Yellow Oval 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 official residence 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....
. First used as a drawing room
Drawing room
A drawing room is a room in a house where visitors may be entertained. The name is derived from the sixteenth-century terms "withdrawing room" and "withdrawing chamber", which remained in use through the seventeenth century, and made its first written appearance in 1642...
in the 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...
administration it has been used as a library, office, and family parlor. The room is entered on the northern side of the room from the Center Hall
Second Floor Center Hall (White House)
The Center Hall is a broad central hallway on the second floor of the White House, home of the President of the United States. It runs east to west connecting the East Sitting Hall with the West Sitting Hall...
, and a door on the west side of the room has a door leading into the president's bedroom. The southwest window has a swing-sash door leading to the Truman Balcony
Truman Balcony
The Truman Balcony is the second-floor balcony of the Executive Residence of the White House, which overlooks the south lawn. It was completed in March 1948, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.-Controversy over construction plans:...
.
Today the Yellow Oval Room is used for small receptions and for greeting heads of states immediately before a State Dinner. The room is entered from the second floor corridor on the north side of the room. Three large windows on the south side of the room face the South Lawn
South Lawn (White House)
The South Lawn at the White House in Washington, DC, is located directly south of the mansion, and is bordered on the east by East Executive Drive and the Treasury Building, and on the west by West Executive Drive and the Old Executive Office Building, and along its curved southern perimeter by...
and The Ellipse
President's Park
President's Park, located in Washington, D.C., encompasses the White House, a visitor center, Lafayette Square, and The Ellipse. President's Park was the original name of Lafayette Square. The current President's Park is administered by the National Park Service.-White House:Washington, D.C...
. Double doors on the west side of the room, with flags of the United States and of the presidency on either side, lead to the president and first lady's bedrooms, private sitting room and dressing room.
Furnishings
The earliest written description of the room dates to the John Adams administration, and describes the room as a ladies drawing room. The room was papered in yellow with gilded stars, and a suite of crimson furniture. This furniture, likely a mix of Louis XVILouis XVI of France
Louis XVI was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre until 1791, and then as King of the French from 1791 to 1792, before being executed in 1793....
and English Hepplewhite
George Hepplewhite
George Hepplewhite was a cabinetmaker. He is regarded as having been one of the "big three" English furniture makers of the 18th century, along with Thomas Sheraton and Thomas Chippendale...
styles was moved from the President's House in Philadelphia.
With the building of the West Wing
West Wing
The West Wing is the building housing the official offices of the President of the United States. It is the part of the White House Complex in which the Oval Office, the Cabinet Room, the Situation Room, and the Roosevelt Room are located...
in 1902, and moving of offices out of the residence, this oval room was again used as a parlor. Franklin Roosevelt used it as an office in the residence. Following the Truman reconstruction the room was once more used for state events and entertaining. During the Kennedy Administration the room was designated as a drawing room and received many of the furnishings now located there as well as its designation as the Yellow Oval Room. The American interior designer Sister Parish
Sister Parish
Sister Parish was an American interior decorator and socialite. She was the first interior designer brought in to decorate the Kennedy White House, a position that was soon usurped by French interior designer Stéphane Boudin...
established the basic design of the room by painting the walls a soft yellow, joined by a pale yellow oval carpet topped by Oriental rugs. The French interior designer Stéphane Boudin built upon Parish's contributions, replacing the Truman era hotel style furniture with late 18th and early 19th century French antiques. The furnishings today are mostly in the Louis XVI style, assembled during the Kennedy restoration. Two short columns of green marble were designed by Stéphane Boudin to hold antique, electrified candelabras and Boudin also found the bronze dore and rock crystal 18th century chandelier in Paris for the room. A suite of American manufactured painted wood Neoclassical settee, six armchairs and four side chairs, were reupholstered in a wool and silk velvet faux tiger print during the administration of George W. Bush and moved to the adjoining Center Hall.
Lady Bird Johnson
Lady Bird Johnson
Claudia Alta "Lady Bird" Taylor Johnson was First Lady of the United States from 1963 to 1969 during the presidency of her husband Lyndon B. Johnson. Throughout her life, she was an advocate for beautification of the nation's cities and highways and conservation of natural resources and made that...
continued the Kennedy decor. Under the direction of Pat Nixon
Pat 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...
during the Nixon administration, other pieces of antique furniture were acquired for the state and family floors. The Yellow Oval Room was redesigned in a more academic style by the Nixons' new curator, Clement Conger, with architect and interior designer 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...
