they make sure everybody plays by the rules but it is a limited role. nobody ever went to a ball game to see the umpire. >> c-span create bid america's cable companies as a public service. benjamin henry latrobe worked closely with president james madison and first lady dolly madison to refine the look and function of the early white house. mr. latrobe's partnership is the subject of the talk at the american historical society by leslie jones, collections manager at the white house historical association, which is headquartered in lafayette square across from the white house where mr. latrobe once labored. this program is 45 minutes. good evening, folks, if i could ask you to find some more seats. i think there are some empty seats around.

if you would all try to get a seat that would be great and we can start. good evening and welcome to the 2012 francis scott key lecture series at the maryland historical society. we are excited to celebrate the bicentennial or war of 1812. this is the first program in that long celebration. this evening's talk, oh, the terrible velvet curtains and the madisons decorate the president's house is being presented by leslie jones of the white house historical association. before i introduce our speaker, i want to point out the items we have pulled for tonight's presentation. in the library cases you can see the bound letters to mrs. madison dating to 1809 regarding the decoration as well

as another letter dated the following year to the finley brother who is made the painted furniture for the madisons. he shows the sketch of a chair indicating the area where they tended to break. reproductions of the furniture that was burned in 1814 are on view here this evening. i would like to announce that c-span is filming tonight's presentation so we would appreciate if you would turn off your cell phones in case they ring in the middle of the lecture. on to our speaker. leslie jones serves as the executive assistant to the president and the david m rubenstein center for white house history at decatur hose. he acts as curator and collects manager for the design decatur house located in lafayette square owned by the trust for historic preservation and works in developing the public programming redesign of the white house visitor's center and oversees board relations among many other tasks.

he received a ba from miami university ohio in the history of architecture and completed her ma from the smithsonian associates and corcoran college of art and designs history of masters program in 2010 with a thesis entitled "pierre antoine seating furniture for the white house, its evolution within the interior." miss jones is the 2012 curator of the washington winter shows exhibition. treasures of the first families and will be curating the 2013 exhibit as well. she is an independent lecturer on topics related to early 19th century american in white house history. institutions she has spoken for in the past include the smithsonian institution, society of the cincinnati, american institute of architects, national trust for historic preservation, pca, aca, national society of colonial dumbarton house and the smithsonian

gallery. please welcome leslie jones. >> good evening. thank you for choosing to spend your thursday night here with us at the maryland historical society. that was a very generous introduction. thank you, mark. we are going to go ahead and get started. i believe i'm queueing to you for slides. thank you. oh, the terrible velvet curtains. the madisons decorate the white house. this image shown right here on the very front is actually the earliest known published image of the white house from a travel book. at this time when the madisons came into the white house, only part of the white house was finished. before the british came marched into washington and ended up burning the city to the ground. next slide.

its original architect irishman james hobin won the competition set forth by washington and jefferson in 1792 to build what washington envisioned for the president's house, i would design a building that should look forward and execute no more of it at present than might suit the circumstances that shall be first wanted. a plan comprehends more than executed in a future period when the wealth, population, importance of it shall stand upon a higher ground than they do present. washington really understood that the white house may evolve just as the united states may evolve. the city's commissioners went to france looking for adequate builders. they are commissioned to the city looking for masonmen, they said "we wish to exhibit a grandeur of conception, a republican simplicity and true elegance of proportion that corresponds to a tempered

freedom the good of little minds. contemporary counts describe the building as a palazzo. with no extraordinary features in a classed class simple as you can see. although, washington never lived in the white house, he lived a cornerstone before he passed away in 1799. subsequent presidents moved in and made it their own. the third president of the united states and second to live in the white house, thomas jefferson, who was in office from 1801 to 1809 appointed benjamin henry latrobe, as the first surveyor of public buildings to expedite the completion of the federal city. at this point it really was just taverns, hotels, and the white house and the upcoming capital building. jefferson, having his own interests in architecture as

seen through his many renovations of montecello, at the university of virginia and virginia state capital and his own ideas for the white house. he had a personal goal of developing public buildings and creating a city in his life town rather than the undeveloped, unpaid landscape that was washington in the early 19th century. latrobe's first duties were to finish the south wing of the capital and work on the president's house and develop what is known as navy yard. his work with jefferson was a collaborative effort and the two in six years helped to make the president's house structurally habitable to supply the missing conveniences and to improve the exterior appearances of the building. he added low single story wings. go back, sorry. on the east and west to provide for storage and other necessities and relandscaped the the grounds in a picturesque manner.

