DC trip

Finding myself with still more time on my hands and access to air and hotel points, I've booked a trip to Washington, DC for next Thursday. It's too short of notice to get a ticket to the WH tour, but that's how my business trips to DC have been in the past too. I'll knock around the town for a couple of days and plan a more comprehensive trip with WH tour for a few months from now.

Of course, I had tried to plan a trip with WH tour for sometime in June, but as I researched it, I came to think that I wouldn't be able to get WH tickets. After talking to the local congressman's office, I found that, with advance notice, a small group could be accommodated in a larger group that is already going.

Grounds

Added several photos of the grounds courtesy of vistor Lafayette.

New front page - old Family Dining Room

I've changed the front page for October to the old Family Dining Room around 1900. The gallery of past front pages is available as usual.

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.

Kitchen day

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

Idle curiosity

Poking around the WH website, I came across a photo of Barney on the south lawn next to what is described as a "drainage ditch." I recognized this from the HABS collection as almost certainly the Andrew Jackson "milk trough" and felt superior for a moment before realizing that I have no idea what that is either.

West Wing construction

Hmmm. What's going on at the West Wing? Structural steel beam construction? Is the president adding on a rumpus room?

Hodge Podge

Added a few old photos that Jim Hood had posted on Facebook WH Fanatics group. Thanks Jim!

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.

WH in HD

Stephen M writes:

I have been watching C-Span's Presidential Libraries series. Tonight on the segment from President Truman's library, the moderator and Richard Norton Smith were discussing Mr. Truman's renovation and it was announced that a new White House program will be released in the Spring.

They are supposedly filming in HD at the White House currently, according to the moderator. They also said it would "show the White House like you've never seen before." We'll see about that I guess.

They said to keep watch for future information releases on the video, that it should be sometime after the primaries in the Spring.

White House Museum library

One thing that struck me about the Lincoln Museum is the library attached to it. One section was a small private collection of books about all the presidents ("Someone wrote a book about Millard Fillmore?" Yep.) It has convinced me that any real White House Museum also needs a research library—broader, but not as deep as any of the existing presidential libraries.

Ooh, I just thought of something. The library could be built as a replica of the Taft-Hoover West Wing, with a replica of the original Oval Office as the centerpiece.

Lincoln Museum

I spent a few hours at the Lincoln Museum today, and the experience was terrific. The exhibits consisted of life-like figures, multimedia displays, and lots of giant documents. There wasn't a lot in the way of personal memorabilia, tho; I think I could have fit everything they had that Lincoln actually touched in the trunk of my car. It would have been nice to see, you know, Lincoln's limousine or helicopter or something, like at the Reagan museum. They did have an impressive recreation of his funeral, tho, which is something I guess. You won't find that at the Clinton museum. Also, by the end of it, I really wanted an interactive experience where you get to spank Tad Lincoln.

Some of the multimedia displays were really, really cool. Projectors threw shadows of rain on the wall or images of naysayers in mid-air. There was a gallery of political cartoons that could have been boring, but they were framed in crooked frames and hung on crooked walls, which created a disorienting effect that would be fun to replicate with my own photos. The whole White House part had a funhouse atmosphere that made me half-expect to see ladies' dresses flipped up by a blast of air at the end (accompanied by the disembodied laughter of Tad, naturally).

There was a recreation of the Blue Room, guest bedroom (where Willy lay in a fever), and Lincoln's office, all of which gave me a deeper appreciation of Victorian style.

I would have taken more pictures, but they don't allow photos in the exhibits, because they don't want people stealing all their juicy history or possibly learning anything outside the museum. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame was the same way. Hey, if you want to see Roy Orbison's lousy spelling* or Britney Spear's denim-and-leather-flames ensemble, you'll have to go to Cleveland. That kind of knowledge isn't free.

* To be fair, every example of original song lyrics had lousy spelling, even Robbie Robertson's.

Road trip: Lincoln Museum

Finding myself with some time on my hands and access to a fast car and plenty of Mountain Dew, I've decided to take a day trip to Springfield, IL tomorrow to see the Lincoln Museum.

Here is a portrait of Lincoln that I colorized a few weeks ago when I was bored.

Artifacts

Added a few artifacts from White House History collection 1, including a recreation of the second floor around 1801 that I based on the 1801 inventory detailed in the Adams article.

