John in NOLA reminded me of some White House videos I found on the CBS News web site that I could never get to run. I think I’ve got the wrong version of Javascript or something. If someone else can get them to play properly, let me know. If not, maybe the pages or the files themselves are actually set up incorrectly and the webmaster doesn’t know it. Other videos on the CBS News site run fine for me. (Arrgh.)
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Patrick P writes about the Monroe-era bergère chair in the Blue Room, noting that pic I have on that page is outdated now, since the chair has since been reupholstered properly with a separate cushion (as seen here).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.
Wingnut’s dream
As mentioned in the Lincoln post comments, Wingnut dreamed he got a chance to walk the halls of the White House and see all the nooks and crannies… but forgot his camera. That kicked off a series of others’ “dreams” for the White House. Mine is less about decor and more about architecture:
Turn the second floor small bedroom hall and entries into vestibules and their bathrooms into walk-in closets. Turn part of the north Closet Hall into a fenestrated bath for the east bedroom and the Beauty Salon into a fenestrated bath for the west bedroom. The vestibules create a space for a table and chair, where servants could pick up and leave trays and the occupants could drop bags, shoes, and coats. It turns hall space into closet space. And it gives me a chance to use the term “fenestrated.” I imagine plumbing over the Entrance Hall would be a pain, but I’m dreaming….
With the thoughts I’d be thinkin’…
I could be another Lincoln, if I only had a Lincoln Bedroom, with matching Lincoln bed.
HABS photo collection
Visitor Chris reports:
I contacted the Library of congress today about possibly getting a hold of the HABS collection in color. They put me in touch with the national park service. I called them and they connected me to the original phtographer who did the white house.
I asked him about possibly getting the white house collection in color and he told me that is doesnt exist. The black and whites are how they photograph them, however at some points in major areas they will throw in a color one from the same angle just, as he put it “for fun”.
Dang. Thanks for the news, Chris. I was just contemplating ordering prints of a few of the HABS photos in hopes of getting them in color. They’re $25 a piece for 8 x 10″, so this saved me some cash.
Presidential Pet Museum news
Got this from the Presidential Pet Museum—
As one of the first people who visited our website or supported the Presidential Pet Museum and Foundation, we want you to know that the Museum has relocated to 51 Maryland Avenue in Annapolis, Md. We would like to invite you to our official opening on Feb.17,18 & Presidents Day, from 11:00 to 6:00. We expect to unveil the Barney Bronze and would like you to join us. If not, we hope you will renew your friendship and support to our small museum and foundation and help up grow into a bigger and better institution. Your charitable donation, even $1.00 will support of the Presidential Pet Museum and Foundation for 2007. We attach our new Brochure and hope you continue as a friend, supporter, funder and contributor. Thank you.
Claire McLean, Founder
Claire has a pretty good site and an actual brick-and-mortar location near DC. Check it out.
On a related note: Go Colts!
Ford revisited
I got a 1975 WHHA journal the other day off Ebay and pulled several pics from it to fill out the era of the Nixon decor. It gave me my first good look at the Nixon Blue Room, for one thing, and great pics of the East Wing Garden Room, and West Wing Lobby.
More Reagan than you can shake a stick at
Logan P sent me a double helping of Reagan-era color photos from two different sources, one of which is the Dec 1981 issue of Architectural Digest (which, coincidentally, I had just bought on Ebay and which hadn’t arrived yet). That gave me my first look at the Master Bedroom Chinese wallpaper in color (a little underwhelming, actually) and Nancy’s study (a little overwhelming–it’s not Reagan red; it’s mint green!).
I’m pursuing permission from AD (Conde Nast, actually), but I’ll post them soon either way and take them down if I have too. I think they fall into fair use anyway, given that the site is purely educational, the pictures are of public interest, and the images I post are too small for print purposes, but I don’t want to step on copyrights where they apply.
Check the What’s New page.
Update: Okay–posted ’em. Boy, they look great. Thanks again, Logan!
The official 2007 museum director portrait
Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a new photo of me on the blog profile and the About page of the WHM that looks less like a self-portrait of a photography enthusiast taken in a mirror. I think it compares favorably with the one of Clinton looking like he had a little Captain in him.
