China Room
The China Room is one of the rooms on the ground floor in the White House, the home of the president of the United States. Pieces of the White House's collection of state china are displayed here. The collection covers administrations from George Washington's Chinese export china to William Jefferson Clinton's ivory, yellow and burnished gold china commemorating the two-hundreth anniversary of the White House's occupancy by John Adams.
Until the late 1902, this room, along with most of the ground floor of the residence, was used only for general storage. In the 1889 Mrs. Benjamin Harrison was the first to start collecting china from previous administrations. Mrs. Harrison displayed the china she collected in Arts and Crafts movement style cabinets in the ground Floor Center hall. Little value had ever been placed on presidential dinner settings, and damaged china was sold or given away as late as the McKinley administration.
The room became known as the Presidential Collection Room, but was designated by Mrs. Woodrow Wilson in 1917 specifically to display the growing collection of White House china. The room was redecorated in 1970, retaining the traditional red accent determined by the red gown in the portrait of First Lady Grace Coolidge, painted by Howard Chandler Christy in 1924.
Following the Truman renovation, 1949–1952, the walls were paneled in salvaged pine timbers from the house. The paneling was left unpainted until the Kennedy administration when it was painted ivory. A deeper cream color was chosen during the administration of Richard Nixon. The shelves are lined with red velvet. The rug is an Indo-Ispahan carpet from the early twentieth century. A cut-glass Regency style chandelier hangs in the China Room. A pair of late eighteenth century tureens on the mantel are glazed in red and green slip, and are the source for the green and red striped silk tafetta draperies. Two high-backed lolling chairs, made early in the nineteenth century and upholstered in ivory and moss green are arranged in front of the portrait of Mrs. Coolidge. An English neoclassical mantel is located on the east wall, and Ferdinand Richardt's "View on the Mississippi Fifty-Seven Miles Below St. Anthony Falls, Minneapolis," completed in 1858 hangs above the mantel.
The collection is arranged chronologically beginning to the right of the fireplace on the east wall. While not every administration created ther own service, at least minimal amounts of all china services created for the White House are now in the collection. Sizable amounts of some services going back to the early nineteenth century exist and is sometimes used for small dinners in the President's Dining Room on the Second Floor. The Carters favored using pieces of the Lincoln's amaranth purple rimmed china for special occasions. The Reagans, though famous for their red and gold service also enjoyed using the Lincoln china. The Clintons did not take delivery of their state service until near the end of President Clinton's second term. They used the Reagan and Truman services extensively for state dinners, but for small family dinners, especially holidays, favored the Hayes china which depicts American flora and fauna.
The room is primarily used by the First Lady for teas, meetings, and smaller receptions.
References
- Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
- Garrett, Wendell. Our Changing White House. Northeastern University Press: 1995. ISBN 1-55553-222-5.
- Klapthor, Margaret Bown. White House China: 1789 to the Present. The Barra Foundation and Harry N. Abrams: 1999. ISBN 0-8109-3993-2.
- Leish, Kenneth. The White House. Newsweek Book Division: 1972. ISBN 0-88225-020-5.
- McKellar, Kenneth, Douglas W. Orr, Edward Martin, et al. Report of the Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion. Commission on the Renovation of the Executive Mansion, Government Printing Office: 1952.
- Monkman, Betty C. The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families. Abbeville Press: 2000. ISBN 0-7892-0624-2.
- Seale, William. The President's House. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN 0-912308-28-1.
- Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
- The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.
- The White House. The First Two Hundred Years, ed. by Frank Freidel/William Pencak, Boston 1994.