north and south face pictures.

East Room

Added several images to the East Room page showing the fascinating changes from the 1860s thru the 1890s and even one of JBK's "portable" theater.

UPDATE: I've made several changes based on an improved understanding of the changes made by Grant/Patterson in 1873 and Arthur/Tiffany in 1882. I think I need to expand my renovations pages.

Junk and stuff

Added some more pictures from the LOC, NYPL, John in NOLA, and other acronyms.

I've been sequencing the NYPL pics of the East, Green, and Red rooms, scanning for all the little details that indicate the date (since almost none of them are dated) and I'm getting a little dizzy. I think it's all the 3D effects from looking at the stereographs.

UPDATE: Link to WHHA PDF where I got the 1918 China Room pic, also containing the pic of Gugler's Oval Office design with different 1934 window treatment.

Blue Room, you saw me standing alone...

Added several images from the NYPL stereographs of the Blue Room from the 1860s, 1870s, and 1890s. You can see the changes in chandelier, sconces, and wall coverings over the decades.

More from the LOC

More from the LOC, including four spectacular color etchings from around 1887.

UPDATE: Had to remove the links to the JBK video, since they had been removed from YouTube.

Early etchings

Added some mid-1800s etchings to various rooms in the Residence, most of these from Seale's ...Idea. It's funny how etchings are pretty common in this pre-photography period but not earlier, in the 1800-1840 era.

Something... amazing

Christopher S sent a link to the New York Public Lib'ary site where there is something... amazing. This will require some time to digest. If you're peeking at this post early; do not follow that link.

UPDATE: Great collection of mostly-stereograph, mostly-late 1800s photos. Unfortunately, the New York public lib'arians aren't providing very high-res scans (at least considering what is left when you crop the frame and one 'graph from a stereograph).

The ghost of White House past

Christina R sent a link to Google's scan of Esther Singleton's The Story of the White House, a 1907 two-volume examination of the history of the executive mansion (the link goes to volume 2). The image scans aren't good enough to make use of here, but most are well-known LOC images. Still, it would be nice to get hold of a copy by honest means.

She also mentioned how nice it would be to get color photos of Mamie Eisenhower's bedroom. And it occured to me that, as proud a woman as she was, photos probably do exists. With the release of the new photos on the Eisenhower Library site, maybe we'll eventually see ones of the bedrooms too. Then it occured to me that it would really be something if the WHHA worked with the Ike Library to create a "retro" An Historic Guide, seeing as how the Eisenhowers just missed having one. There are apparently enough good color photos after all. They might even be able to do Truman and FDR eras.

UPDATE: Found a cheap copy on Alibris.

The "lavish" Mr. Van Buren

I added a quote from Rep. Charles Ogle (W-PA) to the Blue Room from his "Gold Spoon" speech decrying President Van Buren's living habits. It's a notoriously unfair tirade (which I tried to make clear) but points out some interesting things and is nicely indicative of the haranguing that many presidents take over ordinary expenditures. Seale has an article on it in PDF format.

His speech also covered the East Room and State Dining Room and mentions the Green and (at the time) Yellow Parlors. The dining room bit is especially nasty, in that Ogle implies that Van Buren--and not Ogle's fellow Whig, Monroe--bought the great gold "plateau."

National Geographic 1961

Got my hands on a January 1961 National Geographic with the tour of the Eisenhower White House. It has a number of beautiful photographs (candy-coated Kodachrome), so I added some of the Kitchen and Library, a pair of wonderful pics of the Vermeil Room that were badly needed to document the era, and one great one of the Treaty Room as Monroe Room. But—alas!—no look inside Mamie's pink bedroom....

Also added a couple more strays from the Truman library.

Update: Thanks to John in NOLA for tipping me off to the Nat'l Geo issue. I think we should do a list of all the magazines issues with big WH pictorials. I think there's a '93 Arc Dig I need to add to my collection.

Creme de la CREM

Delved back into the Report of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion from 1952 and added floor plans from there. I'm not sure why I hadn't done this before, because I photographed some of the plans months ago so I could draw the modern second and third floor plans.