most of the work that -- excuse me. i skipped a page. let's go back. so i will improvise. this is samuel who was the architect with which benjamin letrobe is trained in britain. the next slide. this john sneeden is the engineer that he trained with in england. this is what we like to call a renaissance man. he was an artist and participator and sculptor and a designer. all sorts of things. he had a great mind for various tasks that made him one of the most well-known people in the united states in terms of architecture, granting him the title, father of american architecture is retained. he has retained for well over 200 years. okay. this is latrobe's first grand building. he immigrated by way of virginia, but was commissioned to come to philadelphia and build buildings there.

including their penitentiary. he orchestrated the building of their waterworks and this is the first grecian building in the united states, the bank of pennsylvania, which does not exist anymore unfortunately. okay. next slide. getting back to where i was. with his work on the white house, he added low single story wings that you can see right here that were not previously in the design. they were part of what jefferson really had implemented in his influence in the designs. this is a north or south-facing facade that you can see by the

colonnade. that would go into the blue room, about you in this day and age it was. this is the east facade. seeing a profile of the house. jefferson isolated himself as president, but coming into the white house and the reputation as extraordinary hosts, the white house was surely to be lively again. as one of two public attractions existing at the time and latrobe was very much counting on the greater opportunity as an architect. he certainly went beside the boundaries of being an architect and an emergency. correspondence between mrs. madison and latrobe dated march 17th, 1809, and reflect the additions to the duties from being just the surveyor of public buildings. in essence, he ended up becoming mrs. madison's retriever. a bit of an exaggeration, but he searched high and low up and down the eastern seaboard for piano fortes, guitars, furniture, rugs, carriages,

books, candlestick, snuffers, and lace and even -- one more slide. keep going. -- and even wallpaper. one more slide. this is a very famous depiction actually of the boston museum of fine arts, the tea party. later in date than what we are looking at with the madisons, but it explains what you would you have seen in a very elegant entertainment situation of the time period. one of the things that latrobe picked up was mrs. madison's iconic turbin. it was a younger look, but she pulled it off quite well. in addition, also, he picked up her wigs. in one sense, he picked that was a little too small. not sure if that means something if he thought she had a big head or he didn't measure it

correctly. in march of 1809 he wrote to mrs. madison of piano fortes to consider what we refer to as the red room and specifies he placed an order for chairs that referred to a suite he commissioned by baltimore cabinet makers to make the elipt tick or oval-shaped salon on the first floor of the white house. he took to rearranging the use of certain rooms. they outlined three rooms for entertaining. they should receive the most attention and therefore most of the budget. previously, jefferson used a large room on the west end of the house as his office. what we know as the state dining room. when the madisons came into the white house, they too made it into the dining room and remained ever since, even past the reconstruction. the northwest corner room that

jefferson used as the dining room became two partitioned rooms, acting as offices for his secretary. what we now call the family dining room. the east room, which formerly acted as meriwether lewis' office, we refer to that as a green room. that was a small dining room and they kept that function the same. as well as the salon that was the most formal entertaining position for the white house because it holds the most people. above the lippic room on the second floor, the family's quarters was the lady's room. these were the only rooms that we have a lot of information surviving on. so much was lost with the burning of the capitol. obviously over 200 years, papers get misplaced but fortunately, enough, documents do survive. his provisions for decoration for mrs. madison followed a few unavoidable trends.

one being that most often he looks only to the major cities in the north for materials and services and styles. more often than not, his styles are solely english as he was english. however, despite labrobe's constant travel to philadelphia and new york, and baltimore as well, he did not look very closely at washington, georgetown or alexandria businesses and this displeased a great many people. she had one of the best upholstery shops in washington at the time. he did not call upon her and she felt her duty to spread gossip about latrobe to the papers. yes, it happened then, too. latrobe was as tight faced as an eager, aggressive, and loud-mouthed designer and this happened to much that he ended up having to confront mrs. madison on the matter. in september he writes as far as i could proceed boldly as

surveyor of the buildings and in my capacity so i'm called in the papers which obviously he didn't agree with, i found i could not be as useful as i wished. referring to mrs. sweeney. he goes on to write, having however received two anonymous letters to the same effect, i have not presumed to interfere as surveyor of the public buildings and refrained from entering into the house more than duty requires. in a p.s. he continues, personally permit me to say i cannot possibly suppose the information i have received to be correct, regarding mrs. madison's disfavor for him. you have reason to be dissatisfied with your carriage which latrobe designed and ended up breaking it the first time she used it. i'm more than punished by misfortune of employing a man of universally good character but who deceived me. besides, i had to design and layout and frame and hold the furniture for your theying room, also a public concern. i leave my cause in your hands and it is humiliating to defend it, but it is a good one.

