China Room (White House)
Encyclopedia
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, the home of the president of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. The White House's collection of state china
White House china
The White House china is the various patterns of china used for serving and eating food in the White House, home of the President of the United States. Different china services have been ordered and used by different presidential administrations. The White House collection of china is housed in...
is displayed there. The collection covers administrations from George Washington's
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
Chinese export china to Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
's ivory, yellow and burnished gold china commemorating the two-hundredth anniversary of the White House's occupancy by John Adams
John Adams
John Adams was an American lawyer, statesman, diplomat and political theorist. A leading champion of independence in 1776, he was the second President of the United States...
. The room is primarily used by the First Lady for teas, meetings, and smaller receptions.
McKim refinishing
Until late 1902 when the room was refinished as a public entertainment space during renovations directed by Charles Follen McKimCharles Follen McKim
Charles Follen McKim FAIA was an American Beaux-Arts architect of the late 19th century. Along with Stanford White, he provided the architectural expertise as a member of the partnership McKim, Mead, and White....
, this room, along with most of the ground floor of the residence, was used for household work and general storage. McKim rebuilt the room with details from the late Georgian period including robust cove moldings.
The china collection begins
After becoming first lady in 1889, china painting enthusiast Mrs. Benjamin [Caroline Lavinia Scott] Harrison (1832–1892) began to gather and restore china from previous administrations, which she eventually arranged within the mansion's private Family Dining Room. Harrison successor Mrs. Theodore [Edith Kermit Carow] Roosevelt (1861–1948) celebrated the then newly initiated efforts of journalist Abby Gunn Baker (1860–1923) to research the growing collection, allowing her to both expand and arrange the collection in Arts and Crafts MovementArts and Crafts movement
Arts and Crafts was an international design philosophy that originated in England and flourished between 1860 and 1910 , continuing its influence until the 1930s...
cabinets in the semi-public ground floor corridor - a space newly defined as a gallery during the 1902 McKim, Mead, and White renovation of the White House. This relocation of the china collection represented a burgeoning recognition of and appreciation for the historic artifacts associated with the American Presidency. (Damaged china had been sold or given away as late as the McKinley administration.)
In 1917, First Lady Edith Bolling Wilson
Edith Bolling Wilson
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson , second wife of U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, was First Lady of the United States from 1915 to 1921. She has been labeled "the Secret President" and "the first woman to run the government" for the role she played when her husband suffered prolonged and disabling illness...
acknowledged the need for more space for displaying the collection through the suggestions of both Mrs. Baker and White House Chief-Usher Irwin Hood ["Ike"] Hoover (1871–1933). Baker had continued to research the history of the mansion—and particularly that of its celebrated tableware—and argued that the history of the house would slip away without official intervention. In response, Mrs. Wilson surveyed the Ground Floor with Hoover, designating a large room located towards the southeast, next to the oval Diplomatic Reception Room, as the new "Presidential Collections Room." She also approved its outfitting with built-in cabinetry for the display of the china. Above each of the three bays of built-in wall cabinets was raised lettering identifying the holdings as CHINA USED BY THE PRESIDENTS.
Truman and Kennedy periods
During the Truman renovation, 1948–1952, the room's walls were paneled in salvaged pine timbers from the house. Architect William Adams DelanoWilliam Adams Delano
William Adams Delano , an American architect, was a partner with Chester Holmes Aldrich in the firm of Delano & Aldrich. The firm worked in the Beaux-Arts tradition for elite clients in New York City, Long Island and elsewhere, building townhouses, country houses, clubs, banks and buildings for...
detailed the room with bracket molding of mid-Georgian style. (Unfortunately, the architect did not replicate the depth of the removed Wilson-era cabinets, preventing the inclusion of an important standing punchbowl from the Pierce administration—restored by Mrs. Harrison—in the reconstructed interior; the piece was subsequently displayed in the window of the room.) The Truman-era paneling was left unpainted until the Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
administration, when, in 1963, French interior designer Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen, the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.Boudin is best known for being asked by U.S...
(1888–1967) of the Paris-based firm Maison Jansen
Maison Jansen
Maison Jansen was a Paris-based interior decoration office founded in 1880 by Dutch-born Jean-Henri Jansen and continuing in practice until 1989...
, had it glazed in three shades of gray, with white detailing; corner brackets included in the display cabinet doors were removed at this time. The interiors of the display cabinets were lined with red cotton velvet, and the floor was covered with a similarly hued "Snowflake"-pattern carpet manufactured by Stark Carpet Corporation. At the single window, gray velvet draperies, trimmed in red and white silk fringe, were installed. An early-19th century classical marble mantel with female supports replaced the Truman Georgian surround.
Nixon redecoration
The room was substantially redecorated in 1970 by First Lady Pat NixonPat Nixon
Thelma Catherine "Pat" Ryan Nixon was the wife of Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States, and was First Lady of the United States from 1969 to 1974. She was commonly known as Patricia or Pat Nixon.Born in Nevada, Pat Ryan grew up in Los Angeles, California...
, with the assistance of White House Curator Clement Conger and preservation architect Edward Vason Jones
Edward Vason Jones
Edward Vason Jones , a neoclassical architect and member of the Georgia School of Classicism, began his career in 1936 with the design and construction of the Gillionville Plantation near his hometown of Albany, Georgia...
. The Truman-era bracketed molding was removed and replaced with a later Federal period cove molding. The walls were painted a uniform off-white. The existing red accent color, determined by the red gown in Howard Chandler Christy's 1924 portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge
Grace Coolidge
Grace Anna Goodhue Coolidge was the wife of Calvin Coolidge and First Lady of the United States from 1923 to 1929.-Biography:...
, was retained. The vitrine
Display case
A display case is a cabinet with one or often more transparent glass sides and/or top, used to display objects for viewing, for example in an exhibition, museum, house, in retail, or a restaurant. Often labels are included with the displayed objects, providing information...
shelves remained lined with red velvet.
China collection
The collection is arranged chronologically beginning to the right of the fireplace on the east wall. While not every administration created their own service, at least minimal amounts of all china services created for the White House are now in the collection. Sizable amounts of some services going back to the early nineteenth century exist and are sometimes used for small dinners in the President's Dining RoomPresident's Dining Room
The President's Dining Room is located in the northwest corner of the second floor of the White House. It was created in 1961 during the administration of John F. Kennedy to provide a dining room in the First Family's residence. The room had previously been used as a bedroom and sitting room...
on the Second Floor. The Carters favored using pieces of the Lincolns' amaranth purple rimmed china for special occasions. The Reagans, though famous for their red and gold service, also enjoyed using the Lincoln china. The Clintons did not take delivery of their state service until near the end of President Clinton's second term. They used the Reagan and Truman services extensively for state dinners, but for small family dinners, especially holidays, favored the Hayes china which depicts American flora and fauna.
Furnishings
The rug is an Indo-Ispahan carpet from the early twentieth century. A cut-glass Regency-style chandelier hangs in the China Room. A pair of late eighteenth century tureens on the mantel are glazed in red and green slip, and are the source for the green and red striped silk taffeta draperies. Two high-backed lolling chairs, made early in the nineteenth century and upholstered in ivory and moss green, are arranged in front of the portrait of Mrs. Coolidge. An English neoclassical mantel is located on the east wall, and Ferdinand RichardtFerdinand Richardt
Joachim Ferdinand Richardt Danish-American artist, in Denmark known for his lithographs of manor houses, and in the U.S. for his paintings of Niagara Falls and other landscapes.-Life:...
's "View on the Mississippi Fifty-Seven Miles Below St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis", completed in 1858, hangs above the mantel.