ok
this sketch made in 1799 for the white
house was completed shows that the
original design of the building included
an extra floor
George Washington the reasons of economy
waited the architect to eliminate the
top floor
this is the final design of the white
house plan by James Hoban mr. Hogan when
an open competition for the fifth
building in Washington it wasn't until
after Thomas Jefferson down that it was
learned the president jefferson and
energy design anonymously into the
competition and law presidents Jefferson
designed with a smaller house you
thought hoping mansion with big enough
to Empress and the Grand Lama Abigail
Adams with the first president's wife to
live in the White House she complained
of the dampness and cold
this is Adams kept the house habitable
only by building five and every room
the British added to the flames by
burning the white house on the night of
august 24 1840 the president's house
with a black and ruin and have to be
almost completely rebuild the famous
American artist George captain made this
sketch of the north side of the white
house showing it as it must have
appeared about 1820 the South portico by
Benjamin the drone was added in 1824 the
columns made the white house in Grand
still their sheep grazing and a
vegetable patches outlaw
and making 29 the North Portico also
going to throw with that this would
review from Pennsylvania Avenue by 1840
one of the many stones broke concerning
the decorating of the whiteout
congressman open attack President and
you're asking all Americans support that
chief servant in a palace its splendid
as the season Charles Dickens didn't
find the White House quite that splendid
he called in English clubhouse with that
uncomfortable air of having made
yesterday many times they're working
enough money for even minor repairs the
paint peel from the world building was
known as the public shabby house as
America grew and the president's
responsibilities grew the officers took
over more and more of the building
mrs. Harrison complain that she had no
privacy
she submitted this plan for an
enlargement of the building adding two
large wings to contain offices and
entertainment room
the plans were not approved this
photograph was taken a New Year's Day
1898 with him he was president and he
was observing a custom which persisted
until herbert hoover New Year's Day was
traditionally an open house and anyone
could come to the White House and shake
the president's hand
south lawn with a jumble of green added
and the interior with an impossible
arrangement the president's private
quarters and executive offices 19 to
President Roosevelt ordered out the
clutter and help to temporary extensions
which became permanent office wings into
Roosevelt's interior designs classically
beautiful the work was done in such a
rush that severe structural damage was
done to the building in 1924 mrs.
Coolidge we did the interior and added
18 rooms to the third floor
her work was necessary but again the
structure was heavily stressed by the
haphazard construction the bills the
damages was presented in 1948 President
Truman became concerned because the
floor of the study was vibrating an
investigation withheld and the
structural weaknesses of the white house
became immediately apparent one of the
investigators said the building is
standing up purely from force of habit
the beans and market crewmen sitting
room to split the bill he was too
dangerous for occupancy the White has
taken apart like a jigsaw puzzle pieces
are marked and stored away the whole
inside scoop down
only the area walls left and steel beams
were raking interior it was a little
difficult to get the new steel being
through the windows design by mr. hoping
1790 it would have been easier and less
expensive to demolish the whole building
but the white house is so great a symbol
to American that the exterior walls were
retained and piece-by-piece the interior
of the president have was put back
together the exterior views were exactly
those which Americans had seen
throughout this century
except for the balcony on the South
portico which President Truman added
this is drawn have chemical third
youngest of the 49 wives to live in the
White House
mrs. Kennedy I want to thank you for
letting us visit your official home
this is obviously the room from which
much of your work on it is directed yes
it's attic and salary in one since I
work started we received hundreds of
letters every day this is where we
evaluate all the fines see if we want to
keep them to fit into a budget mrs.
