Trends and perfect pictures. We have four copies of the originals of the portraits in the white house collection and hang in the east room. If you will note, these are completely brandnew reproductions that were done with the assistance of the White House Historical association beginning with the most famous of them all, the father of the country, George Washington. [applause] it is now a complete renovation down to complete historical detail. Really i cannot even begin to tell you how much better looking that is than just a month ago. It would not be complete without at the same time his partner in the white house as he was father father of theas country, the mother of the country, Martha Washington on my immediate right. [applause] to her left is the one and only, from ohio i might add, William Mckinley. Im going to leave it to our guest speaker bill allman, curator of the white house for so many years, to tell us why William Mckinley is in the east room. But he is in the east room and he is looking good tonight. On our farleft, he needs no introduction. T. R. Teddy roosevelt. [applause] these are touches that anyone will see. All of the business groups that use it, the historical groups, the brides that are married here, but one other musthave was visual acuity. President nixon was a master communicator. He used television from the oval office 37 occasions. He is known for his silent majority speech, for his resignation speech, he is known for having moved history with words. These days, for those of us who were here for the 50th anniversary of the walking on the moon with buzz aldrin, will realize that when we showed the tape, we showed it on one of the most extraordinarily improvised set of screens. What we used to to hold up those screens were sandbags. Come along way. A bit of an upgrade. Our brandnew screens are from the draper company. They are 16 feet long, 9 feet wide. They each way 700 pounds. And luckily, they are automatic. They are so unique and latesttheline, the equipment, that before they could be used, the Fire Department had to certify they could be supported in place thatse of the great weight must be borne upon them. As a result of these screens, the experiences that we have here, whether they are private business organizations or presentations on nixons legacy, his environmental record of starting the epa, signing the clean water act, the clean air ix to benefititle every woman over the age of 1971 in high school, his trips to china, it will all be shown on these screens as we will demonstrate very shortly. We have in this room two new projectors in 4k hd, 21,000 lumens each. I dont often like to brag, but each of these projectors cost 56,000 each. Our first use is to demonstrate the new logo of the Nixon Library. The signature logo, designed to represent president nixons unique achievement as the grand strategist. So 30 years ago we had an original seal. We have kept elements of that, but we have now updated to showre a globe to president nixons mastery in foreign affairs, his longtime role as americas global leading , the mosttegist important competition there can possibly be. This new logo is reflected across our organization and on every bit of furniture. [applause] i just did the third handoff of a microphone as we upgrade. Every element of this room replicates exactly the elements used in the white house east room. Our new logo which you see in front of us will be on every podium exactly as they are in the president s use, the president ial seal whenever he appears. They paid for everything we have seen in this room tonight. [applause] and on [applause] and on behalf of [applause] on behalf of dr. Cavanaugh and every member of the board and everyone who has used this in the past and the future, i want to say thank you and to tell very briefly the story that on the first day that i returned as a director of the library, the president of the Foundation Jim byron said, and meet charlie for lunch. And we did, and i told charlie about our need in this room and within one minute, charlie said he was going to go out on a limb. With hering to confirm and make it happen. That was july 1 on president nixons birthday. 107 years ago today. I would like to welcome up on to thank you for making all this possible. Dr. Cavanaugh. [applause] take one picture of the four of us. Thank you. Thank you again. Tonight we are in for thank you again. [applause] we are in for a lot of fun tonight, but at the Nixon Library we always begin the same way. We want to celebrate this country by standing for the presentation of the colors, and the singing of our national anthem. [marching] halt. Left face. One, two, three. Present. [playing starspangled banner] [applause] forward march. [applause] we have a lot of treats in store for us tonight. Please be seated. By introducing jims old friend and my new friend bill allman. He became the curator of the white house on august 1, 2002. Curatorialed as assistant. The office of the curator is charged with the preservation and study of the collection of art, furniture, and decorative objects, to maintain the white house as a residence, a museum, it also provides a wide variety of Historical Records about the building. He is a native and a resident of bethesda, maryland and he holds his b. A. In history and an m. A. In american studies with the museum concentration at George Washington university. He is our special guest tonight. The music that will follow will be from oc music and art. We begin with a history of the white house from our friend, bill allman. Please join us on stage. [applause] i have to tell you to start we were here this afternoon consulting on the new installation of all this wonderful stuff. They put the podium here. I had been used to the fact