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Document 253875

JACQUELINE KENNEDY
The new First Lady and White House Curator unpack White House treasures.
Photo Mount signed: "Jacqueline Kennedy" as First Lady. B/w, 9x12¾ overall, image 6¼x9½ (two surfaces). Also signed: "Lorraine Pearce". Inscribed in an unidentified hand: "To Eugene Spatz/In great admiration/for his wallpaper perfectionism." All signatures on mount. This photograph pictures JACQUELINE KENNEDY and LORRAINE PEARCE, White House Curator, unpacking White House treasures. EUGENE SPATZ most probably designed and/or applied the wallpaper to rooms in the White House. On January 20, 1961, at the age of 31, Jacqueline Kennedy became the youngest First Lady since Frances Cleveland. Mrs. Kennedy quickly learned that many White House furnishings were kept in government storage facilities throughout Washington. Within a month of moving in, she established the White House Fine Arts Committee made up of experts in historic preservation and decorative arts. Mrs. Kennedy and her committee were successful in locating and soliciting the donation of furniture and artwork that had been owned by Presidents, been part of the White House collection or exemplified the period portrayed in the different rooms. Most important among their finds were items that had belonged to Presidents Washington, Madison and Lincoln. Mrs. Kennedy personally went through each White House storage room, unearthing forgotten pieces that she then had restored and returned to places of prominence. To avoid the use of public money for this work, she established the White House Historical Association, which published the first official White House Guidebook in 1962. All profits from the sale of the guidebook to the millions who toured the White House were used to fund the restoration project. Together with Mrs. Pearce, the newly appointed White House Curator, a position whose creation Mrs. Kennedy championed, the First Lady approved the guidebook's text, chose photographs and designed the book's layout. Upon publication, it was an immediate success. With her project near completion, Mrs. Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House on February 14, 1962. Edges of both mount and photograph slightly worn. Overall, fine condition.

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