J. Putnam of the kennedy john f. president ial library and museum, members of our foundations board of directors and all of my colleagues i thank you for joining us this evening. Let me first acknowledge the generous underwriters, lead sponsor capital of america the Boston Foundation and our Media Partners and the boston globe. We considered having this forum last night, on the actual 50th anniversary of mrs. Kennedys tour, but did not want to make any of you choose between sharing valentines day with loved ones or your friends here at the kennedy library. We are so pleased to have so many of you here with us this evening. 50 years ago Jacqueline Kennedy introduce herself to the nation. In many ways the public already knew mrs. Kennedy through her role as the president s wife, mother of two children, and as the woman who charmed world leaders. On february 14th 1962 it was a more substantive Jacqueline Kennedy who guided viewers on a televised tour of the white house. The nation was transfixed. 46 million americans watched that night an additional 10 million tuned in days later. The reviews were law to tory describing mrs. Kennedy as miss and an art critic of subtlety. My favorite anecdote relates to the evening, after dinner she in president kennedy watched some outtakes with friends. Seeing how his wife had clearly outshined him and horror person, the president asked cbs if he could reshoot his segment the following morning. Essentially he followed the same script the next day but tried admirably to match his wifes term, ease and engagement. You can decide how well he does when we watch that clip. Tonight we will watch a portion of the tour and then it will be a great honor to hear from her william bill g. Allman it is often said that nice guys finish last. Especially in our nations capital. But william bill g. Allman is a wonderful exception to that rule. He became curator of the white house on august 1st 2002 having served as a assistant and then assistant curator since 1976. No one has done more in recent years to help preserve the white house in its historic elections, while also helping to update them to our times. We are delighted hes here with us this evening. After the film he will give a brief slideshow presentation about the white house and then i will moderate a conversation with him during which time we welcome your questions. Three quick notes, we will end a bit early to make sure he can fall into his flight back to d. C. , you can own your own copy buying it outright in our museum store, and for a limited time only, if you make a purchase in the store we are giving away free copies to mark the 50th anniversary. This coming weekend, we will air and a story of mrs. Kennedy in the white house tour and i hope you will tune into that. Has you know mrs. Kennedy was one of the founders of this library, it was her hope that we would be a vital center of education in exchange that would grow with the times. I believe are forums, programs and exhibits continue to be guided by her spirit. I hope they live up to the standard she set in her virtuoso performance 50 years ago. Lets relive that moment now together. The a are of the white house with Jacqueline Kennedy. Produced by cbs news for the Cbs Television network. This is the white house, as seen from south lawn for the next hour mrs. John f. Kennedy invite you to visit. applause good evening everybody. Do i need to use this microphone . Okay. What i would like to do for a few minutes is bring a little color to a black and white show. Some color pictures of how those rooms looked when mrs. Kennedy was doing it, and some pictures of how the rooms have changed since that time. Because i think mrs. Kennedy wouldve been the first person to say to everyone what she was doing was a first step when she was asking people to donate things, maybe the very best things werent the ones being offered, but when you had nothing you took what was offered. So there have been improvement to the collection, growth to the collection, and that is what she expected every first family to do to contribute to the house. Growing and becoming more interesting to the public. You will see here the white house. A picture of mrs. Kennedy during her televised taping. That was a still picture showing her in the blue room. One of the things that the president talked about was how many people had come to visit, 1. 3 Million People in 1961. It wasnt so much that this tour kicked off the interest in the white house, mrs. Kennedy had already attracted the public attention. She was early in 1961 to have Congress Pass the law that didnt just protect the collection but establish that the museum character of the public rooms in the white house must be maintained in perpetuity. It still has to function as a house for the family, the secret Service Still has a lot of say about the security, but the museum character is what she was so interested in grasping. Then she created the curators office, also in 1961 in the idea that you need a professional staff to collect and preserve and interpret and conserve the pieces that she found in the house. The things that she was adding to the house. You have the dichotomy in that collection today, we still refer today to the old collection which is what mrs. Kennedy had found, they survived the 1800 options. Then there is the new collections which is what she was collecting, but in fact, some of those things were already older than the old collection. She had lots of people coming to the white house because she made the public aware that she was making it into a museum, it increased nation wide preservation in old houses and the contents of. What have her early acquisitions was this little engraving, well i am not advancing, sorry wrong button. This 1840 engraving was acquired for the white house collection in 1961. The the engraver actually entitled the piece, all creation going to the white house. Because even as early as 1840 therein visioning that the public