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Green Room
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Green Room Art and Furnishings | |
Styles in the room changed as frequently as the tastes of the Presidents
until the time of
Theodore Roosevelt, when it was furnished with reproductions of
early 19th-century American furniture. Not until the Coolidge
administration, however, was authentic Federal-period furniture placed in
the room.
The Green Room was completely refurbished in 1971. Its walls were
re-covered with the delicate green watered-silk fabric originally chosen
by Mrs. Kennedy in
1962. Draperies of striped beige, green, and coral satin--a major part
of the 1971 renovation--were carefully designed from a pattern
shown in an early 19th-century periodical. The coral and gilt
ornamental cornices are surmounted by a pair of hand-carved, gilded
American eagles with outspread wings. The eagle, patriotic symbol of the
United States, was one of the favorite decorative motifs of the Federal
period and appears in many forms in the room.
In "a noble, or genteel house," wrote Thomas Sheraton, the English
furniture designer, a drawing room "should possess all the elegance
embellishments can give." Most of the furnishings
now in the Green Room date from the years 1800-15, the period of
Sheraton's greatest influence on American decor.
The walls of the Green Room are covered with elegant paintings of various
people and scenes.
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China Room |
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