gonna be every first lady and every
administration since President Madison's
time has made changes greater or smaller
in the white house before we look at any
changes you've made
what's your basic plan but i really
don't have one because I think this
house will always grow and should it
just seemed to be such a shame we came
here to find hardly anything of the past
in the house
hardly anything before 19-2 I know when
we went to Columbia the presidential
palace there has all the history of that
country in it with someone believed I
was every piece of furniture in it has
some link with the past
I thought the way I should be like that
well now can you make these changes
according to your own personal tastes
and desires will know I have that
committee which has museum experts and
government people and private citizens
on it and everything we do is subject to
approval by the finalists committee
what's your budget where you come from
but it really its small because
everything we do is buy private donation
and every time we find an object we want
then we have to go and search for a
donor by slow and that way a lot of
things that we would like to get slip
away from this now suppose that you and
your committee were to acquire some of
the things that are in this room and
what happens when the next president's
wife comes into the white house if they
don't want it in the past you see they
could sell it throw it out do anything
with it they wanted
then a law was passed last spring which
we asked to have passed whereby
everything that's given to abort by the
white house becomes part of its
permanent collection the future first
family doesn't want it goes to the
Smithsonian where it will be taken care
of and displayed you'll forgive me this
room looks a little bit like an antique
dealers dream have you made any good
finds lately we have and this chest is
rather interesting as you know the thing
we care about most is something that
belonged to a past president this little
chest was left by President Van Buren to
his grants and it has writing inside it
which shows all that and there as we
like to have mainly american furniture
and things is rather like cafeteria but
its American pottery which is very rare
the early 19th century with an equal in
the shield on it so the two rather nice
they are indeed well now we've seen some
of the ingredients for the sum of the
new furnishings in the White House
could we see a completed room yes the
diplomatic reception rooms right here if
you're back to
wasn't played diplomatic reception room
used for besides receiving diplomats
well it's the room that people see first
when they come to the White House
everyone who comes to it
state in here comes through it leave by
it and i think it should be a pretty
room the way I came in and it's a
beautiful room for a wallpaper is
magnificent
yes this is wallpaper that was printed
in France about 1834 it's all seams of
America niagara falls new york harbor
indian and
west point i think the colors and Martha
we are one was a printed and in the
beginning of the 19th century and those
most of the rest of the furniture in the
room come from that same time
yes very much that period it's all quite
unified in this room
those are beautiful wing chairs over
there they are pretty and the rather
interesting because they're American it
is all the furniture in this room made
in New England about a hundred and sixty
years ago mrs. Eisenhower brought all
this superb furniture into this room we
added the wallpaper
speaking of making things I understand
that you turn one part of this floor
into a furniture shop is that right
that's show it used to be the kitchen
years and years ago when it was a
broadcast room and of Franklin roads out
President Truman used it to show movie
now we have opposed to shop here where
we do all our furniture restoring in a
public thing you do all of the
reupholstering of these old pieces in
here we do mostly it's much quicker and
more practical too exciting to see
things grow everyday and then also in
this room we have three ladies and loan
to us from the National Park Service who
cure who catalog every single item in
the White House so will be sure nothing
is lost track of again all donors will
be given credit in the booklet that
everyone can see there are a lot of
other rooms in this particular part of
the White House
are there any that we really need to see
how did the China room and the gold room
in the library with
isn't finished yet I think the first two
are so well known that it would be
better to go upstairs where the room
there are so much greater interest since
we're going to the east room next
perhaps its history will give you some
idea of the evolution of a single room
east room was originally intended as an
audience room something like the throne
European power used for funerals wedding
meetings with American Indians and ever
dignitary the East Room gradually became
associated in the American line as the
place for the grand events in the White
House the artist may be strong in larger
and larger and raise the ceiling higher
and higher until it resembles the hall
of mirrors
here from Leslie's chimney-corner the
dignitaries of the Civil War greeted by
President Lincoln nobody smiles and
everybody but President Lincoln frozen
upright the artists left respectful
