Blue Room Restoration, Nixon Administration
This photograph is of acquisitions placed in the Blue Room at a press preview held by First Lady Pat Nixon on the afternoon of May 15, 1972. The press preview was for the newly redecorated Blue Room with acquisition pieces, including pieces from the Bellangé Suite, a console table, and an argand lamp, on display. The refurbished Blue Room’s style was inspired by the French Bellangé suite of furniture President James Monroe purchased for the room in 1817. The walls were covered with beige wallpaper, featuring an upper frieze with a flower and bowl design, and a lower border of pink flowers, cupids, and Greek figures. Blue curtains hung the length of the room. The room also included a new oval plaster design in the center of the ceiling completed by Herbert John Millard, a wood carver from Roswell, Georgia.