was attracted to the white house. People like Andrew Jackson were living in the building, by 1961 she gave the house a whole new level of attraction to the public as a Historic Site and shrine to the presidency a great museum of important american objects. Following through her tour, you see the upper left hand corner the east room as she found it in 1961. Not too much has changed from what roosevelt had done to it in 1902 with the architects. The chandeliers, the corn hisses over the drapes, you will see in this picture that the mantles are white. They are actually read marble, mrs. Kennedy thought white was better so she painted them. That was fine for a long time, they were difficult to keep white. The paint chipped. In the lower right hand corner is todays east room as it was refurbished with in the 1990s. The red mantles have been restored to their original color as they match the baseboards. There were no carpets originally, one of the first things barbara bush did, wasnt their chance we could have some carpets made . These were delivered early in the clinton administration. It is very 18th century design feature is having carpets and design ceilings reflect each other. It makes the room less noisy, but also takes away some of the opportunities that the childrens once had, roosevelt children were known for roller skating through the room. Subsequent children have had those attempts win but the room is still used, still left unfinished and used for all sorts of parties and entertaining. This wouldve been where president and mrs. Kennedy held the famous dinner for the nobel prize winners. And president kennedy delivered a famous remark, never has so much talent been assembled in the white house, except when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone. Oops, now im advancing too fast. She pointed out the George Washington portrait. This is our iconic object that was hung on the walls when the house opened in 1800, it was saved by Dolly Madison by a fire. Cbs news unfortunately misspelt the name in the captions. This is the painting that was saved and restored and has been in the house continuously except for construction. To the right of this this is kennedy we wanted this for not just public but also historical, some may have gone in storage somebody have gone to the second and third force of the house including this windsor desk chair. It came to us, flip was in the temporary white house after the fire of 1814. The second night that James Madison was fleeing from the white house after Dolly Madison had taken the painting and taken off in one direction. He basically was running the government in maryland sitting in this little desk made by the owner of the house. I pushed too fast. She moved down the hall and got into the state dining room. The picture of the upper left is how she wouldve found it. The black marble mantle please was what was installed in the truman renovation, it is just a surround. The 1902 mantle that shes so admired that had the lions heads, changed bison heads, was in fact removed during truman renovation and sent to that library. The mrs. Kennedy invited them to send the mantle back. The curator, it was president cheer truman who said no thank you i am keeping it. She was alluding to it, she was having the same carving firm to create a white marble them. You see that in the picture in the lower right, which is after she was finished working on the room. She kept the drapes from the truman era, and the chairs and table from 1902. New rug, new mental. Heres the mantle piece, it is a little closer showing inscription as it is carved in the center panel. You can see the bison head in the lower right corner where Theodore Roosevelt installed the mantle in 1902 and lived within six years. Mrs. Kennedy said the, line is not an american animal, fix it. They had come back in and recarve the lines had as bison heads. She has the great monroe centerpiece. It extends to 14 and a half feet long. It has 18 classical figures that hold up the candles, one interesting story is that its mostly five sections on the table and to in storage. It is difficult to see but at the bottom of the plinth where the ladies in the black and white picture it has the companys name. Somehow this alluded mrs. Kennedys curatorial staff. They were only looking at the five sections and they wrote an article not knowing that they had a piece of it in the basement that was signed by the makers. She took them into the red room. This is how it looked when he walked in to it and said, oh my. The red cloth was put on the walls, imitation of the fabrics that had been there since 1902. You can see, in comparison a lot of the same furniture remains in todays room in the lower right as was put in and mrs. Kennedy. Probably the most intact of her public rooms. Mostly american empire style dating from 1810 to 1830. You can see on the left screen, the Beautiful Center table that is labeled by the maker, mrs. Kennedy cited in the tour, it was important cabinetmaker and may truly spectacular furniture in new york. We were very lucky that misses committee saw this and realized it was worth win. Maybe it wasnt really antique yet and we wouldnt be able to find a table of this quality today. She cited the sofa behind it coating at the dolly medicine sofa. That was a mistake at the time. It had no it was a style of the sofas that mrs. Madison had. It was Dolly Madisons sofa. The little one in the black and white picture, belong to washingtons granddaughter. It was very quickly replaced by mrs. Kennedy by the sofa that remains there which is the lower right picture, it has dolphins or sea serpents carved on it for the supports and arms. The blue room, as it looked when mrs. Kennedy took the tour. The heavy blue wall fabric of 1952. She had the monroe furniture arriving in the room as you see in the righthand screening. And the chair that was given back before it was ripple start. The rather unfortunate table in the middle of the room was