amount of carpet shown Mary Lincoln been
a lot of money for the carpet and her
husband with angry center figures vice
president johnson and this the earliest
photograph is the East Room and
President Johnson's time when General
Grant became president brand he put
false elaborate Timbers across the
street and furnish the room in the style
forcing ancient greece with someone
called mississippi river but the
predominant feature between the glass
chandelier and the president Arthur and
mckinley more and more potted palms are
placed into the room until it looked
like a jungle this is the east room just
before Theodore Roosevelt boarded his
it always was guarded the room is simple
and classic Roosevelt used it for state
functions anyone's had a jutsu
exhibition there after theodoros about
potted palms came into the room what's
more but there were no major changes in
this room 19 22 the present
President Truman raise shanley and
reduced slightly time mrs. Kennedy this
is the East Room pretty much as
Americans have known it now for 60 years
obviously you have felt that you had to
make any great changes in it
no I think it's lovely i hate to make
changes really so when you find a room
like this wonderful this piano brings to
mind but this is the part of the white
house where you have the musical affairs
that's right this piano was designed by
franklin roads about with the Eagle
support and this is the end of the room
with pablo casals made for us where we
had a portable stage built when we had
the shakespeare play mrs. Kennedy this
administration has shown a particular
affinity for artists musicians writers
poets is this because you and your
husband just feel that way or you think
that there's a relationship between the
government and the arts
that's so complicated I don't know I
just think that everything in the white
house should be the best the
entertainment that's given here and if
it's an american company that you can
have I like to do that if it's not just
as long as it's the best
isn't that the famous gilbert stuart's
portrait of George Washington that's
right that's the oldest thing in the
White House
the only thing that was here to the very
beginning the government said a rather
interesting president when that picture
was painted a commission the finest
living artists of the day to paint the
president then they gave it as a gift to
the White House i often wish they
followed that because so many pictures
of later president by really inferior
but there is another gilbert stuart's
portrait of washington in the Cabinet
Room most patients in memory of this sun
is there anything else of great
historical interest in this room there's
more about this picture which is rather
interesting gilbert stuart painted the
head from life and then the body was
painted by people in his a today which
was a common practice in the 18th
century and then Dolly Madison when the
white house was burned by the british in
1814 managed to say there alone with a
cartload of furniture and documents have
been invaluable to us my research I
think that is a historical interest
yeah and so with Eve Munro candelabra
they were down in the Gold Room but we
put them up here so that now almost
every room on this floor has Monroe
candelabra on the mantelpiece you see
after the white house was burned when
roe came back in 1817 have to refinish
it so he bought all these superb Ryan's
and friends
they're on the mantel now in the
greenroom blue room and in the State
Dining Room is perhaps the most famous
of all the monroe centerpiece masses and
masses of gold and glad she bought in
friends this is really corridor that
leads across the White House to the
State Dining that's right i rather love
this all has all the colors when thinks
everyone thinks of the white house red
white and blue and gold also has four of
the best American picture which has been
loaned to with the way half including
the only of the gilbert stuart of John
Berry who founded the Navy well this is
the part of a White House that most
people think of as the main entrance the
one on Pennsylvania Avenue that's right
through this door that all the heads of
state come and this is where the
president makes them and here's where
the marine band play they have ruffles
and flourishes and hail to the chief and
the mayor receiving line and then
everyone goes into dinner here in the
State Dining this is the same entrance
as it was in 1881 when President Arthur
had it redone
this was before the time of central
heating and to keep the draft South
chest to our the Commission Louie
Tiffany to build this elaborate glass
screen it may have kept the wind out of
the White House but the screen kept the
main card a dark
this is the car we just passed through
about 1887 the doors lead to the State
Dining the State Dining Room early
presidents often faced attack on their
dinners and services and then who came
from the old friend here often found it
all to elaborate the food is highly fit
to eat Ruffman visitor
I would prefer they serve fried meat and
gravy or hog and harmony
this is the State Dining Room again as
it was during the time of benjamin has
and his wife Caroline the 19 to
renovation the room has been simplified
by the great architect Stanford way
theodore roosevelt and his stuffed
animal heads around the room there's a
story that President Wilson so just like
