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  • Article

    "Proud Housewife": Mamie Eisenhower Collects for the White House

    Every presidential family that resides in the White House leaves a mark on the building and its traditions. The extent of a family’s influence on the physical White House depends usually on its length of residence and its inclinations to take the trouble to make changes. History plays a part as well. While major additions to the White House an

  • Article

    A Small Slice of Kennedy Decor: The Queens’ Sitting Room

    Although the legacy of Jacqueline Kennedy’s interior decoration at the White House is fixed in Americans’ minds, there seems to be a general impression that the rooms, both public and private, have not been changed during the 40 years since her time here. Certainly much of the private quarters have been adjusted to suit the individual tastes of the succeeding firs

  • Article

    The White House Collection: The Beaux Arts Furnishing of 1902

    One of the principal goals that governed the architectural changes made to the White House in 1902 by McKim, Mead & White—to refurnish the interior of the building in harmony with its exterior architecture—was adhered to in furnishing the State Rooms. The eclecticism of the variety of forms and styles of furniture and other decorative objects designed and made for

  • Scholarship

    The Chandeliers of the East Room

    After ascending the staircase from the Ground Floor to the State Floor, the first room that visitors on a tour of the White House encounter is the East Room. As the largest room in the Executive Mansion, it has accommodated weddings, funerals, State Dinners, and much more, but during the nineteenth century it was primarily used as a reception space

  • Scholarship

    The Diplomatic Reception Room's Historic Wallpaper

    After the destruction of the White House by the British in 1814, the Executive Mansion was reconstructed with a servants’ hall directly below the Elliptical Saloon (today’s Blue Room). In 1837, President Marten Van Buren repurposed the servants’ hall as a furnace room in order to provide heat for the building, a significant milestone in White House technology. By the time of The