made in a carpentrys chop, i think she was still working on what the centerpiece in that room would be. She was looking for something more period, you see on the left the striped wallpaper and decorative elements that she felt to be more in keeping with the monroe period. People said this drapery fabric looks like a boudoir, not a formal room of the white house. She was more depression than she believed, todays room on the righthand side is a wallpaper that is an absolute pyramid document. It was installed 1995 when the room was done again. The room with different wallpaper, different carpeting, different upholstery, but the same feeling is mrs. Kennedy created. She would be thrilled to know that more Historical Research went into how to keep this room looking historic. Story. She acquired one armchair and two side chair from the blue room furniture. You see the two side chairs in its current fabric, mrs. Kennedy shows this from a portrait of been row. It has gone through three different color combinations. What is interesting is that it is one of two that she acquired, it is marked, it is difficult to see but the bottle there is a it exists, unfortunately you see what people would keep taking upholstery fabrics to a frame. What we do today is what we called minimally invasive upholstery. You build up a structure inside the chair and attach our fabrics to the new materials. The table she cited as being in its original location is move to the Entrance Hall because we acquired, in 1979 a sofa from the set. It was the only wall begun off to take nine foot long sofa. There are seven original pieces of the 53 that were in the original monroe sweet. There is her chair. On the left in the nixon era fabric, on the right is the way it looks today. We found the first chair was the most intact of all the chairs we know of. So for the exhibition that we have right now at the smithsonian red wing gallery, we were working on restoring the chair to its original appearance. It would have had read fabric. It would have had a high sheen of polished, almost metal like finished with gold leaf surface sorry, my figures too fast. She was interested in adding to the portraits. When she arrived at the white house, the our collection was exclusively portraits, but she saw the importance of getting life portraits. The ones that have been done during the 19th century during during the she required the Thomas Jefferson by rembrandt peel, then the first ladies have added to it as well. Monroe and addison, the men row by samuel morris, a great portrait painter and artist. And then in the Reagan Administration we required john adams. We have been adding portraits to the collection inconsistent with mrs. Kennedys interests. There is the green room, when she had started decorating it still had the heavy green fabric from the truman reservation. They carve the president ial seal. She added this federal style furniture. Two views of that room the. Heres a black and white picture of the wall which shows the Daniel Webster sofa, that is the sofa in operation corner. In front of that is a card table which they show at the bottom. One of my favorite pieces because of the incredible in lay in veneering on this piece. Both of these have not been used in the house for a while, so we have selected them as our examples of perfection of what mrs. Kennedy was doing at the time. They are in our exhibit at the smithsonian right now. When she was finished in the room, to install this wonderful silk wool fabric on the walls with her federal collection and proper period style rug. There is the portrait that she cited in the tour, which was over the fireplace when she gave a tour. Other parts of the tour mentions that they are collecting other art including this of Benjamin Franklin which is over the fireplace as it was intended to be. She moved the other one, just pass the chandelier on the left. The green room in the Nixon Administration, the federal furniture mrs. Kennedy chose was not the strongest pieces for a room with very high ceilings and largescale. It was replaced with furniture made by a different workshop in about 1800 1810. That doesnt mean it wasnt mrs. Kennedys acquisitions, these chairs she had acquired a set of four of those. They were not used in the green room but they are perfect to be added to the collection. In contrast that very great five style, that very simple chair in the lower left, this is curators delight, you take the back panel off the upholstery and it was asked inscribe by the upholsterer. Most furniture doesnt give that much information. The green room, as you see today, it is the third set of changes since mrs. Kennedy. Still her silk moraine fabric. It has been replaced but it is considered a key element. The nixon era furniture has been kept but we have made a new rug, new upholstery fabrics. Mrs. Kennedy was interested in improving the art collection. What you see in this picture, the lower left painting was acquired for laura bush a 1947 painting called the builders. She wanted it to go in the public rooms just as mrs. Kennedy thought that things were interesting should be added to the public rooms. It was decided to put it in the green room. We had to decide, we dont on a lot of abstract art this might be harsh for mrs. Kennedys taste. But the collection is growing, the interest in all periods is growing. We paired with it this other painting in the lower right, which was of mrs. Kennedy acquisition. It was something she found light, easy and useful upstairs. It was more abstract and interesting. Above that painting on the wall and the far left you see the green room. It is a wonderful painting called the mosquito net. It was acquired early in the Johnson Administration as a gift in memory of mr. Kennedy. Several great paintings were donated by great collectors who wanted to remember president kennedy and his contributions to the white house. The lincoln bedroom, as mrs. Kennedy found it in 1961 on the left, carpet had