China Room

Harrison's successor, Mrs. Theodore (Edith Kermit Carow) Roosevelt (1861–1948), celebrated the then newly initiated efforts of journalist Abby Gunn Baker (1860–1923) to research the growing collection, allowing her to both expand and arrange the collection in Arts and Crafts Movement cabinets in the semi-public ground floor corridor—a space newly defined as a gallery during the 1902 McKim, Mead, and White renovation of the White House.

In 1917, First Lady Edith Bolling Wilson acknowledged the need for more space for displaying the collection through the suggestions of both Mrs. Baker and White House Chief-Usher Irwin Hood "Ike"Hoover (1871–1933).

(Unfortunately, the architect did not replicate the depth of the removed Wilson-era cabinets, preventing the inclusion of an important standing punchbowl from the Pierce administration—restored by Mrs. Harrison—in the reconstructed interior; the piece was subsequently displayed in the window of the room.)

The Truman-era paneling was left unpainted until the Kennedy administration, when, in 1963, French interior designer Stéphane Boudin (1888–1967) of the Paris-based firm Maison Jansen, had it glazed in three shades of gray, with white detailing; corner brackets included in the display cabinet doors were removed at this time.

[3] The room was substantially redecorated in 1970 by First Lady Pat Nixon, with the assistance of White House Curator Clement Conger and preservation architect Edward Vason Jones.

Sizable amounts of some services going back to the early nineteenth century exist and are sometimes used for small dinners in the President's Dining Room on the Second Floor.

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.

The China Room looking southeast during the administration of Bill Clinton. At right is a painting of Grace Coolidge by Howard Chandler Christy .
White House Ground Floor showing location of the China Room.
The room in 1918 during the Wilson administration, looking northwest, when it was called the Presidential Collection Room.
The James Madison state china service was produced in 1814 at the Parisian factory of Jean Népomucène Hermann Nast .
The Lyndon Johnson state china service features American wildflowers and was manufactured in the United States by Castleton China. It was selected by First Lady Lady Bird Johnson .
The Reagan state china service was modeled on Woodrow Wilson's china and features the seal of the president of the United States in burnished gold on an ivory background with a border of scarlet. The china was manufactured in the United States by Lenox and selected by First Lady Nancy Reagan .
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Barbara Bush in the White House China Room, 1991. Millie, Barbara Bush's dog in the China Room.