these stuffed heads that he always
seated himself in such a manner that he
would not see them while dining
originally the State Dining Room would
hold on me 50 or 60 people but just
outside there used to be a stairway
leading to the upper floor this
staircase and whole were eliminated 19
to the whole area was incorporated into
the State Dining capacity of the room
was more than doubled the work was so
successful but no one has made any basic
changes in this room since nineteen to
the State Dining Room symbolizes your
duties as an official hostess you serve
many meals here
yes this is where all the state dinners
and lunches are given can see 202 people
at the table now is not set up for that
many are there many state dinners
yes there are and we're almost two
months last year
tell me about the silverware and the
China's Kennedy it's not silver
it's all gold of their may they used to
use Monroe's knives and for the many of
them and Laura have been copied and the
china is the Eisenhower gold China you
see so many of the beautiful old
services the President had were
destroyed and broken so now the truman
in the Eisenhower china is all that
there's enough left of to you and there
is a beautiful Monroe centerpiece and
his flower or fruit baskets and
candelabra
all bought from France and 1817 and
these glasses there are i wanted a very
simple design so that the china and
silver and glass would show up more so I
looked all over and the prettiest ones i
found came from West Virginia where they
are beautiful and then this tablecloth
is new it's a gift to the White House
from the firm of Porto and it's all
embroidered in gold to match the
centerpiece and four and these pictures
there are three of them in this room
with two behind us here
yes these two run loan from the Boston
Museum of Fine not all three pictures in
this river by Healy this thomas
jefferson a copy act doing and then this
down your Webster who didn't live here
but he visited the White House 40 years
and then the most famous one of war is
this one of Abraham Lincoln which
traditionally always hung in the State
Dining Room Healy with the contemporary
of Lincoln but he only saw him once we
paint this picture from photograph
and you can see to damage spots on it
really quite bad ones
so we hope soon to have all the pictures
in the white house that need repair
repaired this is a perfectly beautiful
room
have you changed a great deal no we
painted it white
this room's interesting because it has
the most architecture unity of any room
in the White House it's really all 19 to
Theodore Roosevelt did the great
restoration with Stanford White and his
room became mean way the architecture
the consoles with the Eagles the
furniture the chandelier and the
athletes and it's interesting people
always think of the door Rhodes out with
his stuffed animals and things
few people realize that he was second
only to thomas jefferson in his care and
knowledge about the white house in fact
he designed the one thing which is
missing here but which was soon be given
to it a superb mantle they McKim mean
weighted design with Lions heads and
Theodore Roosevelt had no the lines not
an American animal so he designed it
with buffalo head of white marble and
weekend meeting right now it's copying
that for so you soon see it here to
replace this just simple molding that
was put in nineteen forty eight and this
is going to be on that fireplace just
under the metal there's an inscription
which I found one of the most moving
things in the White House
yeah that's from the very first letter
that was ever written from the White
House it was written by John Adams the
first president to live here to his wife
Abigail need only been here two days in
eight November second 1800 and it said I
pray heaven to bestow the best of
blessings on this
house and all that shall hereafter
inhabit a nun but honest and white man
ever rule under this roof it was
Franklin Roosevelt who love that prayer
and how to put on the mantelpiece
thank you mrs. Kennedy can we take a
moment now to talk about some of the
pictures which are not yet on we set up
a committee to acquire American painting
for the White House and in a short time
they've accomplished wonder first the
portrait of Benjamin Franklin by david
mark the only one of banks and ever
painted from life in 1767 London banking
with 60 years old it's the gift mr. and
mrs. Walter Annenberg Philadelphia for
hanging the green over the map and here
is the portrait of Alexander hand by
john from one of the greatest American
pain it's the gift of mr. and mrs. henry
ford of growth point michigan i think it
will probably hang in the red room here
are three landscapes which will hang in
the greenroom mountain limp 1854 by
jasper cropsey given by mrs. jas Chism
of Cleveland niagara falls by john
candidate
given by mr. mrs. James five new york
and it was most influential artists and
popularizing landscape painting in this
country Indian guide 1830 by album
position gift of the nathaniel sort and
store our kind of bored here are five to
prove their life which will hang in the
family dining room grapes and apples by
James he'll still life by ruben to you
appeals were a great family in America
manage he's doing by seven Rosen brute
painted in 1851 another still-life
nature's bounty the gift of mr. and mrs.
