She really put it in the context of: This was something the whole nation could be proud of. I don’t think anyone questioned that this was just a first lady redecorating the White House. “Its impact really cannot be underestimated,” said curator Elaine Rice Bachmann. By comparison: the most-watched documentary on Netflix, “Our Planet,” had 33 million viewers in its first month in 2019 the first run of Ken Burns’ Civil War miniseries in 1990 had about 40 million viewers a typical Super Bowl has about 100 million viewers. Kennedy,” was seen on all three networks of the time and became one of the most-watched single television shows ever.Įighty million people - mostly women - watched Kennedy’s house tour in 1962. Lincoln, Vice President Andrew Johnson, the cabinet, and some of the union generals, including Grant, Sherman, and Scott.Despite being somewhat stiff and awkward - Kennedy affected a breathy speaking style and performed some unnatural camera blocking - the resulting show, “A Tour of the White House with Mrs. Another painting on view, called the The Republican Court in the Days of Lincoln by Peter Frederick Rothermel, depicts a fictionalized reception in the East Room, showing President and Mrs. 31st 1862 – Waiting for the Hour by William Tolman Carlton, which depicts enslaved people waiting for midnight to strike 1863, when the Emancipation Proclamation would go into effect. Photo: Library of CongressĪmong the framed works of art in the room is the 1886 engraving First Reading of Emancipation Proclamation Before Cabinet, after the painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. The widely circulated engraving depicts the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in the Cabinet Room of the White House, in what is now the Lincoln Bedroom. This 1866 engraving by Alexander Hay Ritchie is based on the 1864 painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter. Rubenstein National Center for White House History.įirst Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation Before the Cabinet. To understand how the elements of the room create a whole, Galerie spoke with former White House Curator William Allman and Matthew Costello, vice president of the David M. Completed with the support of the White House Historical Association, the glowing results of her efforts remain largely intact today. A decade later, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy added even more historical pieces, as did subsequent first ladies, until 2004, when Laura Bush spearheaded a sweeping Victorian-inspired revamp. During the reburbishment-the first comprehensive overhaul since the mansion was almost destroyed in 1814-the Trumans wanted a place to combine all of the Rococo furnishings from Lincoln’s era in one space. Truman’s renovation of the White House (1948–52). Referred to as the Lincoln Study by presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt, the space as it exists today was initially conceived during Harry S. Add to that ghost sightings and a slew of famous overnight guests, and it’s no wonder that the room has developed a mythical aura in the American consciousness. And while a framed copy of the Gettysburg Address has pride of place, the document that the 16th president signed in the room was actually the Emancipation Proclamation. The resplendent rosewood bed wasn’t his either, although his wife, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln, did indeed purchase the piece for visiting dignitaries. For starters, President Abraham Lincoln never used it as a bedroom instead this was his executive office and he utilized the suite for cabinet meetings. Of the 132 rooms in the White House, the Lincoln Bedroom might be one of the most famous, if not the most misunderstood.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |