History
Before the construction of the West Wing in 1902, the current Lincoln Bedroom was used as either an office or a meeting room for the president's Cabinet. When the president's staff was moved to the new West Wing, this room became a bedroom suite called the "Blue Bedroom." When the White House was gutted and rebuilt during the Truman administration, these southeast corner rooms were rebuilt and dedicated to Abraham Lincoln.
The room has been redecorated several times in the past half century, most notably by Jackie Kennedy, but always including furnishings from the Victorian period.
When Abraham Lincoln was president, the southeast corner suite was used as his personal office and Cabinet room (it was used in this manner by all presidents between 1830 and 1902). During the Lincoln presidency, the walls were covered with Civil War maps. It had dark green wallpaper, and the carpeting was also dark green. Newspapers were stacked on the desk and tables along with large amounts of mail and requests from office seekers. Two large wicker wastebaskets were filled with debris.
President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in this southeast suite on January 1, 1863.
Read more about this topic: Lincoln Bedroom
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)
“Racism is an ism to which everyone in the world today is exposed; for or against, we must take sides. And the history of the future will differ according to the decision which we make.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)
“Culture, the acquainting ourselves with the best that has been known and said in the world, and thus with the history of the human spirit.”
—Matthew Arnold (1822–1888)