Wickersham June will happen in this
beautiful still life of vegetables by
William chase gift of mrs. to that
Morton searcher of Chicago and last are
two marine scene 12 by huggin
miss Marshall Field's happened
and now the Delaware there are three
rooms which service reception rooms for
the smaller official functions of the
White House the red room behind these
walls after the death of Willie Lincoln
mrs. Lincoln consulted medians and
prevailed upon a husband to attend one
say on the blue room until recent times
this was the room where presidents
receive the credentials of foreign
ambassadors to the United States the
green room
this used to be the dining room and hear
deficit gave his famous didn't introduce
such exotic foods macaroni waffles and
ice cream to the United States
mrs. Kennedy I know that after a dinner
in the State Dining Room it's customary
to withdraw to the red room may we
yes right here one of the rooms that use
the most
so I'd like to show you what we've done
to it but before we go to the red room
you should look at this pier table its
Empire and belonged to Joseph Bonaparte
Napoleon brother who came here after
Waterloo he lived in Bordentown New
Jersey and had lots of his beautiful
furniture with him and his furniture was
very important in transferring the
french empire style to America this is
left to west by the Philadelphia Museum
all this is the most brilliant of the
rooms and we've seen I can see why they
call it the red room but feel the fabric
it still with a scroll border of gold
it's copied from an American Empire
document everything in this room is
Empire the start of the room is dictated
by the mantelpiece which is Empire this
is one of the only two remaining man in
the White House 1817 after the fire all
the ones before were burned and all the
others in the house or either 19 248 you
see it has the same Egyptian columns as
the pier tag we saw in the hole that was
because of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign
and his desire to think of himself the
Roman Emperor had a heavy things
American Empire in furniture not in
politics that's right in this room has a
beautiful carpet which of these pieces
have historical associations with a
quite a few this is darling Madison self
at cinelli custis's sofa George
Washington's granddaughter the most
interesting of the pair of chairs by the
desk
not many people know that mrs. Lincoln
sold a lot of furniture after her
husband's death she was destitute lot
that she'd bought and a lot of earlier
furniture those chairs away before
Lincoln either van buren a tyler and one
of the ways that we get most of our
furniture back is people who got things
at that sale those who are gifted mrs.
Eaton begin the fourth church must say
the generosity those people is
what makes this still have things to
come back we're very lucky and grateful
i know that all the rooms in the White
House have historical associations but
this room next to the State Dining Room
must have been used so often a great
many things must have happened here
yes one thing that's interesting
President Hayes was sworn-in here's
president secretly at night considers
the closest election there ever was
they didn't want the United States to be
without a president for even a day so
what everyone was having dinner they
swarm in here
these pictures are good to that one
behind you is a Civil War pictures that
been on the White House long know and
that's the pictures that my committee to
get pictures for the White House found
for here it's wonderful
it has such a stark interest Civil War
maneuvers by words with Thompson it
depicts the action at edwards ferry in
balls Bluff virginia in October 1861 I
think I feel so strongly that the White
House should have a line a collection of
American pictures as possible so
important the setting in which the
presidency is presented to the world to
foreign visitors American people should
be proud of it
we had such a great civilization so many
foreigners don't realize it
this little table for instance it's by
Landry a and a French cabinet maker who
came to america
not many people know of them he was just
as good as Duncan 54 is great French
tablet makers all the things we did so
well pictures furniture i think this
house should be the place where you can
see them with that and that's what your
company is doing and trying to do is go
away i think the next world
along here is the Blue Room not that's
right right along this way and then the
way in this is interesting it's laughs I
its much composed printed in 1824 he
came here in a triumph route or when he
was an old man the whole country went
wild about him but poems made-up songs
this is one of them the same period of
the room so we put it there all those
are very different feeling in the red
room
yes it's slow but you know ended
president Monroe it used to be red is
this date of Monroe's is the Soviet
period
yes this room is everything in it really
is from the time of President Munro most
fascinating thing is this pier table and
bust when we first came here and started
searching bro thing we found the pier
table in the carpenter shop it was being
used to the sawhorse and we recognized
it from old engravings so we took a six
weeks to restore it and put it back and
then in the men's room downstairs we
found that bust of Washington tentative
yes both sides of the face look
