Washington Winter Show 2012

Theodore Roosevelt (1901–09), stretched cobalt blue silk over the walls enclosing the ceremonial space and formed a ring of overscaled, white-painted reproductions of James Monroe’s French chairs. Lightened with a gold-patterned blue silk, following the White House reconstruction during the Harry S. Truman administration (1945-53), the room was completely redecorated once again in 1963 by Mrs. Kennedy. She rethought the Blue Room and adopted an entirely French historical design approach under advisement from Stefane Boudin, a well-known French historical decorator. A fabric swag rounded the ceiling, crowning blue-striped silk wall coverings. Surviving Monroe French furniture was mixed with copies, all freshly gold-leafed; the seating furniture was covered in rich blue silk. Among other objects Monroe’s agents in Paris purchased in 1817 for the Blue Room mantel were a bronze clock, candelabra, and a pair of polished ostrich eggs on bronze stands. 4 The Blue Room was reopened only a short while before President Kennedy’s death. It remained in the French Empire style for less than a decade. Unaltered during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration (1963–69), it was reinterpreted and redecorated for President Richard M. Nixon (1969–74) by Edward Vason Jones, an architect and proponent of early nineteen - century American interiors, under Mrs. Nixon’s direction. The room was wallpapered, its plaster moldings redesigned, and, while the Monroe furnishings 42 Blue Room, The White House, 1882 Credit: Library of Congress President Buchanan’s 1860 rococo revival suite of furniture enjoyed by the Lincoln White House (1861-1865) in floral upholstery was reused in the room and repeatedly reupholstered until nearly the end of the 19th century. Here, the circular divan is used in the Louis Comfort Tiffany incarnation of the room for President Arthur, 1882. Gilded Bronze Clock Denière et Matelin, Paris, 1817 Credit: White House Historical Association Purchased for the White House by President Monroe in 1817. remained, the setting was more evocative of American interpretations of French style than Mrs. Kennedy’s French interpretation. As with all the State Rooms generally, the Blue Room still maintains the design installed for President Nixon. Before the twentieth century, neither of the oval rooms above and below the Blue Room had invited the interest attached to them today. The oval room above the Blue Room was the family sitting room and library. THE FIRST FAMILY LIVING QUARTERS: THE YELLOW OVAL ROOM Upstairs on the third floor, directly above the Blue Room, the first family’s oval - shaped library has witnessed both the pageant of private life and some historic moments, but little noteworthy change in appearance until the second half of the twentieth century. It was here in 1898 that President WilliamMcKinley (1897– 1901) took action toward going to war with Spain by writing on a telegraph blank his request for money from Congress to This page is sponsored by Marguerite P. Foster