I just got a packet of vintage color White House postcards delivered from Walt's Postcards. I've photographed them and added most of them. So far I've added Truman's China Room, a better image of Taft's Blue Room, and Taft's West Wing.
With the West Wing photo, I'm starting to wonder if the one below it (labeled c1910 from the LOC) isn't really c1904--pre-Taft expansion. I'll look for corroboration from Seale.
I've also got something fairly astonishing. It's a picture of the Red Room, pre-McKim makeover, arrayed in green and labeled "East Room"! I believe the postcard is German, and at first I figured it was a fanciful hand-tinting job. But I've just noticed that another pic from the same era is labeled "Green Parlor" by the LOC, which I had always assumed was a simple mix-up. Now I wonder if that room was indeed done in green prior to TR's renovation. I haven't read such a thing, but I've been meaning to read more about that era. Can anyone help me out?
I also have a couple of exteriors that I think I'll reshoot.
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With the location of the fire place and the doors it looks to be the Red Room. Maybe it was not tinted properly. And it looks almost like it was hand stamped after the fact, maybe a mis-stamp? You never know, they may have had a clueless fool doing the job back then, "I know one of these rooms was red . . . ya that one . . that's the ticket"
ReplyDeleteYou guys stay up late!
ReplyDeleteThe Red Room card is definitely mislabled. Monkman's book has photos of pre-TR renovation furniture and the coverings are red.
Monkman states that the earliest recorded designation of the Red Room as the "Red Room" was in 1845. It was also called the "Receiving Room" and the "Washington Parlor." For many years, the Gilbert Stuart portrait of G.W. hung there.
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