different it was done by an early
sculptor but the interesting thing is
these two pieces are exactly where
Monroe had them in the room between also
learn from studying and raving
what is this room use for mrs. Donnelly
it's the most formal room in the White
House it's really not used for anything
except receiving lines or and so all it
needs is a table and some beautiful
chairs more to look at them to sit in
the interesting thing about the chair is
that when the pictures appear table came
in this
paper miss Katherine bowl in the
villanova Pennsylvania send us a chair
because she recognized that it went with
it
it's the only one of the original that
Monroe ordered from baylor Jane Paris so
Charles Francis Adams the descendants of
Adam the atoms president is on my
committee had already has copied so now
this room looks as if as it did under
Monroe we have a wonderful big window
here at the and yes the view from here
is so pretty
you can see the Washington Monument the
interesting thing is that this window
used to be the door in the olden day all
the carriages would come to the south
entrance and people come up the stairs
its Pennsylvania and you wouldn't page
until the Civil War this is where they
all came in and over on the mantle here
mrs. Kennedy is this slave when roll
piece as well
yes this is the manova clock and
candelabra which Monroe also bought from
path for this room so you see everything
in it really except the matter which is
19 2 is Monroe it's very handsome room
and the next one and lime is it the
green soon
yeah thank you Frank
but what's the exterior of this room
mrs. Kennedy it was an American parlor
would have looked like at the time of
atoms and Genesis a rune dating about
1,800 when we came these were the only
two antique pieces of furniture in the
room this pair of card table is we hate
to change we decided that we would let
them dictate the style of the room but
the funny thing about the myth no Henry
do part of the chairman of my committee
in established winterthur he noticed
them right away and said these are the
only good things in the room I wonder
who gave them turned out it was
assistant mrs. crowninshield what other
objects of special interest other than
room all now there's this so that which
belonged to Daniel Webster and is really
one of the finest pieces here in this
room and then they this mirror it was
george washington when he had it in the
Executive Mansion in Philadelphia then
he gave it to a friend and it was bought
from out vernon and 1891 and it was
there until my friend and lend it to us
for I must say I appreciate that more
than I can say is when that Vernon which
is probably the most revered have in
this country lends them into the White
House you know they have confidence that
we'll stay here and be taken care about
some magnificent desk under it
yes that had the fascinating story to
that was a first piece of unsolicited
fine furniture one day mrs. maurice noun
from Des Moines Iowa came into the
curators office and asked if we would
like to have it turns out there only for
like it in existence metropolitan in
winterthur
Marilyn Starkel Institute it's the
Baltimore lady's desk made only in
Baltimore classical with sandalwood
inlay and a gloomy day panels which of
gold painting and glass it's really a
treasure and I wish there were more
people like mrs. now because it was hard
to get people to part with fine
furniture one of the nicest things in
this room to my untutored eye is that
portrait of a beautiful young lady over
the fireplace
you're right it's one of the best
pictures in the White House it's
angelica van buren with the seven girl
Van Buren's daughter-in-law she was
hostess by Henry inman released a beaker
is about Van Buren himself in the
picture there the bust
that's the best of him yet which is
another one we found at Stansted you may
have seen and on the mantel again the
monroe Hannibal clock in the two days
well mr. kennedy we've now seen the
staterooms of the White House but the
Lincoln room is upstairs can we see that
yes that's a very special room you
should see that well these the staircase
goes up to the second floor which I know
are they reserved for the private living
of the president his family i don't
think any television cameras or motion
picture camera they've ever gone up
there because that's where you live but
in President Lincoln's day the officers
were there that tried glad to not now
in Lincoln time the stairway to his
office was always crowded with friends
jobseekers cronies a climb the stairs
and came down the stairs having had the
moment with the president here is with
the White House did to President
thinking here is how he changed 1861
1863
1864 1865
1861 the spoon man with the arched
eyebrow 1865 one week before his
assassination
this is gonna do spend a great deal of
time and waiting room we did in the
beginning it was where we lived when we
first came here when our rooms at the
other end of the hall with being painted
I love living in this room it's on the
sunny side of the house and when of
andrew jackson's magnolia trees right
outside the window
it's a nice room was a bedroom during
Lincoln's time
no it was a Lincoln Cabinet Room its
president truman was such a scholar of
American history who turned it into a
shrine to lincoln took the Lincoln
furniture that has been all over the
house and put it in this room are all