been installed as she pointed out, the period was not with the mirror or the mental. The lower right has evolved, it didnt change very much. In early two thousands it was still the 1952 carpet on the floor after 50 years of use. The furniture, the lincoln bed, some of the other pieces like the center table. This was one where 2004, laura bush said could we refresh this room and go back to the period documents and do it as right as we can. Mrs. Kennedy would have found that enormously gratifying as she heard her site Historical Documents and design things correctly. It is a little bit more victorian than it was then. But you see now the lincoln beds with the proper recreation of its crown or corners, wallpaper based on the lincoln office, same with the carpeting and upholstery, it was stronger than it had been in her time but under the principle guess that dreams of the white house. She moves next door to the treaty room, they referred to as the monroe room. Here it wouldve been in the 19th century when it was the president s cabinet room. You can see the sofa she mentioned in the lefthand picture underneath the portrait of George Washington. There is president cleveland meeting around it in 1890s. There is a color picture. That when she walked into the room and said this is the chamber of horrors. There are so many things that were not assembled or finalized. Similar picture of the lower right when she was done. She picked that border that came out of the peterson house, it was put on a green flocked wallpaper, victorian drapes, the cabinet table down the middle of the room. It stay this way intel bush is administration. The room started to wear out, fabrics were getting threadbare. He said, you know i like this Conference Room idea, but i prefer to have a private Office Working up more intimate meetings. That is the way the room has remained since then. Several iterations including, this is the upper left finished room. The george w. Bush version of the office. The big treaty table as his desk, the grant sofa underneath the painting. The great painting of the pot president kennedy alluded that in fact they were not going to the west wing, but i thought i would bring to attention in the tape he said at the famous desk, placed in the oval office by mrs. Kennedy. It had been in the private quarters until that time. She thought it would be the most visible desk the president should say that. It was given to president haze by queen victoria. It comes with two interesting photographs, the famous one of john junior coming out through the knee hole under the desk as the president is working. Im more recent photograph of caroline, while obama tries to figure out how to go under the desk and open the door. The look on her door is, please mister president. Just stop. Not the only time kennedy came back to the white house is for a private unveiling for her portrait. She knew children came back. It was done very lowkey. She had made her mark and she felt it was time to leave the white house to her successors. That is what we do today, try to assists along with the National Park service to provide the resources and the expertise for each first family to leave their mark on the house. So now, we will have some questions and answers, i hope. Thank you. applause thank you so much for that wonderful to her. It was wonderful to watch and learn. I noticed a recent New York Times interview, a challenge of having the museum but also a home for a family. As a curator give us a sense of how you balance the use of the home and maintaining it as a museum. First you take a very deep breath. I mean, what we are and what mrs. Kennedy knew we would be is officially a home for the office of the president of the united states. She still wanted to put great things in the room so every guest, tourist or invited guests, diplomatic, foreign visitors, would see the best things that were made in a america. To draw out of storage that she could give importance to, that had survived the sales of white house content. So for us, it is the idea that the public tour does the least amount of damage. There is a regimental path through the house. You dont get to touch too many things. There are still tables in the green and red room where you will find chewing gum attached to the underside. There was the day when one lady, who had the baby in the front pack, leaned over to reads the label on a painting. It is called the mosquito net. To read the label on it at which point the baby grabbed the chinese bowl on the table and threw it on the floor. The woman was mortified. She never anticipated the baby was going to be so aggressive. It was a pair of goals that were no longer a pair. One ball is great but you are better. So you have those kind of things. At parties you have people who leave their manners at home or they dont have any. Im not sure exactly what. The butlers told us that they walked into the blue room, and there is a glass of red wine standing in the middle of the sofa. Maybe someone abstinent didnt minded leave grabbed at their. But it was an accident waiting to happen. There was a time with a man in the red room with his feet on the sofa. How do you say, excuse me sir you are a blank. If he is sick we understand, but otherwise though, that is not good behavior. The it is a remarkable tribute to the early american craftsmanship that the pieces hold up. You come to a party and use it on the chairs. He walked on the carpets. You eat off the china we do have glass tops on most of the tables in the public rooms because it is easier to save an alcoholic beverage. And one that is eating through the finish. You have to reupholstered things, maybe more often an average museum. I mentioned the minimally invasive impulse tree, we dont tack to their original frame, and we do it to the dish no materials added to the sometimes you just scratch your head and say you could not have dissipated that one. You move on you work with conservators. We have a furniture