latrobe was extremely sensitive, if you can't tell. a true artist and right-brained. mrs. madison later assured latrobe that he was not being held in low regard by herself and the president for the time being. so the work continued. more than just a home for the president to live in, the white house was meant to rival the most exquisite residences in america, which at that time was philadelphia and new york, which is why latrobe frequented those two destinations so often. additionally if objects needed to be imported he would come to major import cities and not to land lock washington. america that the point in time was by no means a richly developed nation. urban cities like new york, boston, philadelphia, charleston, and now baltimore were hubs for industry. many luxuries for upper class american, mine you, had to be brought in from foreign lands, including textiles, food, and even natural resources like

furniture -- like wood for furniture production. what is difficult to understand in this day and age, design sources were largely imported. there were american craftsmen, but american craftsmen heavily relied upon publications set forth in england and france and sometimes italy to develop the furniture that they were going to make. even furniture designs as well. i'm sorry, clothing designs. next slide. latrobe used his english design sources and europe specifications that he wished to produce for the interior of the president's house. his furniture designs closely reflected englishman thomas hope's which made famous for his widely circulated household furniture published in lon on the in 1807. this is right out of thomas hope's book. does this look familiar? we will see that later, as well. the design source was appropriate as they based so

much style, governing and taste on reflections of ancient greece and rome. this was actually also a common site right here, rooms that were focused right around antiquity, the collection of vases, whether they be reproductions or originals that came back from any sort of ruins in the mediterranean. by 1809, the united states and great britain had signed their peace for now. there was a tendency for many to choose the decor and men are dressing from the bodies and homes of fringe and english. it is generalized, but you see from surviving furniture and costume and ceramic styles, most americans chose french. both countries were taking their design i understanspirations fr antiquity, what we refer to as neo classicm. where they got the design resources and students that came

back from students who came back from studying on their grand tours. mrs. madison was a lover of the french style. this is a little bit later but this is from pierre charles pursier and fontaine's design book. it shows you the difference when you look at the thomas hope versus what the french came out with. latrobe purchased two massive stone eagles from james, a sculpture in philadelphia, which you see right here. and mounted them on the peer gates of the north side of the house. additionally four marble mantels were ordered but only two were installed. latrobe actually had a budget in mind and he sold two to the u.s. capitol building. as for the furniture, the most iconic pieces were ordered from a pair of brothers in baltimore. of the 50 cabinet makers in baltimore listed at this time,

john and hugh finley were considered the best in what had become the gross rapidly growing baltimore had put itself on the map in its newly known craftsmanship of what is known as fancy furniture. which is by definition painted furniture with designs deriving from antiquity. latrobe commissioned the finlays for all the furnishings going into the large elliptical room. this is not from the white house collection or from the white house suite. but it is an example of the finlay's work that still survives. this is from the kauffman collection that was just donated to the national gallery of art. you can see here obviously the antiquity influence, the splayed legs and the form and also the decoration, the grotesques. also, another chair the finlays created as well. what also you'll see as a huge trend here is the caned seat. the 40-piece suite of furniture

the finlays made were painted and lacquered in white and gold. here is one of those examples which you'll be able to see closer up later on. but this is one of the couches that the finlays created that latrobe designed coming from the grecian examples that he saw and used from thomas hope's book. here's a close-up of that design. these are all on display for you to see afterwards. here's an example from what the cushion looks like that you could see formerly on the last design we saw. more of that. okay. and the -- some of the furniture was also grained in imitation of highly figured mahogany. mahogany was not at this time a native wood of the united states. it was mostly imported and very expensive. so fancy furniture, although it was very fashionable, was also sort of budget saving. because they were using domestic woods and painting it to look like it was an exotic, imported wood.

and there's the chair. now, the cane seats that are used on these furnishings is also another revival style. unfortunately it's a little bit -- not unfortunately, but it is a little bit closer in time period than any of the antiquity influences come from. these are also close-ups. you see some of latrobe's small notes here. these are notes that he actually sent to the finlays. here's an example of the cane seat on the modern reproduction. cane seating is very expensive in itself. here's an example of what it derived from he flemish furniture of the 17th century very much used the cane seating and had their own cushions put up on it, as well. latrobe also embraced the form

trisilinium, a couch used for reclining at meals. they were set with the sofas on castors that could be moved for easy mobility. the style ended up being very much like an archaeological based design with the chairs having splayed legs and tablet backs in addition to the faux grain the furniture was patterned with pictures of antique greek vases. the united states arms also right here invented by pierre charles l'enfant which was first displayed at federal hall was also applied to the furniture. you can see that same -- this is a little bit modified since it's a little bit earlier. but the same shield which ends up going on the crest of the united states. latrobe encountered plenty more issues while he was going through his design phase. more so than just with any papers or solicitous gossip. the finlays, in fact, caused quite a lot of trouble. the workshop was not operating on the time frame that latrobe had set and he wrote to mrs.