UPDATE: Link to the photo Patrick mentioned regarding the remnants of the original and later grand staircases.

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.

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.

Board of Directors

I've removed the "Board of Directors" list of living presidents from the About page. White House Associate Counsel Kenneth Lee sent a request to remove George W Bush's name as "honorary member."

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.

Tribute in Light

My photo, from 2004.

McKim's drawings

The Library of Congress is pile of cheeky monkeys, teasing us with McKim's White House drawings but not making them available online. I'm not sure if that link will even work. There's no proper perma-link listed. If not, I searched for "temporary executive offices".

UPDATE: Changed the link. Maybe that will work better. You can also go to the search page and search for "temporary executive offices".

Ike staff book and Nat'l Geo article

Just stumbled across an amazing page from the Eisenhower Library with scans of the staff book and Nat'l Geo article. There are staff photos and bios, a whole chronology, and then the whole WH article with color pics. Keen, as they said back then.

Unfortunately, the scans are rather... cajun-style; so blackened they've lost all detail in the shadows (they're Monroe Room; my Monroe Room).

I've already added JB West's picture to his Wikipedia article.

White House furniture

John in NOLA sent a note that reminded me that I've never mentioned that reproductions of White House furniture are available from New York First Company, The History Company, and others. You can buy a full-scale reproduction of the Resolute desk, a queen-size reproduction of the Lincoln Bed, and Kittinger chairs of the same models used in the Cabinet Room, Roosevelt Room, and elsewhere (also available direct from Kittinger).

You can also get the desk directly from Victorian Replicas (US, I think), where it's bargain-priced at 6 Gs instead of 12. Over at The President's Desk (Canadian), you'll pay more, but you can have it your way, in oak or mahogany, in three sizes, and with a variety of leather tops. And you can get matching credenzas and bookcases. Similar choices are available from Dominic Gerard (US, but made in Asia).

Rafi Furniture (Indonesia) seems to offers the Resolute and the Lincoln Bed (also queen-size) for far less than the others and claims to be highly accurate. Ryuki Furniture (Indonesia?) makes the desk also. The East Bay Trading Company offers one for a little more, probably imported from Rafi or Ryuki, altho they specify that it features a fold-down front for a keyboard and grommets for monitor wiring.

I'm curious as to whether any readers have ever bought one of these replicas.

Facebook White House Fanatics group

Link to the White House Fanatics group Pete set up on Facebook. I've also made it permanently available on the right.

Where in the world is Calvin Coolidge?

Added a few more strays. But where the heck were these taken?

Coolidge and the ghost of Harding
Coolidge alone
Coolidge outside in antique chair
The Mrs., sittin' and knittin'
Coolidge in mourning

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.

Faces

North faces. South faces. I've got faces and I've posted them.

And you can post your face too, now that Pete has set up a Facebook group for White House enthusiasts. I can't access Facebook from work, but I can access Wikipedia, so here a link to the Wikipedia entry for Facebook.

UPDATE: Below are the two illustrations I mentioned previously from Singleton's Story.... I haven't added them to the site because they seem too fanciful, with their weird windows and all. They are very similar tho, perhaps so similar that the later one (dated 1800) was based on the earlier one (dated 1799).

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.)

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.

Announcing: The White House in 3D

I have just posted a new page to house the latest addition to the site: Pete Sharkey's incredible 3D White House. Pete has put untold hours into building a complete and highly detailed and accurate Presidential Park with White House extererior and grounds, giving us the opportunity to view it from perspectives we've never had before. Look all around the roof, the grounds, the gardens.... It's amazing.

For those who remember Pete's fantastic Oval Office replica, this one is only the exterior, so you can't peak into Laura Bush's dressing room.

You'll need to load Google's SketchUp or SketchUp Viewer (both free) and download the BIG 20 MB file, or you can just look at the many great images on the page. You can use the tour feature (View>Animation>Play) or click on the page tabs on the top of the opened model to see preset views

Thanks, Pete! For diligence, persistence, and patience in toiling in the basement over a hot oven, I hereby award you the Chef Roland Mesnier Baked Mansion Award (the "Rollie").

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.

New front page - Nixon Briefing Room

Changed the front page to that great picture of the Press Briefing Room when it was brand new in 1970. It makes you want to kick back, have a cigarette, leaf thru Look magazine, and wait for Ron Ziegler to come and tell you what statements are inoperative today.

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.