Furnishings

Added a separate page for the china collection and linked to it from the furnishings page, where I also added an entry for Stuart's stony-jawed (or hippo-jawed, as the case may be) Washington.

A house divided...

After adding the new pics to the Oval Office page, I noticed that it now has 40 photos. Other important rooms have only about 30. I'm concerned that, with all the photos, the pages won't load fast enough for casual viewers. I'm wondering about dividing the OO page out into:

• Today
• Earlier

or by era:

• Today
• Reagan to Clinton
• Johnson to Carter
• FDR to Kennedy
• pre-FDR

The "today and earlier" idea would work pretty well for other rooms as they get longer, altho there are surprisingly few good photos of many rooms as they are today.

UPDATE: For the time being, I've broken the page out into Oval Office and Oval Office History. You can compare it to the previous version.

Other oval rooms

I added a couple more images sent by Mimlog to the Oval Office page. One of them is Nixon's OO just after moving in and the other is Nixon talking to the Apollo astronauts. In both, we see Johnson's decor, but I noticed that the curtains changed: there is blue edging in the 1969 pic. In the 1964 guide, Johnson's OO has Boudin's original curtains with red edging, but I'm not sure who made the change.

Also, while I was looking at the '64 guide, I decided to add a couple of images to the Yellow Oval Room page: the room in '64, and a bridal pic of Lynda in '67 that I had been too lazy to place and date. (I also reprocessed a Kennedy pic.)

A peek at the 1930s

Mimlog sent several photos that capture the early 1930s West Wing, Blue Room, and Kitchen. And the 1969 Cabinet Room shows the room before Nixon converted it to match the empire style of the mansion.

White House overview & TR's trophies

I came across a couple of high-resolution overviews of the White House on a military site and cut them up to provide views of the grounds and exterior in 1984.

Also, John in NOLA sent a great cartoon from the early 20th century poking fun at TR's wildlife-encrusted State Dining Room.

Open post: Truman Balcony

Dennis mentioned that William Seale dislikes the Truman Balcony—something I didn't know. I think it's eminently practical and a huge improvement over the ghastly old awnings, but in need of some dentil molding or something. Discuss.

Truman photos

Found a photo of the East Bedroom in 1952 showing the mantelpiece clearly. I think this could be the room where Ike got his mysterious picture taken. And check out the wheelchair. Madge Wallace's? It doesn't look like FDR's.

Also got an extra one of the Yellow Oval Room as Harry's study and Margaret's fireplace, which I only had in its unfinished state.

Also: For those with an interest in architecture beyond our favorite example, I spent the weekend Pittsburgh and went on a photo walkabout.