madison on september 8th, 1809. mr. finlay of baltimore who has the chairs and sofas in hand appears not to have been equally attentive. i therefore went to baltimore in july and found the chairs ready and such as i wished, but the sofas were unfinished. i said everything to urge their completing and applied to general smith who had recommended him to me to urge him also. about ten days ago i wrote another letter pressing to finlay but received no answer. now, this room that this furniture was going into, the elliptic room, also was called the oval room, was designed to be the most elegant and formal space on the primary floor of the white house. largely because it could hold the most guests. although architecturally it was designed by james hoban, latrobe wished to make this space his masterpiece. so he went from being an architect simply to more of an interior designer at this point. he worked through the summer and fall of 1809 to make sure the space was ready as soon as possible. he fretted so much over it he constantly wrote and annoyed the

madisons. he actually was very well aware of this later on. more so than the finlay problem was the issue of choosing the right fabric. what he wished for was silk damask. but no upholsterer in the united states could provide him the amount that he needed in order to do the curtains and also all the upholstering of furniture. oh, the terrible velvet curtains. when latrobe saw what the curtains were going to look like in the white house, he was mortified. he settled for red silk velvet. but the effect was not nearly what he had hoped for. the meager $5,000 budget, if only it had been bigger, would have allotted him more too many to either have fabric imported from england or have it made in the united states. instead he hired john ray of philadelphia to make the upholstery for the entire room in the red velvet. and latrobe was certain that the room would get such poor reviews he would never be forgiven. this also goes to show, as i said, that he became more of

just the surveyor public buildings, maybe the newspapers weren't too off when they referred to him as an upholsterer because he worried so much about the fabric. the reason why we focus so much on the elliptical salon is that that's what most of the information that is sa veilable today survives. we do understand from latrobe's letters that the mantel on the east wall, which you see right here, had a long french plate mirror above with a valance atop, trimmed with gilded balls and cloth. this is actually a modern-day interpretation that peter waddell was commissioned to do for the white house historical association, taking all the information that we had available of this period, of the time, and of what the white house looked like, and dress, he created this in 2010. here we have president madison, mrs. madison, steven decatur and several other guests.

ornamental palmettes were gilded as were the other grecian-inspired accents. here this is a design that latrobe came up with the palmettes. and here it is coming straight out of an antiquity from one of the -- this is the arapacus augusta e in rome. the walls were papered and, perhaps, brushed over with a light coat of fleck coach paint and the woodwork was white shadowed to suggest masonry. george bridgeport of philadelphia was employed to paint the ceiling and the woodwork. he was known for his subtlety in application. this box is actually mrs. madison's tea box. it was given by her to mrs. latrobe, so it's one of the only other things besides the gilbert stuart that survives at the white house. it's on exhibit right now. what we've come to figure out from this is that this wallpaper was most likely the wallpaper that was used in the elliptical salon. when we come back to the painting again, you'll see this is actually used as historical reference. there's an inscription here from

mrs. madison to mrs. latrobe. they'd known each other since infancy. so that always helped mr. latrobe's causes when he seemed to be on the outs with the madisons. mrs. madison was known to have spent most of her time working on her own parlor chamber than any other room in the house. also known as the antechamber where the president received guests. the space was said to be extremely fashionable done mostly in a yellow color. with sofas and chairs in the same satin and festooned in the same crowned windows used for the drapery cornice around the ceiling. in the parlor a portrait miniature of mrs. madison was present denoting the room's namesake. the state dining room transported from being jefferson's library and study into an actual dining room. it had the least amount of money put into it. a modest rug and furniture from the jefferson era were used. and filled most of the space, including portraits of past presidents, which were most likely engravings and not paintings. except for the gilbert stuart of george washington.

formerly it was hung in the elliptical salon. but for this -- for a very special occasion on january 1st, 1810, when guests were finally welcomed into the white house it was moved and put into the state dining room. latrobe had his wife, mary elizabeth hazlehurst latrobe, inform mrs. madison as well in 1809 they had found india stone china in blue and white and a similar set of nankin or nanking china ordered for the dessert service from philadelphia. she also sternly mentions there was an impossibility of finding french china which may or may not have been a ploy of latrobe's to avoid anything french going into the white house. additionally, flat ware was ordered and table linens were brought from boston and new york. latrobe was working furiously, as i said, at the end of 1809 trying to get the white house prepared. he was finishing marble chimney pieces, installing doors, constructing stairwells, assembling a coach house, installing a pump into the well on the other side of the house