Aside to John: I know how you like furniture, so before you ask–Yes, that’s a genuine 2005 Flexsteel “C5365” armchair covered in teal velveteen. Only the finest for Diamond VIP members at the Pittsburgh Doubletree.
Comfort, being relative to what arrangement one is accustomed to
Recent comments and an e-mail from Dale L about how comfortable first families might be in the big rooms of the second floor got me wondering. Most presidents have lived in mansions before the WH. Who do you think was the last president not to have any full-time household servants before coming to the WH? Truman, maybe? Clinton and Carter weren’t especially rich, but as governors they must have had cooks and housekeepers. There probably have been very few in total…. Lincoln probably being another. Coolidge, maybe?
Also: Thanks to Logan P for the scans of the Reagan era Residence from Architectural Digest, Dec 81. I’ll be adding those very soon.
White House as practical residence
The “Polkarama!” post produced a lively exchange about the livability of the White House. I personally think that any house that is over 200 years old pretty much inevitably becomes a museum. I think that most first families come from backgrounds in which they are used to very large houses with formal sitting rooms with uncomfortable furniture and more casual living rooms with more comfortable furniture. Some even split the difference and put their feet up on 150-year-old historic tables.
I wonder tho, if the WH is coming to a point where it’s impractical to really live there, especially for a younger couple with small children (never mind a pony). I wouldn’t be surprised if its 250th anniversary (in 2050) marked the moment that it gets turned into a permanent museum, with the president working out the the EEOB and living in a new mansion built on some former parkland or replacing some government building (there’s a Postal Service training facility around DC that gets rented to corporations that would be a pretty good site, I think). I’m not advocating it, just speculating.
I do think the WH needs more business-casual rooms. “Map Room”? Bah! Maybe it’s the jet lag talking, but I’d like to see a “Churchill Room” furnished in English club furniture and stinking of cigars and brandy.
New front page
I changed the front page to a pleasant wintery scene from around 2003. I’ll do a splashy, colorful interior next month.
Polkarama!
Pete S sent along several more photos, a few of which I’ve added right away, including the historic first White House interior photo–the Polk Cabinet in the old State Dining Room–and a super-fantastic pic of the Grant Master Bedroom in which you can just see one of circus trapeze rings that Julia Grant used to stay fit.*
* I might be mistaken about that.
Update: The MB is actually Hayes and not Grant, apparently before Mrs. Hayes removed Mrs. Grant’s circus trapeze rings. **
** I could still be mistaken about that.
TR vs Taft
On the comments for the Reagan post, visitor Anonymous noted that one of the West Wing page pics looked a little odd (specifically, the one that says “(note the clothes line on the east side)”), which sparked a reevaluation of the early WW images. John in NOLA noted that the Roosevelt colonial Rose Garden was intact that pic, so it couldn’t be 1920 as I had labeled it and in fact looked to be freshly expanded by Taft in 1909.
I agreed and made the change and then noticed that what had led me to label that pic “1920” was my mistaken understanding of the evolution of the WW roof. Once I looked harder at the west side, I realized that a pic that I thought was circa 1910 (post Taft expansion) was probably 1908 (pre Taft expansion). The difference is in the roof shape, window count (5 for TR; 9 for Taft), and the addition of a west side entrance. This is great, because I was hoping to find a good pic of the WW in TR’s time, and didn’t realize I already had one. That pic is now captioned “Theodore Roosevelt’s original Executive Office Building, circa 1908.”
Reagan additions
Visitor Geoffrey M pointed me in the direction of some Reagan-era photos new to the Reagan Library site since I visited there last. I’ve added eight to all different pages. I’ve also enhanced the Oval Office Patio page with a couple of new pics and some from other pages. See What’s New.
Old-timey White House funtacular
Pete S sent me a bunch of scans from one of the WHHA collections that I don’t have (but which I will order shortly), with a treasure trove (is there any other kind of trove?) of old-timey TR and Coolidge era pics of the family residence and old temporary Executive Office Building, which I’ve incorporated in too many places to list. Check the What’s New page.
