Christopher S sent a link to the New York Public Lib'ary site where there is something... amazing. This will require some time to digest. If you're peeking at this post early; do not follow that link.
UPDATE: Great collection of mostly-stereograph, mostly-late 1800s photos. Unfortunately, the New York public lib'arians aren't providing very high-res scans (at least considering what is left when you crop the frame and one 'graph from a stereograph).
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I have run across this site. IT IS WAY COOL. A great add to the museum ....
ReplyDeleteI might have some Eisenhower pics. Let me dig.
Steve
Pinkpillbox.com
Let's plan a museum convention. Wouldn't that be a hoot.
Woah! You're right. I have to go to a meeting just a few minutes, but (I'm weak, what can I say...) I clicked on it anyway...
ReplyDeleteHave to check it out when I have a chance later this afternoon!
A museum convention would be a hoot!
I'm only up to page 24 at this point, and I can't stop! What a great addition to the museum!
ReplyDeleteI'd love to attend a museum convention!
I didn't realize there were so many o us who enjoy WH history. I'm a loner around here, so it's great to have someone to share with!
Oh, and sorry about all the !!
ReplyDeleteI just got excited & couldn't help it. :D
These really are amazing - especially some of the pics of the Red & Blue Rooms - pictures of familiar rooms and eras, but pointed the other way (toward the windows in the Blue Room, for example) from what we're used to seeing in the White House Guidebook. The 1st pic of the 3rd page of images is remarkable. Never seen anything like it before - a view from the main floor corridor, into the East Room, with the fan light silhouetted (sp?) with light from the East Room. I don't think even William Seale has seen these.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a find. There's an amazing amount of information here.
Thanks so much Steve for sharing this!
I really enjoy this site! I keep coming back to see the updates. I just want you to know I think you are doing a great job and service for all of us that love history, especially WH history. Keep it up I plan to be a regular!
ReplyDeleteHello everybody. Since I was introduced as "Christopher S" I will go by that name on this blog. I have never blogged before, so if I trespass some rules of etiquette, please accept my apologies. I’m new at this.
ReplyDeleteSometime around 1964 or 65 I found "The White House: An Historic Guide" in my elementary school library. It was the second edition, if I remember correctly. In any case, it was published before Kennedy’s assassination, and the First Lady’s letter was from Jackie. I've been fascinated ever since. My interest was intensified when I found out that Grover Cleveland was my great, great grandfather’s brother, so there is a family connection as well, although it’s pretty tenuous.
I agree with John in Nola about that early view of the Cross Hall in the NYPL collection. It is remarkable. It looks like it was taken before Tiffany’s renovation, since the light coming through the screen between the entrance and cross halls is so bright. Also, Tiffany changed the ceiling treatment in this hall. Seale has a picture of Tiffany’s cross hall in “History of an American Idea” and ceiling treatment is very different from what’s shown here.
Does anyone know if there’s a photograph of the screen as designed by Thomas U. Walter, before Tiffany inserted the stained glass? I’ve seen a photo of the Blue Room that shows a glimpse of it through the door, but except for that and an inadequate etching of the Entrance Hall, I’ve never come across a picture of it with the “ground glass” in its lower section.
Chris
Welcome Christopher! Jump on in, the water's fine! (You'll just have to crawl through a trap door in the press room to do it.)
ReplyDeleteI've never seen an actual photograph of the pre-Tiffany 'ground glass' screen, but with all these new resources we're tapping into from the folks who blog here - who knows!
ReplyDeleteChris - there's an old engraving of the pre-Tiffany screen on page 99 of Seale's "History of an American Idea", but it sounds like you're already familiar with that.
Anybody?
I have seen that old engraving in Seale's book as well as a few other places. The reason I think it's inadequate is that it doesn't depict other architectural features in the hall accurately. For example, the ionic columns are shown fluted when all early photographs show that they were unfluted, and they are rendered in such a way that they look like square pillars. With those inaccuracies, it's hard to trust the accuracy of the other features, like the ground glass screen.
ReplyDeleteChris
BTW, thanks for the welcome everybody!
ReplyDeleteChris