. Vason Jones replaced Sister Parish's simple curtains that fit within the window frames with the current grander gold and coral stripe that cover the woodwork (see image above right) somewhat reducing the sense of height of the room. During the Carter Administration American Impressionist paintings, including Mary Cassatt
Mary Cassatt
Mary Stevenson Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. She lived much of her adult life in France, where she first befriended Edgar Degas and later exhibited among the Impressionists...
, were acquired and hung in this room and the Center Hall.
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Reagan
Nancy Davis Reagan is the widow of former United States President Ronald Reagan and was First Lady of the United States from 1981 to 1989....
, with her designer Ted Graber, brought back the two upholstered sofas used by Mrs. Kennedy in the room. Laura Bush
Laura Bush
Laura Lane Welch Bush is the wife of the 43rd President of the United States, George W. Bush. She was the First Lady of the United States from January 20, 2001, to January 20, 2009. She has held a love of books and reading since childhood and her life and education have reflected that interest...
, working with her family decorator Ken Blasingame, replaced these sofas with similar ones of a slightly larger scale; returned a number of bouillotte lamps to the room; and added an overmantel mirror. She also re-installed the chandelier from the Kennedy era, which Mrs. Nixon had replaced with an overscale, Empire chandelier, formerly in the Kennedy Blue Room.
History
On January 1, 1801, and before it was even complete, John AdamsJohn 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...
held the first presidential reception in this room, known then only as "the upstairs oval parlor." Dolley Madison
Dolley Madison
Dolley Payne Todd Madison was the spouse of the fourth President of the United States, James Madison, and was First Lady of the United States from 1809 to 1817...
first decorated the room in yellow damask
Damask
Damask is a reversible figured fabric of silk, wool, linen, cotton, or synthetic fibers, with a pattern formed by weaving. Damasks are woven with one warp yarn and one weft yarn, usually with the pattern in warp-faced satin weave and the ground in weft-faced or sateen weave...
in 1809.
In 1851, Abigail Fillmore
Abigail Fillmore
Abigail Powers Fillmore , wife of Millard Fillmore, was First Lady of the United States from 1850 to 1853.Abigail was born in Stillwater, New York, 1798, in Saratoga County, New York. She was the daughter of the Reverend Lemuel Powers, a Baptist minister, and Abigail Newland-Powers, Abigail grew...
got an allocation from Congress for books to make the room into the first White House library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
. The Harrisons
Benjamin Harrison
Benjamin Harrison was the 23rd President of the United States . Harrison, a grandson of President William Henry Harrison, was born in North Bend, Ohio, and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana at age 21, eventually becoming a prominent politician there...
continued to use the room as a library and family parlor and, in 1889, put the first White House Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
here.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
converted the room into his study, and it was in this room on December 7, 1941, that he learned of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor, known to Hawaiians as Puuloa, is a lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. Much of the harbor and surrounding lands is a United States Navy deep-water naval base. It is also the headquarters of the U.S. Pacific Fleet...
. The Secret Service moved his desk away from the windows as a security precaution. Harry Truman continued to use the room as a study and opened access to a new balcony he added, called the "Truman Balcony
Truman Balcony
The Truman Balcony is the second-floor balcony of the Executive Residence of the White House, which overlooks the south lawn. It was completed in March 1948, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman.-Controversy over construction plans:...
," to the South Portico in 1948. Following the Truman reconstruction the room was decorated by B. Altman and Company
B. Altman and Company
B. Altman and Company was a New York City-based department store and chain founded in 1865 by Benjamin Altman which had its flagship store at Fifth Avenue and 34th Street in Midtown Manhattan from 1906 until the company closed on December 31, 1989....
, New York with reproduction traditional furniture. Later presidents reserved the room as a parlor for formal receptions and used the Treaty Room, just to the east, as a private study instead.
Further reading
- Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
- Clinton, Hillary Rodham. An Invitation to the White House: At Home with History. Simon & Schuster: 2000. ISBN 0-684-85799-5.
- Monkman, Betty C. The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families. Abbeville Press: 2000. ISBN 0-7892-0624-2.
- Seale, William. The President's House. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN 0-912308-28-1.
- Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
- The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.
- West, J.B. with Mary Lynn Kotz. Upstairs at the White House: My Life with the First Ladies. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan: 1973. SBN 698-10546-X.