the pieces from Wickham's farm I yet
they are the most famous one of course
is the Lincoln bed every president
seemed to love it
the euro rose about selecting it so did
calvin coolidge it's probably the most
famous piece of furniture in the White
House it was bought by mrs. Lincoln
along with the dressing bureaus and
chair in this table and she bought a lot
of furniture for this house tomato
husband rather cross because he thought
she spent too much money but this table
was also loved by mrs. theodore
roosevelt she wrote to make in need and
white and told them to be sure and
staying the furniture and the rest of
your bedroom the same color is this
table it's quite a terrible we're up all
carving yes it is fantastic victorian
carving
and on the table is the gettysburg
address this is probably the greatest
pleasure in the room because it's one of
only five copies written in his own hand
yellow paper has been kept over it so it
works fade and also in this room is
where Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation on the girl and no not on
that death that desk was in the soldiers
home where he used to go to sort of a
summer retreat in Washington order
Telegraph and this self and the two
chairs were brought here through the
efforts of President Truman they were
sold in that Lincoln sale i was telling
you that mrs. Lincoln sold and they went
to England and then through descendants
of the man who bought their president
truman got them back from them all sorts
of detective work have gone into finding
these pieces and identifying them i know
these two chairs there an example of
that we found one at Fort Washington
which is the store has so bad all the
stuffing coming up but we just thought
it looked at the Lincoln period so we
dragged home and we found from an
engraving that it was and then out of
the blue and mrs millard black of
arlington sentence its exact pair and
then mrs. Burton Cohen from New Jersey
send us some Victorian green and yellow
Mars velvet and there was just enough to
cover the two chairs so here they are
linking to change that dressing girl
with the mirror part of the river
Lincoln furniture because it's a
marvelously masculine peace
yes that was one of the things that mrs.
Lincoln but almost everything in this
room is except that mirror which was
bored about eighteen seventy and I i
think it's been all over the house the
last we know of it was it was in the
blue room over them andropia table in
McKinley's time
what's the picture of Andrew Jackson
doing in the Lincoln room
oh we see Lincoln loved andrew jackson
and from an old engraving we found that
when this was his cabinet room he had
that picture hanging in it so when we
found that out we took the picture which
was downstairs and put it in the same
place that he had it and the two cheers
hundred were also bought in the time of
Jackson but Lincoln use them as his
cabinet change their only 4 left now but
because this was his cabinet room we
keep the change but this was his cabinet
room mrs. Kennedy where was his office
he does this was next door in his day
you could walk through to it without
coming out in the hole because the whole
with always crowded with office seekers
they really play him and to escape you
just slip through the door
so this war wing was an office waiting
for a long time
yeah until Theodore rose about 50 off
buildings in nineteen to mrs. Kennedy
I've often heard this room referred to
as the monroe room
how did you get that name it just came
to be called that it was Lincoln's
office & Johnson Cabinet Room and when
it was used as an upstairs sitting room
mrs. Hoover had three pieces of Monroe's
furniture copied in the
nineteen-twenties that were in his law
office but if you notice the inscription
on this metal piece it says this room
was first used for meetings of the
cabinet during the administration of
President Johnson and continue to be so
used until the year nineteen to hear the
treaty of peace with Spain sign you see
this was the Cabinet Room Johnson to
Theodore Roosevelt Johnson but there was
bad luck associated with using Lincoln's
cabinet room after the assassination and
everything so he moved the cabinet in
here
this room is really a chamber of horrors
now but i thought it would be
interesting for you to see what a room
is like when we're starting to do it
because practically all the furniture in
this room we found in storage so bad
that there were cries of disbelief when
I brought it home but when this room is
finished you'll see how impressive it
will be this so for instance was ordered
by President Grant as with this table
and a grant cabinet table there's a draw
for every member of the cabinet he would
lock it up and take the key with him
before the next meeting
what about the chairs and this
I mean the chairs around the cabinets
are those with Grand Ballroom chairs
which were in the white house in
different room and from old engravings
we found that they were also used this
Rutherford Hayes dining chairs we put
them here
that desk is a gift to this room from a
mrs. walter Gardner of south wellfleet
math it was grants white desk do your
grant she gave it to us that's grants
clock on it
this chair is interesting it's the one
that the Healey portrait of Lincoln in
the dining room was painted on and you
recognize the probably recognize it from
the picture this mirror which is broken