conservator, just as this is kennedy had her upholstery shop on site and not have to set things out for costly untimely repairs, we have somebody that is assigned to us at our facility that helps care for the furniture and other conversation needs for the house. There is a difference between public and private rooms. But one of the comparisons is that there is no young Family Living in the white house as it was with kennedy and obama. Does that change your role to have a portuguese water dog and teenagers running the president premises . We have been really fortunate. These are great kids and a great dog. There hasnt been one reports of damage of any sort as a result of childhood exuberance or bad dog behavior. But you know, there have been times when you wonder what you can say to a first lady when she picks a piece out of storage and wants to put in the childrens rooms. And you want something less important, something less easily damaged. Most often they want honest advice. They dont want bad things to happen on their watch. That is why the public rooms are administered partly by our office but also by the committee for the preservation of the white house. To replace mrs. Kennedys Fine Arts Commission with more structured organization. The goal is to preserve the rooms and to prevent the family getting blamed for change. It should not be blamed on the first lady, it should be the committees responsibility to take whatever he may come from the press. The private quarters are still things that are in the white house collection. So we still have to deal with the fact that those things go up there. We dont dispose of anything, is so that a new first family can come in and maybe they want to pick a truman renovation to put next to the bed with the water glass so that when you knock it over in the middle of night you dont come up with the damage table in the morning. We will begin to take questions from the audience. If you have them please lineup at the microphones. 1. 3 village million visitors, 50 years ago. How many visitors do you have now on public tours . The numbers now are about 700,000. That does not reflect a loss of president kennedys optimism for twice that many. I dont think we could handle that money. After september 11th 2001, the white house closed. We are not open to tours and it is gradually reopened. Now the old habit, in the original days you just lined up and if you were there by noon you got in on the tour. Now they are giving out timed tickets so that you could not spend your whole day standing along the fence. It is required that you have to go to your Congress Person and submit information to be cleared through the secret service. So it has cut down maybe not quite 50 . Most museums and Historic Sites would die for 700,000 visitors a year. We are the most visited Historic House in the world, i think. We have a question. In the original broadcast mrs. Kennedy showed a a shop which upholstery was done on site. I was wondering if there were other craftsman where people were set out for work to be done, in any other locations during mrs. Kennedys overseeing of the reservation . And if so is there a way to actually research that. My grandparents had an upholstery business and renovation and it has always been said within my family that they did some work, maybe just a piece. I do not know. I have always been interested in it. It is possible. It wasnt exclusively done in the cabinet making shop. They wouldve used outside sources. Especially the reproduction chairs, that was done by an outside firm and sent to the outside upholsterer so it, we are welcome to have an inquiry and look back at the files. We dont know if the paperwork would be as thorough as we need today. Not that they werent trying but there were so much going on. There are lots of things, people come to us all the time, about the story that my grandmother came from the white house. We know that there were sales, this is possible. We try to answer them thoroughly, that we cannot say for certain and we cannot deny. My parents and grandparents were very good record keepers. We have a question over here. Im interested if you have any stories of vips trying to take souvenirs home with them and how your staff deals with that. Well, when you stop putting spoons on the table that say president s house on it, that is the last course and they will not pick the cups up until the gaffes have left the table. So you cannot monitor those spoons and see if theyre not being put in pockets. That is one way. There have been some stories that i cannot confirm of political figures putting trees down their pants to try to escape with a piece of silver. You know, we are required by law to do an annual in mandatory. We have 50,000 objects, 30,000 is table where, we count every knife, fork, plate, dish and some are missing some maybe breakage, some may have gone in the trash, some may have gone down the garbage disposal. There are collectors of president ial china that have things that are fine for them to have because prior to recent times, if a China Service got broken into two or three pieces they wouldve sold them or given them away. Actually i had a collector tell me that president kennedy tried to give him a cup and saucer. And they said no, mister president that is the white houses. I cannot confirm that story, it is secondhand. The president and first ladies are usually careful. But we have a lot of guests. Question here. I have two questions that are related, one did mrs. Kennedy have a curator as such as yourself inhouse when she was there . And to, she mentions a painting that was bought from the Boston Museum in the dining room. I know that there are a number of paintings borrowed from various collections in her time, is that something that she innovative and is it being carried on today . Yes she had a curator. It was lorraine periods. She was bored from the smithsonian. She worked for about a year, then about four curators before me. I am about