House furnishings

View of President Roosevelt’s library at Sagamore Hill

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-14

View of the dining room at President Roosevelt’s summer home

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-18

View of President Roosevelt’s library at Sagamore Hill

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-18

View of an entrance hallway at President Roosevelt’s summer home

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-14

View of the reception room at President Roosevelt’s summer home

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-14

View of President Roosevelt’s library at his summer home, “Sagamore”

Collection

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Creation Date

1904-07-18

This film opens with brief clips of General Leonard Wood and Corinne Roosevelt Robinson participating in the renovation of the Theodore Roosevelt National Historic Site, laying the cornerstone and giving a speech, respectively. This film also shows movers unloading a number of objects from a moving truck and bringing them into the house, including many portraits, a chair, saddles, and hunting trophies.

Collection

Theodore Roosevelt Association

Creation Date

1921-1923

Newspaper article finding fault with the Roosevelt White House for its high expenses and “tawdry” changes to the house’s furnishings and trappings.

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-04

Newspaper article finding fault with the Roosevelt White House for its high expenses and poor treatment of “relics and heirlooms.”

Collection

Library of Congress Manuscript Division

Creation Date

1904-03-06

William H. Taft stands in a large room at the White House looking shocked. All the furnishings, from animal skin rugs to lamp shades, andirons to woodcarvings and the faces in paintings, wall trim and moldings to embroidered chairs, show the countenance of Theodore Roosevelt.

comments and context

Comments and Context

The Executive Mansion (first formally called the White House under President Roosevelt) underwent many expansions and renovations through the years, especially after invading British troops burned it during the War of 1812. Major alterations were ordered by Roosevelt shortly after he assumed the presidency. Modernizations included the trappings of Victorian furnishing and decoration of that era, especially ordered by Chester A. Arthur; and expansion was designed by the architectural firm of McKim, Mead and White, as the West Wing.