There is an especially juicy diagram of TR’s original EOB, which I had tried to add before but which I couldn’t get a good image of. I’ve relabeled the rooms so you can see the layout of it really well.
Question & Answers
This weblog has largely taken on the role of correcting mistakes I’ve made in the placement or captioning of pictures. Just today John from NOLA pointed out by e-mail that I had a pic of Laura in the Lib’ary labeled as the Map Room–I pled ignorance owing to latenight copying of the WH’s own mistake!
Therefore, I have made changes to the Questions & Answers page to make it more strictly Q&A. Since this eliminates all the corrections visitors had sent, it has the added benefit of making me look like an infallible genius. Suffice it to say I greatly value (and am humbled by) the frequent corrections and contributions I find in my inbox. I look forward to many more in the future.
Nixon pics
Found a few Nixon pics in the Mason University archives, including Roosevelt Room, Family Dining Room, and Library.
Also came across a pic of Spotty by the pool. And yesterday I added a pic of a Clinton dinner in the East Room. And visitor Geoffrey pointed out a nice one of the West Wing entrance on the Time WH blog.
The Sentinel audio commentary
I’ve been doing audio commentaries for movies over on my other Web site, and I’ve just done one for The Sentinel, the 2006 Michael Douglas movie about the Secret Service’s efforts to stop an assassination. I put particular effort into my commentary on the White House scenes, of course. If you listen to it, you’ll have to pardon my tubercular voice; I still haven’t quite shaken a bronchial infection.
Google Earth
The new Google Earth is available. The White House is again not pixelated out. And it appears to feature the same or slightly-improved 3D White House. Pete Sharkey is working on a vastly better 3D White House that I just can’t wait for, so I’m including a picture of his West Wing so everyone can encourage him. (if you haven’t examined his 3D Oval Office, you are missing a treat.)
Some automatic links load with Google Earth so that you see little dots that represent more information available on Wikipedia and elsewhere. If anyone can figure out how to make one that links to the White House Museum and/or Pete’s 3D Oval Office, that would be awesome.
Update: Anonymous has pointed us to a commercial 3-D White House and 3-D Oval Office. I don’t much about 3-D software, so I don’t know what you need to view such things.
Update: I hereby award Pete Sharkey the Reathel Odum Award for Distinguished Service (“the Odie”).
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.
Ford at play
Found a couple of pics of Ford on the Putting Green and Tennis Court (with a very young Don Rumsfeld) that were nice high-res images on the Ford Library site. I don’t know if I overlooked them before or if they’re relatively new.
Nixon in the National Archives
I found some more Nixon pics of use in the National Archives. Ugh, what an awful site that is; inconvient to use and containing low-quality images. It’s like mining for tin. “This sure is a lot of trouble. I hope I get a really good piece of tin out of it.”
Anyway, I added pics of the Basement flower shop, Tricia as bride in the Cross Hall, Dick in the Treaty Room, and Pat in the West Sitting Hall.
Also, I added a link to the What’s New page over on the right of the blog, so I don’t have to include it in every post where I say there are new images.
Reathel Odum
Happened upon a pic of Reathel Odum, Mrs. Truman’s personal secretary, at her desk in what is today the Beauty Salon–a real find. Looking a little deeper, I came across a transcript of an interview with her in 1988 where she talks about her room and office in the White House. She also mentions an incident with Ed McKim from the West Wing staff and, because I was also searching for info on the location of his office, I happened on an explanation in an interview with General Harry Vaughan: McKim had been tasked with cutting corners and in doing so stepped on a lot of toes all over the WH.
Article on Odum’s passing in July.
Calling all Wikipedians!
As a result of creating a new Kennedy Renovation page, I noticed that Stéphane Boudin did not have an article in Wikipedia, altho he is mentioned numerous times in the WH-related articles. I’ve started one for him, but anyone with greater knowledge and interest should please contribute. Sister Parish and Henry DuPont did already have articles, but about half of Parish’s is about her nickname!
Also just noticed that James B West doesn’t have an article… yet Jim West–guitarist for “Weird” Al Yankovic–does!
The Elliptical Saloon 