Bedrooms, Mattresses, Pilows, White Sheer Curtains, Curtains

The White House has been "done over" many times, and now, the White House Historical Association has commissioned a set of pictures to explore what those famous rooms might have looked like at different moments in American history. The exhibit of 14 paintings by architectural painter Peter Waddell covers roughly the first 100 years of the White House, from 1792 to 1902.

"Few artists painted [the White House]," Waddell tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. "It's a really hard building to paint decently. Compared with how ... many images there are of Mount Vernon, there's very few of the White House."

But, Waddell says, the interiors were even more complicated. Working with The White House Historical Association, Waddell looked at inventories, samples of fabrics, and furniture and fixtures still stored in the White House collection, to get the details exactly right: "We know how many yards of trim for the curtains," he says. "We know about the white sheer curtains with the little eagles on them. We know the colors of things."

Source: NPR

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