First Lady Mamie Eisenhower (blue dress) with guests in the Truman version of the Green Room.
Moiré patterned silk covers the walls of the salon, Green Room. Formerly a daintier yellow, Thomas Jefferson had a green camouflage dropcloth functioning as a rug to catch the crumbs that missed his mouth in what was slated to become a dining room. It is sandwiched between the East Room and officially Michelle Obama's favorite, the Blue Room. Of course, it got a redo into the French Empire style after the Jeffersonian era because the British BBQ'd the entire White House in the War of 1812. Later, Victorian style gave way to Colonial Revival championed by McKim, Mead & White in Teddy Roosevelt's day throughout the room. Laura Bush redid the room in the summer of 2007 and added African American artist, Jacob Lawrence's (1917-2000) The Builders to the collection of art adorning the silk walls. At the time, the White House Acquisition Trust purchased the sixty year old painting, it sold for $2.5 million dollars and is one of only five pieces of art by an African American artist in the formal White House collection. The rule to command a spot as an artist on many of the state room walls (absent presidents) the painter gets the honor after dying and the work has to be more than twenty-five yeas old. Laura Bush with The Builders over her shoulder. She took some flack because the picture is of black men doing hard labor. Photo Courtesy the Washington Post. 
Lighter Relieving (1847) Farmyard in Winter (1858) Bear Lake, New Mexico Georgia O'Keefe (1930) from the White House Art Collection located on the walls of the Green Room
Art in the Green Room covers many styles. Holding pride of place is an iconic painting of Benjamin Franklin by David Martin sitting right above the oldest mantel in the White House - circa 1819. Abigail Van Buren's portrait also graces the room. Louisa Adams portrait in oils is a period piece painted by Gilbert Stuart. Scenes form the Mississippi River in Lighter Relieving a Steamboat Aground by George Caleb Bingham in 1847 is above the north door.
The urn and candlesticks on the coffee table in front of the Duncan Phyfe striped sofa are part of the silver pieces from John & Abigail Adams.
suffered though the 1904 white cane furniture and then, seized upon the idea of the fluffiest Turkish chairs to decorate the almost 627 square feet of space. That is more complicated than one might suspect for any designer because there are separate 6 doors to the Green Room as well. Jackie Kennedy believed heartily in themes and located things from important Americans, including Daniel Webster's Duncan Phyfe sofa and an urn Abigail Adams purchased. She hung the watered silk on the walls and varying degrees of that have been there ever since. (Green Room at conclusion of Jackie Kennedy's historic redo)Pat Nixon's curator tut-tutted the wrong era moldings for the room and had them replaced along with appropriate ceiling medallions. One thing about the White House, do not forget to look up as the ceilings are works of art as well. Even the Oval Office has a ceiling medallion. Draperies in the rooms also have exquisite attention to detail along with carpets be they an Axminster in Jackie's heyday or after the Pat Nixon overhaul. Laura Bush's rendition thirty-six years later is closer to that with a brighter hued color palette.
President Obama waits to be announce into the East Room by aides.
The picture contains the rosier color of the Martha Washington club chairs in front of the WH's oldest mantel with the author of Poor Richard's almanac staring down on President Obama with the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Liberal Lion of the Senate. Photos courtesy of the White House by Peter Souza.
Barbara Bush gives an interview to CBS with her dog, Millie utterly unimpressed.
Before the makeover, the same Eisenhower set up, Jackie Kennedy greets the wives of astronauts in the Green Room
Marta Sahaun de Fox of Mexico with Lara Bush in 2001 before her makeover of the room. Notice the more plain fabric on the chairs. Just over Mrs. Fox's shoulder is a magnificent piece of furniture with all kinds of hidden compartments. Atop it resides the Argand Lamp from the late 18th century.
Each first family finds different functions to hold in the Green Room. The first declaration of war was signed in the green room by President Madison. On February 24, 1862 Willie Lincoln who died upstairs was put in his coffin in this room to keep Mary Lincoln. had The appropriation of Green did not come until the time of John Quincy Adams and his wife (1825-1829) made it the Green Drawing Room while Grace Coolidge thought it the perfect backdrop for some semi-nude art after decreeing the room needed genuine Federal period (tons of eagles) placed in the room that started as a Lodging Room. It's also a room for interesting receptions and entertaining. Eleanor Roosevelt spent time with Amelia Earhart in the Green Room. Before the makeover, the same Eisenhower set up, Jackie Kennedy greets the wives of astronauts in the Green Room
Marta Sahaun de Fox of Mexico with Lara Bush in 2001 before her makeover of the room. Notice the more plain fabric on the chairs. Just over Mrs. Fox's shoulder is a magnificent piece of furniture with all kinds of hidden compartments. Atop it resides the Argand Lamp from the late 18th century.