As a part of this, I saw a diagram I hadn't noticed before. It shows a cross-section of the East Sitting Hall looking west, and shows clearly how the hidden staircase to the third floor is structured.

U of U collection

I posted a few new photos: one of the Palm Room entrance from Time's WH blog and a couple from the University of Utah's Marriott Library collection of Truman photos. These are the same Abbie Rowe photos but larger. However, I can't figure out how to get the full-size source pic; the link to the TIFs are all broken.

Both Truman photos are a little shaky. I'm pretty sure I've put them in the right rooms (today's Beauty Salon and Visitors Foyer), but I'm not certain.

Steven and Stephen

Added several terrific pictures send by Steven B and Stephen M, including some of the early Blue Room and Oval Office and some of the family quarters in the Reagan and Kennedy eras. Thanks guys!

UPDATE: I hereby award John in NOLA and Dennis the JB West Attention to Detail Award.

More from the Truman Library

Looking over the Truman renovation report again, I noticed that the west side of the third floor, aside from being labeled "pent house," is described in the New Furnishings section as "Servants' Rooms #315-#322."

That led me to search the Truman Library collection again and add a few more pictures, including a new separate page for Bathroom 315 and the Master Bathroom.

New front page: Ike Oval Office

I changed the front page to one of the great new color photos of Eisenhower's Oval Office.

Also: stumbled upon a great photo of Executive Pastry Chef Yosses in the Pastry Kitchen on the ABC News blog.

East Room pre-Lincoln?

Stephen B sent this scan of an etching of the East Room that looks to him and to me to be pre-Lincoln. I'm not sure of where it came from (original had a frame that made it look like probably a postcard) and Stephen didn't give a hint as to its origin or age. Any takers?

I've tentatively added it to the page (with a circa 1858 date) for easy comparison.

Ike-o-rama

Andy send a note tipping me off to some Eisenhower WH photos now available on the Ike Library site. Great mansion interiors and exteriors and color Oval Office snaps! Wow! More here...

Thanks Andy! I'll get right to work on these. The WHM has been light on Ike all along.

UPDATE: Stuck in ORD for three hours, I added 16 Ike-era images, which nicely filled in holes on a dozen pages. Check out the porthole TV in the West Sitting Hall!

Andy's link to the Kennedy before-and-after photos. These are already included in the WHM.

New front page: Bush 2 Lincoln Bedroom

I changed the front page to one of the new Lincoln Bedroom. The WHHA seems to be holding off on a new An Historic Guide until the Bush renovations are complete, but that may be January 2009....

Interesting shot of the gold chairs in, I think, the East Room.

Also: congratulations to Mimlog on a, uh, Minilog.

Mrs. Madison's Oval Saloon

Posted an interesting artist's conception of Mrs. Madison taking down the red curtains in the oval drawing room to spririt them to safety before the British regulars arrived and made coats out of them, or whatever she imagined would happen. I'd love to see more reconstructions of this sort of thing. Heck, they do it for dinosaurs.

...Not that I want to see Dolley Madison with a reptilian snout and feathered arms....

Also, I've switched the second floor layout back to show the spiral stair in place of Margaret Truman's bathroom. I've tried to figure out how to wedge a lavatory in there, but it doesn't seem possible without making the kitchen considerably smaller. Maybe that's correct, but I won't bother without more evidence.

AND, I redid the 1880 second floor layout and added an 1880 first floor layout.

Picture day!

Picture day at the White House! The staff apparently organized several college groups in different rooms around the Residence, and the president ran from one to the next to pose with them. Putting the Berkeley group in the bathroom seems partisan to me, but maybe they requested it.... ;-)

Note: A quick check reveals no flip flops! That's probably a WH photo op rule now, but you gotta know that some showed up in them anyway and had to borrow Laura's pumps.

Kennedy kitchen remodel

Stephen M sent a note about the history of Margaret Truman's bathroom and the kitchen elevator that convinces me that the bathroom still exists in place of the spiral stairs. The basic gist is that, "according to Carl Sferrazza Anthony's book, The Kennedy White House (see page 66) the bathroom was retained." I've changed the floor plan accordingly.