sometimes you are at a Center Podium and they put a screen down behind you and those people cannot see that side and those people cannot see the side. Two slots there were in the ceiling, the installing person from your staff said, i did it right and somebody noticed. Between you could and everybodytalk can hear, hopefully. A pleasure to be here this afternoon. Let us see. I have to learn how to do this here. Maybe it is working . Ok. This is the east room east. [laughter] im casting a shadow here. Interesting concept. That may be because of the cspan people. This is a picture that was taken in 1972. This is a nixonera picture of the east room, the reason why this room exists here today. Theursue the mission of Nixon Foundation and the Nixon Library. But im going to tell you a little about the east room overtime. Starting with the winter of 1801. John and Abigail Adams moved in in november. They were going to serve for four months before Thomas Jefferson would assume the presidency. Abigail adams said, im not hanging my laundry for the public to see and its cold, so i dont need frozen laundry either. Lets put it in the east room. This drawing was done for the national geographic, for one of the white house publications in the kennedy administration, and it shows Abigail Adams supervising the hanging of the laundry in the east room. The room remained unfinished until 1814, when the british set. Ire to the house it fell to president james monroe to refurbish the room after the fire and ran out of money again. It stayed unfinished until the jackson administration. The east rooms history for the first 29 years or so was empty, full of laundry, destroyed by fire, empty, for some more decades. Maybe . There we go. This picture shows a print of the room in the 1850s, but what it shows is the furnishings that had survived from those other administrations, the three tables down the middle of the room were made for Andrew Jackson in 1829, and they still exist. You see one here. There are two that flank the lincoln bed now in the lincoln bedroom. One is on the ground floor as part of the tour route. Also in the room this is the earliest known photograph of the room taken about 1867. It shows furniture around the room. Chairs, you can see around the edges, of which we own four. Unlike the three tables that have been in the white house from 1829 continuously until now, the chairs were used in the east room from 1817 until 1874. In 1882, they were sold at the big Chester Arthur garage sale. [laughter] in the 19th century, it was perfectly legal when you came in as the president , they would say here is money to move in, and if thats not enough, get rid of the stuff you dont like and make more money to buy what you need. Throughout the 19th century you had entire administrations the taste as exhibited in the Decorative Arts disappeared. We have four of those chairs, all of which have come back since ms. Kennedys time, one actually the office just acquired about four months ago. They were made in georgetown by william king. He was a local cabinetmaker in the District Of Columbia. Here is a picture of the room. In 1858, for a reception being held by james buchanan. Sideuchanan is in the left shaking hands with guests. This is how the east room would have been used most of the time, for big receptions with lots of people being entertained. You will see on the righthand side of the picture above the door there is a white marble bust. That is the bus you see on the other screen be cited in the picture. Beside it in the picture. There were busts purchased by three james monroe. Amerigo vespucci and Christopher Columbus for discovering america, regardless of what the native americans thought, and then George Washington. What they represented was washington, the District Of Columbia as in Christopher Columbus, in the United States of america. They had a way of representing what the city was in the post fire rebuild washington. By the late 19th century, inventories were taken only occasionally, usually at the end of an administration, so the next people would know what they were going to find there. Looks ratherust classical. It was listed in the inventory as unknown roman gentlemen. It completely lost its George Washington association. Not the most obvious George Washington, i guess. Here is an 1862 engraving of a reception in the same east room. Clearly artists had been there, understood how the chandeliers looked and how the draperies looked, but he has built a room big enough to hold 10,000 people. [laughter] i mean him look at it. There are thousands of them. Newspaper engravings were the way you understood places prior to photography. This one. The boat on in 1884, an interesting event that took place was president Chester Arthur, he is holding a piece of paper to the right of the desk. He opened the new orleans world industrial and cotton expedition exposition by standing in the east room with people who were there to enjoy the event and pushing a telegraph key that would send a message to new orleanssaying new saying the president has opened the event. These are big things that took place in the room. Not so much what would happen in the 20th century. It continues to be that, but with a broader variety of things. Heres the way the room would have looked in the 19th century. What you see is architecture. Columns that have no structural purpose. They are just pretty. Underneath crossbeams with no structural purpose. They are just pretty. In 1874 for the wedding of president grants daughter. They did the mental pieces lepieces and all of the furnishings in the room. The east room was always open to the public. The family lived more in the red room and the blue room then they do today. The president s offices occupied about a third