Michael S Smith named as decorator

Visitor Halcyon notes in the comments on another post that Michael S Smith has been named as the Obama's decorator. Keep your fingers crossed that he passes confirmation by the Senate.* Halcyon says:

To me, this is good news.
Smith announced today his first project is having a very old burled Maple four poster converted from a full to a king size bed. (this last part not in the article, but a buzz from a Rhode Island Designer I know)

* I may have that wrong.

UPDATE: The Bed. AP via PinkPillbox.

More miscellany

I've posted more miscellaneous photos (check the What's New page) and some changes to the China Collection page to reflect the new acquisitions.

New china

Nick V alerted me to an announcement by the first lady of two new sets of china (a formal one of 320 and an informal one of 75 settings) and a Family Dining Room rug that have "been in the works for several years" but which were just delivered.

Check out that informal setting. Let me be the first to say "Waiter, there's a bug in my soup."

HMS Resolute writing table

Here's something I don't think I've seen before: the writing table companion to the partner desk given to President Hayes by Queen Victoria, both made from timbers of the Resolute. If I recall correctly, the desk shown in Buckingham Palace in National Treasure 2: The Ridiculous Sequel was the queen's actual current desk, a rather horsey-looking secretary.

Obamas visit the White House

The Obamas visited the White House today to talk transition. The event happens to afford us the best view I've seen of the Bush 2 Oval Office rug border.
There's also a nice pic of the incoming and outgoing first ladies in the West Sitting Hall.

White Gold and Jackie

Here is an awesome music video commercial for milk. Warning: if you watch for too long, you'll accidentally see the hour-long 1962 Jackie Kennedy White House tour.

White House contractors

I got a request looking for information on businesses that do contract work for the White House. I know pretty much all the regular maintenance is done by in-house staff and the Parks Department, tho. The one thing that came to mind is the making of the Oval Office rugs and some of the furniture. Rode Brothers laid a new Oval Office floor a few years ago, for one. I believe Scott Group made the rug for the Clinton Oval Office, but I don't know they have an ongoing relationship with the WH.

Anybody know more about this?

Resolute desk

Visitor Ryan is interested in plans for the Resolute desk...

hi, i am looking to start carving and building my own exact replica of the hms resolute desk, i was wondering if you know of the exact measurements of the desk overall size and if any other measurements of it , drawings, and what not. and i fully agree with you on the full replica of the white house and a museum . maybe in 7 years from now when i run for congress i can help you obtain that goal, or if luck is on my side maybe when i am president in 2028.

Does anyone know of any such plans?

North Portico lamp

Visitor Merlin writes:

Do you have any information about the large light fixture that hangs in the North Portico, including the name of the manufacturer? It appears in a 1906 photo on your website but is not visible in a 1902 photo, so it must date from sometime in that interval.

State Dining Room furniture copies

Visitor Ben writes:

I am trying to find chairs for my
dining room similar to the gold upholstered 1902
chairs in the State Dining Room. Kittinger has a
similar chair, but it doesn't have the same simplified
lines as the chairs in the White House collection.
Have you ever run across the manufacturer of the
chairs in any of your research? I imagine
reproductions have been made since 1902...just
wondering if you have any leads.

West Wing Lobby clock

Visitor Jim writes:

Recently my wife was privileged to a White House tour. She was particularly interested in a “federal” (?) style clock on the wall in the West Wing Lobby, first floor (see attached pic. from your site). Can you tell us anything about the clock’s mfg., age, history, etc??

Anybody got any help for Jim?

The president's call button

Time has graciously served up a nice photo of the president's call button, under discussion here recently. Thanks Brooks Kraft!

Resolute desk

Time has a really nice photo of the Resolute desk plaque.

Art question

Océano Pablo Navarro from Spain writes:

I found the enclosed picture of the Reagans with Prince Charles and Lady Diana in the Yellow Oval Room [actually the West Sitting Hall] and though I've searched all the web, I couldn't know who is the painter of the impressionist beach scene hanging on the wall.
Could you please give me this information?

Update: He got a reply back from Hillary Crehan of the WHHA that...

