The White House
Jacqueline Kennedy first
visited the White House as a tourist with her mother and sister in
1941. She was dismayed to see so few historical furnishings on display
and frustrated by the lack of a booklet to inform visitors about the
history of the great house. Twenty years later, as first lady, She
sought to change things and make the White House "the most perfect
house in the United States".
Mrs. Kennedy quickly learned that many White House furnishings of the
past were kept in government storage facilities throughout Washington.
Some pieces had accompanied presidential families when they left the
White House, others had been sold at public auctions in the 19th
century. With the goal of restoring the state rooms of the White House
to reflect the illustrious history of the presidential mansion she
established, within a month of moving of becoming first lady, a White
House Fine Arts Committee made up of experts in historic preservation
and decorative arts. Mrs. Kennedy and her committee were successful in
locating and soliciting the donation of furniture and artwork that had
been owned by presidents, had been part of the White House collection,
or exemplified the period portrayed in the different rooms. Most
important among their finds were items which had belonged to Presidents
Washington, Lincoln and Madison. Mrs. Kennedy personally went through
each White House storage room unearthing forgotten pieces which she
then had restored and returned to places of prominence. To avoid the
politically controversial use of public money for this work, Mrs.
Kennedy established the White House Historical Association which would
publish the first official White House guidebook (1962). All profits
from the sale of the guidebook to the millions who toured the White
House would be used to fund the restoration project and to purchase the
furnishings and other historic materials located by the Fine Arts
Committee. Together with the newly appointed White House Curator (a
position whose creation Mrs. Kennedy championed), Mrs. Kennedy approved
the guidebook's text, [Text version] chose which photographs would be
featured, and designed the book's layout. Upon publication, it became
an immediate success.
With her project near completion, Mrs. Kennedy agreed to conduct a
televised tour of the executive mansion for CBS Television in February
1962. A record audience of 56 million viewers tuned in to hear the
First Lady speak about the White House and its history as she guided
them through its newly restored rooms, expressing her hope that the
White House could be more than a place for the president to work and
live, and would become a place of pilgrimage for every American, a
showcase for excellence in art and taste, and an important element in
national life. Mrs. Kennedy's interests in historic preservation went
beyond the White House walls. She asked her friend Mrs. Paul Mellon to
redesign the President's Rose Garden thus making it a natural sanctuary
and retreat just outside the Oval Office and an ideal space for
greeting special visitors and large groups. Upon learning that the
historic homes which lined Lafayette Square across the street from the
White House were scheduled for demolition to make room for large
government office buildings, she personally intervened and commissioned
a new plan that, by placing the new office buildings in back of the
period townhouses and sheathing them in red brick, preserved the
historical identity of the famous square. Mrs. Kennedy also advocated
the restoration of Pennsylvania Avenue, the main thoroughfare which
connected the White House to Capitol Hill.
In her three years as First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy's work contributed
importantly to the growth of made a lasting impression on the historic
preservation movement in the United States and elevated the public' s
understanding and appreciation of the nation's heritage.