of the second floor. There was no west wing until 1902. Sometimes the east room looked like you see on the left. Press what some of the people called, the style of the east room is steamboat gothic. Because it looked like a Mississippi River steamboat or a circular lobby with sofas. Date from thes Grant Administration and the from Chester Arthurs continuation of what president garfield had started in 1881 and one of the few pieces surviving from that was this sofa given to the white house in 1962. Those things that got away in the sales often come back to our office with stories about grandmothers who said this came from the white house. Once in a while we can prove it because photographs back it up or the object backs it up. Sometimes they say, this was Thomas Jeffersons table, its kind of late, remember . There was a fire in 1814 and they didnt save any of the furniture. So it really cant be. And besides, it looks like it was made in 1930. One of the events in the east room are state funerals. Seven of the eight president s who died in office have laid in state in the east room, the only exception being president garfield. When he was assassinated, which is kind of an unexpected way to go, the room was torn up like it would be today with them laying new floor in a renovation of the east room. The one you see on the left ear here is the casket of president William Mckinley. I have been asked to explain why president William Mckinleys portrait hangs in the east room. Partly, it is a nice visual comparison with Teddy Roosevelt, bookendlso because they the centuries of white house history. Mckinley being the one at the end of the 19th century, the end of the house being as modern as they could afford, so you would see potted palms and big victorian furniture, and then Theodore Roosevelt directing that a neoclassical interior was something that he needed for europeans, for visiting dignitaries to understand that we are not steamboat gothic, that we have some sense of style and taste, even if it has nothing to do with american taste. It is very much french. And on the righthand side, you see one of the last events that president roosevelt staged. It was one of the reasons i think he did his 1902 renovation. That is the east room, set up for dinner for prince henry of prussia. He was the brother of Kaiser Wilhelm the second and came to the United States to take delivery of a new imperial yacht in new york and he traveled all around the United States. This was a stag dinner. No ladies were invited. It was all military officers. Maybe that was because it was a german prince. How veryan see victorian and exotic a look. The error roosevelt said Theodore Roosevelt said to have a dinner that big they couldnt fit it in the state dining room, they held it in the east room. The food came up from the kitchen. Dinner was kind of cold. One of the things he had done as part of the 1902 renovation was to enlarge the state dining room so they could have better meals in the house and modernized the east room. There is Theodore Roosevelt, the portrait you see reproduced in the corner there. Painted by john singer in 1903. The story says that Teddy Roosevelt was coming down the one day when sergeant was at the bottom of the stairs and he said mr. President , when will you let me paint your portrait . I have been hired to do this and you never sit still. He put his hand up on the post and said, paint me now. The problem is that post doesnt show up on any white house staircase. So the concept may have been right. The inspiration may have been right. I dont think the artist actually painted what he found. It is one of the best portraits in the white house collection. Theodore roosevelt and his wife hired new york architects to do a renovation of the public rooms, which included enlarging the state dining room, building the west wing so the family would not have to share the second floor with the president s offices. You would have people coming up to go to the president s office wander through mrs. Roosevelts bedroom. They had six kids in the wanton and not enough bedrooms. They had to double them up, so they decided they would take out these victorian interiors and introduce something more classical. This is when the east room came out, showing pretty much what you see today. The same floor pattern, the ame architecture, the ceiling was simplified later on. Theodore roosevelt used the room for two important things. One a was they introduced a whole series of events called musicals. Tomorrow night would have been the 100something anniversary. They were held on four consecutive fridays in january. January was the social season. You entertained from late december through early february before the weather got bad in washington and you had you did not have air conditioning. There would have been one of these where they invited maybe 30, 40 people for dinner and 500 to listen to music. I dont know how they got them all in the east room. You can put that many chairs in the room. But he also enjoyed using the east room is basically a gymnasium. One of the things that he had in 1904 was regular sessions with two japanese jiujitsu wrestlers. They would come three times a week and Theodore Roosevelt said he was not of an age or build to be twirled and batted down without damage. And about a month later he said im probably through with it. After an eight hour grapple with senators and congressmen, i feel like a stewed owl. Im not sure what that feels like. But have been shown three new throws that are perfect quarters. He liked what he was getting from his instructors, but it was taking its toll on his body. We can go back for just a second. You can see the chandelier there. There were three chandeliers provided by edward caldwell. Which was