in pieces you can see we're going to put
in the red room we get it fixed it's
1830 andrew jackson shouldn't be up here
now but is the room where all the
clutter come and on the walls where I
see you're trying of wallpaper
this is samples from document of old
wallpaper that was once in the White
House sometimes you get a little scrap
of that we find it in the book
this isn't from the White House protect
the border of paper in the room where
lincoln died across from Ford's Theatre
everything here
has been in the White House at sometimes
and the thing that we're going to do
it's going to be interesting it's only
treaty has been signed in this room the
archive is going to give us copies of
the more we're going to frame them and
have them all around the world so that
you can really see this is such a
historic room where you're going to use
it for when you get it all finished
I do think everyone should have a
purpose and it can still be a sitting
room cuz that's self whether you may not
believe it will look nice but it would
serve a definite purpose
my husband had so many meetings up here
this part of the house all the men who
wait to see him now sitting the whole
the baby carriage is going by them so
they can sitting here and have a
conference around this table waiting
family well if you want to come in and
see us in a few minutes
yes he's terribly interested in this
room because if i say so every piece has
the story
he's watched each ones that came along
as we found out what it was present
well mrs. a stone with mrs. Kennedy has
been showing us about the White House
and all the changes that she's made
their end
what do you think of the changes tonight
well I think the great effort that she's
made has been to what bring us much more
intimately in contact with all the men
who lived here after all the history is
a people and particularly great moments
of our history of presidents so when we
have as we do today grants table
Lincoln's bad Andros a gold set all the
ISA make these men much more alive i
think it makes the White House a
stronger a panorama really a blog great
story do mind living in a house that has
as many visitors as this one has my last
year we had the largest in his
three which I think shows that the White
House is a becoming more and more
important to American people 1,300,000
people pass through our home but that
I'd like to see that number doubled this
year and what is particularly
interesting is that these two thirds of
them with young boys and girls at school
I have always felt that the American
history is a sometimes adults subject so
much emphasis on dates but I think if
they can come here and see alive this
building and the innocence that touch
the people who've been here and they'll
go home more interested and i think that
there will become better Americans and
some of them may want to someday view
themselves which i think would be very
good
even the girl well certainly there's a
great deal for them to see do you living
here as you do have the same lively
sense of the past and of history that
those of us who visit this house too
oh yes i think even more because a over
and executive wing which you didn't
visit which at the Roosevelt design I
sit at the desk which was given by Queen
Victoria President Hayes used by many of
our presidents and the whole atmosphere
touches the lives of the these men who
will let our nation very difficult times
course I think anyone who comes to the
White House is a president desires the
best for his country but i think he
doesn't receive a stimulus from the
knowledge of living in close proximity
to the people who were a legendary but
who actually were alive and we're in
these rooms you feel them that history
can be helpful to understanding the
present
yes history isn't a guide to the present
to the archives building down
Pennsylvania Avenue there's a stone a
plaque which says what is past is
prologue while it doesn't give us a key
to the future i think it does give us a
sense of cop
it's in the future this country is
passed through a very difficult days but
it has a pass through them and it is a
rather interesting to realize that we
were rather an old republic probably the
oldest republic in the world and when we
were founded there was a king friends
are in Russia and imprint peking all
that's been wiped away and yet the this
country continue so that makes us feel
that will continue in the future and
that we represent a long effort building
on the lives of men and the efforts of
the men who were here and the American
people in the past so I consider history
to be a source of our history to be a
source of strength to us here in the
White House and to all the American
people and anything which dramatizes the
great story of the United States as I
think the White House does that is
worthy of the closest attention and
respect by Americans who live here and
visit here and who are part of us is
citizenry and that's why I'm glad that
the jackie is making the effort she's
making and I no other first ladies have
done it and I know that those who come
after us will continue to try to make
this the center really over a sense of
american historical life
Thank You mr. president and thank you
mrs. Kennedy for showing us this
wonderful house in which you live and
all of the wonderful things that you're
bringing to you
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