sixth in the line there has been some curator hesitance since mrs. Kennedy. She actually had to other women working with her because they were receiving letters, and objects, and offers of things, and donations. And they had to be processed the same way we do today. We had to keep the best possible records, do the research and document whether they wanted something or not. The burrowing of paintings happens, she was not the first person, i think we had loaned paintings during the truman, or someplace in them she hung those two paintings in the state dining room. That is the only time theres been more than one painting, that portrait of lincoln is the principal art object. The walls where she hung those paintings, this conscious had been hung on the pile astors and been since move to the walls where they better belong. There is no room to hang another painting. We continue to borrow as needed. Sometimes it is to meet the taste of the first family for the private quarters. The public rooms are the ones that belong to the nation. The only exception on the state floor is mrs. Monroe that belongs to the monroe family. We havent talked to them to donating it to us yet, it is still a from 1970. The same thing was true dolly medicine. Her porter was on loan from the fine arts from 1970 to 1996 when we finally talked the museum into selling is a work. They said, wait a minute it does belong in the white house much better than it did in their collection. What we borough now is this administration, like obama really likes modern art. And we dont have that recollection yet. There are paintings that we have borrowed from museums in washington for the private quarters and the oval office that fulfill their desires. Last question. I do have two questions if you dont mind. My first question is, under which president s since john f. Kennedy has there been the most change to the white house. Actually the Nixon Administration was probably the largest number of objects acquired, even more than kennedy. Mrs. Nixon very much admired what mrs. Kennedy had done. She wanted to improve the collection, increase it, and take very little credit. Mrs. Kennedy had set the path, she didnt need to go out and ask people to donate as much because mrs. Kennedy set the standard so she hired a. Curator that, and they worked very hard. They kept a lot of kennedy things, they changed out some, but all of the pieces are permanent and they will come back into use from time to time as different first families choose from them. My second question is on the art collection, it was interesting when youre talking about the builders and how you paired that painting which is more modern with a slightly more traditional, as tastes change and we get further away from the modern art period and towards more contemporary, how do you mix in that time period which might not necessarily match with the style of the rooms of the house. I dont think were is locked into stylish use as some people used to be. There are plenty of paintings are going into these rooms that were 50 60 years later than the style of the room. But because they were traditional they were accepted as being all right. When mrs. Kennedys portrait arrived, it was exceptionally controversial. That very impressionistic fulllength picture of mrs. Kennedy that i showed you at the end, when it first arrived it looked like she was wearing her pajamas, people said she looked like a ghost. It was a hard picture for people to accept because it is a new and unusual style for portrait. I think we are going to have that day when we want to hang jackson pollack in the green room. We will have to decide is that ok. It is going to be the scale of modern art more than the style. Do you want to give up an entire wall to one painting when you could hang two to four paintings in the same space. It will come. Maybe not on my watch, not because i object to it but i dont know if i will be there when the green jackson pollack arrives. We dont want to promote any hidden secrets that dont truly exist like when you watch natural treasure movies. But the next time all of us go to the white house, what is one small thing that the normal visitor might not know, one intricacy or specialty of the house that only the curator would know and take a look to see. Wow. That is kind of like your question of what my favorite object in the house is. On 9 11, 2001, is something i wouldve carried under my arm when the secret service told us to get out. I thought it would be that Thomas Jefferson, but i would probably be shot as allude or seen coming out of the white house. That is a tough one. I will tell a story on the painting on the mosquito net. It is a great painting it is a friend asleep under a mosquito net. But it hangs in a room where most of the portraits or president s or first ladies. It is a depiction of a person, with this black mosquito net draped over their heads most times people will come in and say which first lady is dying in that painting. They assume it is a shroud. If you go in the red room there are twos conscious that flank the east wall, the eagle holds a chain in its mouth with a ball at the end. They are made in england. After the war of 1812, the english realize if you make it with eagles the americans would buy it. It doesnt matter if we were at war. People ask all the time, what does it mean . What is this ball and shame . They say there is he casting off the chains of linking itself to the world community. One of our tour officers, secret service so you try not criticize them too heavily. These are about 12 or 13 feet apart. Someone said what does it mean. I was in the room at the time, and this fellow said you pull the two chain simultaneously and you flush all the toilets in the white house. And a room full of tourists went, wow. And i am in the back of the room going, no. So look for the scones. Us thank you all so much for coming. Thank you, it was great
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