Following the British burning of the White House in 1814, the house was reconstructed quickly. When President James Monroe moved into the unfinished White House in October 1817, he was tasked with refurnishing the residence. (1/12)
To demonstrate the grandeur and power of the young nation, Monroe sought many elegant pieces including French-made clocks, mirrors, a china dinner service, and perhaps most famously, the fifty-three-piece set of Bellangé furniture for the Oval Room (today’s Blue Room). (2/12)
This carved and gilded furniture suite was made by Pierre-Antoine Bellangé, who also made furniture for Napoleon. The suite was acquired by American agents Joseph Russell and John LaFarge after Monroe contacted the firm with a list of requests in April 1817. (3/12)
Although Monroe originally requested a mahogany suite, the agents commissioned Bellangé to make the furniture from gilded beechwood because as Russell noted, “mahogany is not generally admitted in the furniture of a Saloon, even at private gentlemen’s houses.” (4/12)
After the frames were made, they were upholstered in “crimson silk” and shipped from France to the United States. The total bill for this set and the other furnishings for the Oval Room totaled $18,417.17. (5/12)
Congress had only appropriated $20,000 for the entire house! By the time the home was completed, an additional $30,000 was required for the total costs of refurnishing. (6/12)
When the suite arrived at the White House, it was arranged along the walls of the Oval Room and featured two sofas, a pier table, two enclosed armchairs, eighteen armchairs, eighteen side chairs, four stools, six footstools, and two fire screens. (7/12)
The furniture was first upholstered with blue fabrics in 1837 during Martin Van Buren’s presidency. (8/12)
The furniture mostly remained in the Blue Room until President James Buchanan and his niece Harriet Lane sold the surviving pieces of the suite, except for the pier table, at public auction in 1860. (9/12)
Fortunately, efforts have been made to return this furniture to the White House and since 1961, seven of the original chairs, a sofa, and a fire screen have been returned to the modern Blue Room. (10/12)
The White House Historical Association has played an active role in acquiring and conserving these incredible pieces of history. The photographs below show the suite before and after the completion of a multi-year conservation project to restore the Bellangé furniture. (11/12)
To learn more about the Bellangé furniture and explore more examples of decorative arts from the White House Collection, join us tomorrow, October 1, 2020 for The Decorative Arts in the White House Symposium.
Meet Abby Gunn Baker – the woman responsible for the creation of the White House China Collection. In 1901, Baker was tasked with turning public opinion toward preservation by Colonel Theodore A. Bingham after he discovered previous presidential State Services had been discarded.
📷: White House Historical Association
To combat the poor preservation of the State Services, Colonel Bingham asked Baker to write a scholarly article on the subject, which led her to spend four months studying the remaining presidential china in the White House.
By 1903, Abby Baker’s first article on the preservation of the services was published in Munsey’s Magazine. First Lady Edith Roosevelt (pictured) took great interest in Baker’s article and formed the White House china collection.
🖼️: White House Historical Association/White House Collection
First Lady Mamie Eisenhower’s iconic hairdo was the work of renowned salon owner Elizabeth Arden. Though Mrs. Eisenhower sported the hairstyle since the 1920s, it was perfected at Arden’s Paris salon while she and General Dwight Eisenhower lived abroad during the 1940s.
When Eisenhower won the 1952 presidential election, Arden offered to dispatch a hairdresser to Washington to help the new first lady style her “precious, much discussed bangs.” Mrs. Eisenhower graciously accepted the offer.
In order to preserve the first lady’s signature look, Arden suggested that one of her stylists make a structural diagram to give any hairdresser a guide to recreating Mrs. Eisenhower’s look. It worked: the first lady wore bangs for the rest of her life.
Since 1817, President James Monroe's gilded bronze and mirrored plateau has impressed White House visitors.
Image: White House Historical Association
After the British burned the White House in 1814, President Monroe purchased Parisian furniture to refurbish the scorched Executive Mansion. Among the newly acquired furniture was the gilded centerpiece, made by the Parisian firm Denière et Matelin.
Image: White House Collection/WHHA
Described as "mat gilt with garlands of fruit and vines," Monroe's plateau featured 16 figures presenting wreaths and pedestals. It is accompanied by three baskets, a pair of urns, and stands, which remain today.
One of First Lady Edith Roosevelt’s White House legacies was the introduction of garden parties (pictured). Before becoming first lady, she held extravagant garden parties at the Roosevelt’s family home in Oyster Bay, New York.
📷: @SagamoreHillNHS
@SagamoreHillNHS Mrs. Roosevelt’s White House garden parties gained such traction that local papers announced that her inaugural party as “the first time in the history of the White House that the mistress of the mansion has given this kind of function.”
🖼️: White House Collection/WHHA
@SagamoreHillNHS With hundreds of guests attending her inaugural party, she wore an elegant white taffeta and organdy dress, trimmed with ruffles and lace. Pictured is Mrs. Roosevelt’s 1905 garden party on the South Lawn of the White House.
It’s #FirstLadyFriday, and today we’re highlighting the life of First Lady Jane Pierce, born in New Hampshire on this day in 1806.
Image: Library of Congress
1/7
Jane Appleton married Franklin Pierce in 1834, though she was uninterested in politics and the spotlight that came with it.
Image: White House Collection/White House Historical Association
2/7
Their marriage was marked by tragedy, as they had lost two young children before Pierce’s election to the presidency in 1852. Unfortunately, death followed them to the White House.
3/7
Salvadore Catalano, a Sicilian-born sailor, became an American naval hero as a critical player in a secret mission during the First Barbary War.
A native of Sicily, his composure and knowledge of Tripoli Harbor were essential to the mission.
Image: Library of Congress
1/7
In one of the most courageous actions in American naval history, Catalano piloted the Intrepid for Lieutenant Stephen Decatur’s destruction of the captured USS Philadelphia in Tripoli Harbor in 1804.
Image: U.S. Naval Academy Museum Collection/U.S. Navy Photograph
2/7
The mission to destroy the USS Philadelphia was perilous. Pirates (also called Corsairs) on board the Philadelphia hailed Decatur, but it was Catalano who answered, buying time for the Intrepid crew to attach ropes to the Philadelphia to pull the vessels together.
3/7