The Restoration of the Kennedy White House

While I love to feature my fabulous finds and host giveaways on my blog I think it is important to also feature posts on less materialistic things. I believe it is important to be cultured and also learn so today I have decided to have a more "educational" post for you all. Enjoy!

As mentioned last week I did my junior year, graduation paper at Taft on Jacqueline Kennedy's restoration of The White House. When the Kennedy's moved into the White House Mrs. Kennedy was shocked to find it to have been very poorly maintained. So she quickly enlisted Sister Parish to help her in restoring the famed house and also formed the Fine Arts Committee to aide her in this endeavor and to help secure American antiques and works of art. A plan was created and Mrs. Kennedy met with Life magazine to help promote the project: "Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there. It would be sacrilege merely to redecorate it—a word I hate. It must be restored, and that has nothing to do with decoration. That is a question of scholarship." Before the Kennedys moved into the White House there was no curator nor was it considered a museum. As part of the restoration, Mrs. Kennedy worked with the FAC and Lorraine Waxman Pearce was named curator in the first quarter of 1961. That same year the White House was also officially named a museum and the restoration was a historical preservation and not just another redecoration. This was a very important move as it meant rooms could no longer be vastly changed. As part of the restoration Mrs. Kennedy also planned to add a guidebook (The White House, An Historic Guide) whose proceed would help pay for the redecoration. As a child Jackie had visited The White House, but had a vivid memory of there not even being a book to purchase (she noted that Mount Vernon had had a much bigger impact on her- eek!). The guide book sold half a million copies in half a year!

In 1962 millions of people tuned in to Jacqueline Kennedy's tour of the White House. She took viewers through the newly restored rooms and went into detail about the restoration as well as the many works the FAC had helped acquire. During this interview she made it known that the White House was more than just a residence for our current president, but rather a source of national pride for Americans and a place where art and culture could be showcased. Of course the assassination of the president the following year halted the Mrs. Kennedy's project, but the majority of rooms had been completed, including the state rooms. Jacqueline Kennedy transformed The White House and made a lasting impression on our nation's history. The White House is a place every American should visit and as Mrs. Kennedy said, something we should also take pride in.

Below is part of the six part series of Mrs. Kennedy's CBS tour of The White House: