President's Dining Room
The bedroom suite was structurally changed in 1961 to create a dining room and kitchen in the First Family's residence.
[3] From 1845 to 1849, the bedroom, dressing room, and eastern chamber were used by Augusta Tabb Walker and her two small children.
[6][d] To accommodate the bathroom, the stairs were moved from the middle to the southern part of the room, and the storage space eliminated.
[7][3] Mary Todd Lincoln's refurbishment of the White House in 1861 led to historic changes in the room.
Mrs. Lincoln also purchased a Wilton carpet[i] to cover the floor, and purple-tinted French velvet wallpaper with crimson stripes and repetitive golden images of a moss rose tree in bloom.
[3] On April 16, 1865, Dr. Janvier Woodward and Dr. Edward Curtis autopsied, and Dr. Charles D. Brown embalmed, Abraham Lincoln in this room.
This large, four-poster bed had been purchased by Mary Todd Lincoln in 1861 and placed in the Prince of Wales Room.
[3] Major architectural changes were made to the Lincoln Bedroom when the White House was gutted and renovated in 1952.
The bedroom's south wall was made convex, which created a walled-off dead space in the room's southeast corner.
In 1953, First Lady Mamie Eisenhower turned it from a bedroom into a sitting room for her mother, Elivera "Minnie" Doud.
)[25] To match the colors of the wallpaper, window draperies of blue and green silk damask were hung in the room.
Designed about 1815 by Robert Welford in Philadelphia, the mantel is inscribed with Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry's famous message, issued after the Battle of Lake Erie in 1813: "We have met the enemy, and they are ours".
[25] The room was lit with an Empire style chandelier,[28] manufactured in the 1700s[29] by Waterford Crystal and purchased in London by banker and art collector Chester Dale.
[30] Twelve dining room chairs,[30] crafted in the Sheraton style[25] in Baltimore in 1785, were donated to the White House in 1961 by Mrs. Charles W. Engelhard, Jr.[31][26] The chairs were initially reupholstered in an off-white damask approximating mother-of-pearl, designed by Parish and woven by Bergamo Fabrics.
[28] A side table, attributed to cabinetmaker John Shaw (cabinetmaker) of Annapolis, Maryland; a mahogany sideboard manufactured in New England and originally owned by Daniel Webster;[x] a setee with caned seat;[28] and a hunt table in the Hepplewhite style[25] also adorned the room.
Reproductions were made of the Sheraton chairs, which had suffered extensive wear and tear after nearly a quarter century of use.
The reproductions were upholstered in blue horsehair (a historically accurate fabric for the Federal period), with a gold diamond and rosette pattern dyed into it.
[38] The room was again redecorated in 1997 by Kaki Hockersmith, the personal interior designer for President Bill and Hillary Clinton.
[39] Portions of the frieze around the top of the room were painted with a pale yellow glaze to bring out its detail.
[39] The Sheraton chairs were restored to the room, and reupholstered in a bright yellow patterned brocade with a curving garland of flowers down and across the seat.