JBK videos on YouTube

Pete sent a link to the Kennedy tour videos on YouTube, so I added them to the appropriate pages on the first floor and second floor. The two videos start with the State Dining Room and the Lincoln Bedroom. If would be nice if the videos were pieced out to separate each room, but I've given the time code for the start where appropriate.

Lady Bird's gilded cage

Pete dug up a great image of LBJ, Mrs., in what appears to be her dressing room off the Master Bedroom in 1968, via NARA. It has wallpaper and furniture I've never seen before, but she appears to have kept Jackie's curtains.

The 19th century White House in oil

Peter Waddell is an artist commissioned by the WH Historical Association to recreate rooms from the 19th century. Wow!

Thanks to Steven B for the link!

Entrance Hall

Time's WH Photo Blog had a nice image of PM Blair departing thru the Entrance Hall, which for some reason, I haven't found many good recent pictures. There is also an interesting one of the new Sit Room, but it seemed redundant with other new ones (ooh, how spoiled I am now!).

Laura Bush's secret shame

No, it's not eating flowers; that's Homer Simpson's secret shame. Dr. Sanjay Gupta got Laura Bush to claim that she has stopped smoking. Reluctant in the past to reveal the first lady's sordid habit, WH correspondents may take the claim as a challenge and get a few photos of the more obscure corners of the WH exterior where Laura might be sneaking a smoke.

New old floor plans

As I promised previously, I've now added floor plans for the Residence second floor around 1863 and around 1880. However, comparing them side by side suggests that the 1863 diagram (a modern drawing from Seale's 2-volume The White House) has the old west stair wrong. It looks like the artist drew in the original west stair to me.

Also, I improved the 1901 second floor plan and added it to the second floor page. And I added all the floor plans to the appropriate renovation pages.

Historical floor plans

I recently added an 1803 state floor plan to complement the 1853 plans I had added a short while ago. I wish I had a matching 1803 second floor, but the first floor shows, I believe, one of the prime differences between the 1800 mansion and the 1817 mansion: the strange and awkward original grand stair at the west end of the Cross Hall. (Oh, what I would give for a contemporary etching of Jefferson on that stair...).

I also have a plan from around 1880, and I thought I had one from 1864 or so, which would have shown the house as Lincoln knew it, with the private passage thru today's Treaty Room to his office. Look for these soon.

Open post: State Dining Room chairs

There are two sets of chairs in common use in the State Dining Room: a large set of gilt chairs with unusual spindle backs and a smaller set of upholstered mahogany Queen Anne-style chairs. I believe the Queen Anne chairs date from the 1902 renovation and the gilt chairs from the Kennedy administration, purchased after one of the old bent-wood chairs broke under JFK during a dinner, but I'm not sure.

Fishin' in the LOC

I went looking thru the Library of Congress collection again and came up with several more photos of a little bit of everything to add to the site. A few are rather unfortunately poor quality (which is why I didn't get them when I first scoured the digital collection last year), but just having them is nice. Maybe the LOC will eventually add high-resolution versions, and it will be easy to go back and get those to replace the crummy ones. Particularly of interest are the floor plans from 1853, which—I realized once I collected them all—document the entire White House at the time. However, the images are too low resolution to read the room labels, unfortunately.

UPDATE: I found the same ground and second floor plans in Seale's WH: Idea, where they are clear enough to read the labels, so I've added them.

More Johnson and a little more Truman

Visitor Todd S sent a note about a mysterious picture in the Truman archives that turned out to be a mislabeled pic of the Vermeil Room in 1952 1948. While I was nosing around, I also found a pic of the Library in 1948, something else I didn't have. Now if I could only find some ground floor pics from the 1902 renovation....

Also, I added a several more images from the Johnson archives, and a pic that John in NOLA sent a while ago of the Nellie Custis (Washington) sofa.

Bowling alley

I added a couple of pictures to the Bowling Alley page and, based on some new info, I put labels on the ground floor map to show where (I think) the Bowling Alley and Flower Shop are.

The porticoes

I added a 1906 pic of the North Portico and a terrific 1858 pic of the South Portico that I found in the Library of Congress. These go nicely with the text I added in the wee hours last night.

This just made me notice that t