The Green Room at the time of Andrew Johnson.
Green Room in time of the 1904 Roosevelt administration. Just outside the doors is the Grand Staircase as it used to open right to the Cross Hall before the Truman renovations. Ghastly choice in furniture & art during the Roosevelt era in my opinion.
hite House the painted eyes of presidents and first ladies watch the new occupants as they settle into the presidential manor. President Nixon used to speak with the portraits and keep himself in the wilting humidity of a Washington summer closeted in
Wearing French empire and showing shapely cleavage, the Dolley Payne Todd Madison portrait (1804) in oil by her friend Gilbert Stuart is so well known it graces alongside presidential portraits. She was the official hostess for Thomas Jefferson when the portrait appeared and later she became first lady With 44 presidents and 46 first ladies in total, (some presidents were widowers and remarried or bachelors or married for the first time while in office), the wall space in the 55,000 square foot Executive Mansion has prime space and lesser space. The current president and first lady select who goes where. One prime piece of real estate is just beneath and around the Grand Staircase just off the foyer or anything on the state floor and mostly, it is the presidents in the corridors with special first ladies or hostesses of presidents inside the colored salons off the Cross Hall.
Elizabeth Kortright Monroe's (tenure 1817 -1825 though her daughter Eliza stepped in most of the time as hostess) oil portrait by John Vanderlyn retains a prominent place near the South Portico just before the entrance to the Green Room. Her ermine shawl is perfect for the French Empire design of the Blue Room she and her husband worked so hard to furnish.
man seems to be the modern start for the seated pose. Above, wearing the famed triple strand is Barbara Pierce Bush (1989 - 1993) from 1992 painted in oils by Herbert E. Abrams. Elizabeth (Betty) Bloomer Ford painted by Felix De Cossio. It took awhile post presidency for the portrait of Rosalynn Smith Carter (1977-1981). In 1984, the softly hued oil portrait was completed by George Agusta. Rosalynn Carter has nothing on Martha Washington (1788-1796) whose official portrait came from Eliphalet F. Andrews who used a live model and dress from the nineteenth century when she was definitely a person of the eighteenth. The portrait was finally done a hundred years after the founding of America in 1878.
Mamie Eisenhower had no shame in her game going on vacation in the dead of winter. Back in the 1950's longer plane rides made for longer presidential vacations. For 10 days in February 1958, Mamie Eisenhower hung out in Georgia with her husband. On the 23rd of February, the president went on his private plane - Columbine III with the usual assortment of staff and announced the next stop was Phoenix, Arizona where he would lunch with friends at Elizabeth Arden's Maine Chance Farm. The first lady was staying on to soak up the sun in Arizona, and he would be doing a power lunch with pals and turning right around to go back to DC. Even back then, lots of screaming between the press secretary and the press about who was paying for that,.. I was more interested that the works at the Arden beauty farm was $400 a week. Sheesh! In a top flight spa you can do that before you put on the robe. (Mamie sampling her birthday cake - she really was a popular first lady. Photo courtesy AM New York)
Now Jackie Kennedy picked exotic places, but this has to be a 1960's thing that had no etiquette precedent in the First Lady Rule Book. What do you wear to ride a camel with your sister in Pakistan? Date line: Karachi, March 25, 1962 the answer is Kitten heels, pearls, hair immaculate that dares the wind, and a designer dress as you sit sidesaddle above a bunch of men leading your walking, humped spit creator. Jackie's vacation trip was at the suggestion of the Ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith.
ry young children needed high chairs. It drove her nuts that the family had to pack up like on a vacation to go down two or three levels to the state floor through the State Dining Room to get settled in the formal Old Family Dining Room to eat a regular meal. A bedroom that mirrored hers, now the presidential master suite, right across the wide hall from hers was turned into a private dining room, The President's Dining Room, complete with antique wall paper. The fact that the wall paper is papered over currently with gold damask puts some historians into catatonic shock. Pat Nixon covered it up too, Rosalyn Carter took it down, Barbara Bush covered it up and there it remains lost to look at while swallowing the morning oatmeal, even with its fearsome battle scenes. (Nancy Reagan & Michelle Obama in the Private Family Dining Room on the 2nd floor, The President's Dining Room of the residence. Note the bland gold damask wall paper. Photo courtesy Samantha Appleton)
ight Solarium is where Chelsea celebrated a birthday with friends from school and Ronald Reagan recovered from an assassination attempt. It is also very homey with no signs of the antiques found through the rest of the presidential home. There is also a private dining room for the president off of the oval office. Just downstairs from the Oval in the West Wing complex is the White House Mess where certain invited guests can purchase a hamburger or a steak or see the WH staff eating on the run. The Mess also has a private dining facility for meetings. (On the left is the president's private dining room off the Oval Office where he has private teas or lunch meetings.)