The painting in the image is entitled: At the Seaside by Edward Potthast. This painting was borrowed from a private collection and is shown hanging in the West Sitting Hall.

CBS at the White House

CBS has a video interview with Laura Bush about the holiday decor. Hannah Storm: "Now I'm off to a Harper's Bazaar photo shoot -- with cardboard cutouts of the candidates!" How will she tell?

CNN has the best WH holiday pictures I've seen so far.

Bear chair

I stumbled across a page with some information about the fantastic grizzly bear chair that Andrew Johnson had in the his library (the Yellow Oval Room).

Made from two grizzly bears captured by Seth [Kinman]. The four legs and claws were those of a huge grizzly and the back and sides ornamented with immense claws. The seat was soft and exceedingly comfortable, but the great feature of the chair was that, by touching a cord, the head of the monster grizzly bear with jaws extended, would dart out in front from under the seat, snapping and gnashing its teeth as natural as life. This chair Seth presented to [President] Johnson, September 8, 1865.

Yes, the head would dart out from underneath... natural as life....

Who is WHAT?

Portfolio Art Blog notes that the White House Acquisition Trust bought The Builders (Jacob Lawrence, 1947) for the Green Room for $2.5 mill. Who is WHAT? Wikipedia says its a fund for buying stuff for the WH and is worth $8.5 mill, or was until recently.

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.

Oval Office rug mouse pads

After I mentioned it on the Facebook discussion about WH product wish-lists, I traded a couple of notes with a contact from MouseRug about the possibility of them creating mouse pads of the Oval Office rugs. They're going to look into it.

I've added pics of the Reagan and Bush 2 rugs and improved the Clinton one, but the quality isn't the best (the Bush rug is really Pete's repro). I had inquired with the National Archives a year ago about photos of OO rugs and got an ambivalent response, but no follow-up.

Open post: mantelpieces

Feel free to comment on the history of mantels thruout the White House. (And feel free to spell it "mantle" if you like; I obviously thoroly approve of alternative spellings.)

Resolute desk question

Allen L asks about the Resolute desk:

In some photos of the desk througout history there is a plaque on it. In some photos its on the front of the desk and in some its on the back (where someone would be seated) and now it doesn't seem to be there at all. My questions are

1. If the plaque is no longer there..where is it? who had it removed and why?

and

2. Why is the plaque on different sides of the desk depending on the photo?

Furnishings

Added a separate page for the china collection and linked to it from the furnishings page, where I also added an entry for Stuart's stony-jawed (or hippo-jawed, as the case may be) Washington.

Bellangé bergère

Patrick P writes about the Monroe-era bergère chair in the Blue Room, noting that pic I have on that page is outdated now, since the chair has since been reupholstered properly with a separate cushion (as seen here). He offers a link to this interesting article on the subject. I'm adding a page for it.

I added a capture of the black and white image from that article, but it would be nice to have a good color picture of the chair as it is today, so be on the lookout.

With the thoughts I'd be thinkin'...

I could be another Lincoln, if I only had a Lincoln Bedroom, with matching Lincoln bed.

Treaty Room

I overhauled the text of the Treaty Room and added some pics of the furnishings and a good one of the actual treaty signing that gave it its name. I'm continuing to add to the Furnishings pages, but it's not quite ready for prime time.

Directions...

As the site grows, I’m trying to decide how best to present information without it becoming overwhelming. The White House site divides their room coverage into “Life in the Red Room” and “Red Room Art and Furnishings” and so on. But this seems kind of awkward to me, especially since pieces get moved around from one administration to the next. The White House site is mainly concerned with the rooms as they are today, with smatterings of history to make it interesting, whereas I want to allow people to see how the White House has changed over the decades. Still, the old Cabinet table with locking drawers currently in the Treaty Room is perfectly worthy of a bit of attention on its own, let alone the Lincoln bed and Resolute desk.

As a corporate training consultant, I’m also considering how to turn the site into more of a structured educational experience, with teaching aids and quizzes or whatever, so teachers can use it directly in their history lessons.