Jacqueline Kennedy Redesigns the White House Library, Arranging for a New Mantelpiece

From the moment that John F. Kennedy was elected president in November 1960, it was clear that the incoming First Family would bring an unaccustomed sense of style, grace and optimism to the White House. Jacqueline Kennedy was a young woman of notable beauty, at once wistful and luminous, and of acute intelligence and exacting expectation. Her response to life was aesthetic, and to her appreciation of the arts, Mrs. Kennedy added a passionate sense of history. These qualities made her the ideal person to initiate a quest to bring beauty and history to the White House, one that was brilliantly executed, and led to the most influential redecoration in its history.

On February 23, 1961, hardly a month after the inauguration, the 12-member Fine Arts Committee for the White House came into existence as a body empowered to develop restoration plans and “locate authentic furniture of the date of the building of the White House and raise funds to purchase this furniture as gifts.” Henry F. du Pont, founder of the Winterthur Museum and revered as the most important collector of American decorative arts of his day, was named chair with Mrs. Kennedy serving as honorary chair. The grand parlors – the Green Room, Red Room, and Blue Room – were deemed the areas of highest priority. The State Dining Room and the East Room, at either end of the house, were equally high-profile areas for the committee. A primary aim was to procure furniture and artwork that was either owned by previous presidents or representative of particular periods in the building’s history. The Fine Arts Committee and its devoted mem- bers would send out pleas for furniture, paintings, busts, chandeliers, rugs and other items that had been or
might have been at one time or another in the Executive Mansion. They were astonished by the response, as they were barraged with offers from extraordinary presidential heirlooms to old quilts, spittoons, and paintings.

The First Lady turned the White House inside out and imprinted her own style upon the mansion. According to an official who worked with her, “In public, she was elegant, aloof, dignified, and regal. In private, she was casual, impish, and irreverent. She had a will of iron, with more determination than anyone I have ever met. Yet she was so soft-spoken, so deft and subtle, that she could impose that will upon people without their ever knowing it.” Relaxed and uninhibited, she was always popping up everywhere, wearing slacks, kicking off her shoes, sitting on the floor, hair flying in every direction. She was highly organized but rarely held herself to a schedule. She conducted “spelunking” expeditions into dusty storerooms and warehouses in search of forgotten treasures.

Jacqueline Kennedy focused on three additional White House needs. The first was a permanent collection of American paintings. A Special Committee for White House Paintings was set up, headed by the artist James W. Fosburgh. Within two years his Committee gathered more than 150 paintings, prints and sculptures. The second was the lack of a fine working library for the White House. What Mrs. Kennedy had in mind were the “American Classics” – the two thousand or so volumes most essential to an understanding of the American experience. James T Babb, the Yale University librarian, headed the selection committee. Mrs. Kennedy directed the committee to choose the “writings that have influenced American thinking…” Then on March 12, 1961, a press release announced that the American Institute of Interior Designers would decorate and refurbish the Ground Floor Library of the White House. Another need was for a White House guidebook – incredibly, none existed. With the formation of the White House Historical Association in November 1961, Mrs. Kennedy gave creation of such a book priority, and the result was The While House: An Historic Guide. More than 600,000 copies were sold in the Kennedy years, and it has been selling steadily ever since.

Mrs. Kennedy’s efforts to restore the executive mansion won enthusiastic national support. For three days in January 1962, CBS correspondent Charles Collingwood was filmed interviewing her on a first-ever behind-the-scenes tour of the history, rooms, and contents of the White House. An estimated 56 million viewers watched the hour-long tour broadcast on all three national networks on Valentine’s Day that year.

Though the following letter is undated, it is on Carlyle Hotel letterhead. The Kennedy Library informs us that Mrs. Kennedy stayed there in late March 1961, late September 1961, early March 1962, and late May 1962. So the letter dates from 1961 or 1962, when Mrs. Kennedy was in the midst of her White House redecoration project, including refurbishing the library. Edwin Jackson and Co. was a firm specializing in selling fireplaces and mantelpieces.

Autograph letter signed, on The Carlyle letterhead, New York, to a Mr. Magnuson, “Some workmen from Edwin Jackson are coming to set up the library mantlepiece temporarily, so that I can see if I like it. Could you see that they are let in please, and show them, or ask someone to show them the mantel. They said they would come today or tomorrow. Thank you so much.”

It is increasingly uncommon to find letters of Mrs. Kennedy relating to her greatest work – renovating the White House.