Washington Winter Show 2012

36 Lithographs, etchings, oil paintings, and watercolors that capture a moment in the changing appearance of the structure and landscape have always been popular objects to private collectors and public institutions. There are, of course, significant personal mementos of first family members’ time in the White House, reflecting their own traditions and preferences, which they used to make the grand residence feel like a home. Specific items on loan from first families include hand-embroidered, initialed napkins by Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt (1901–1909), an engraved flask owned by Grover Cleveland (1885-89, 1893–97), and bookplates from the personal libraries of George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant, and First Lady Frances Folsom Cleveland. President and Mrs. Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953–1961) lived in many places throughout their married lives, but the White House was the home where they were most honored to live. In 1954 First Lady Mamie Eisenhower commissioned her interior designer Dorothy Draper to create a toile pattern featuring vignettes of the White House and other significant places where the Eisenhowers had lived. The “Eisenhower toile” was then used to make curtains for Blair House and a dress, raincoat and matching hat for Mamie [Figure 9]. The 2012 Washington Winter Antiques Show loan exhibit “Treasures of the First Families” brings together a variety of objects, small and large, providing visitors with insights into a president’s life while in residence in the White House and re- vealing the fascination they hold for the collectors who acquire these pieces of presidential history. The author wishes to thank the institutions and the individual collectors who have generously loaned items from their collec- tions: the White House Historical Association, the National Park Service’s Eisenhower National Site, the National Trust For Historic Preservation’s Woodrow Wilson House, the Balti- more Museum of Art, the DAR Museum, the National Society of Colonial Dames of America’s Dumbarton House, George Washington’s Mount Vernon, James Madison’s Montpelier, the James Monroe Museum and Memorial Library, the Albert Small Collection, the Kiplinger Collection, Bill Adair, Joseph Stewart, Set Momjian, Thomas G. Cleveland, Selwa Roosevelt, and James Goode. Additionally, this show could not have tak- en place without the extraordinary efforts of Betty Monkman, Jean Federico, Maggie Dimock, Luiza de Camargo, Philippe Halbert, and Grant Quertermous. Figure 8 Colonnade from President Ulysses S. Grant’s East Room, ca. 1870 Even massive fragments of White House architecture have been saved and treasured. The East Room colonnades, installed during the Grant administration and removed during the Theodore Roosevelt administration, were salvaged and maintained for their distinguished provenance. Courtesy Bill Adair This page is sponsored by Michelle Gee