James Roe Ketchum | |
---|---|
White House Curator | |
In office 1963–1970 | |
President | John F. Kennedy Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon |
Preceded by | William Vos Elder III |
Succeeded by | Clement Conger |
Personal details | |
Born | Rochester,New York,U.S. | March 15,1939
Died | Carlisle,Pennsylvania | February 21,2024
Alma mater | Colgate University |
James Roe Ketchum (March 15,1939 - February 21,2024) served as White House Curator from 1963 to 1970,appointed by President John F. Kennedy and continuing under presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard M. Nixon. He then became Senate Curator from 1970 to 1995,making him the only person to serve as curator at both the White House and Capitol.
Born in Rochester and raised in Clyde,New York,Ketchum graduated from Colgate University in 1960. He went to Washington for graduate studies,first in law school at Georgetown University and then studying American history at George Washington University. He was serving as registrar at the Custis-Lee Mansion in Arlington when the National Park Service lent him to the White House to assist Mamie Eisenhower with upholstering some furnishings.
In 1961,when Jacqueline Kennedy launched plans to refurbish the White House,Ketchum became a curatorial assistant,and the following year registrar for art and furnishings. In 1963,the First Lady asked him to become curator. He demurred that at 24 he was too young,but she dismissed his concerns,saying:“That’s what they told Jack.”.
On November 22,1963,Ketchum received instructions from Mrs. Kennedy,advising him that the president's body would lie in repose in the East Room and that she wanted it decorated as it had been during the mourning period for President Abraham Lincoln. They were draping the East Room's windows and chandeliers in black at 2 a.m. when the president’s coffin was brought to the White House. [1]
Lady Bird Johnson asked Ketchum to remain as curator to continue Jacqueline Kennedy’s restoration and expansion of the White House art collection. He also became swept up into many Johnson family activities,from social entertainments to the weddings of their daughters,Luci and Lynda.
Ketchum found adjustment to Richard Nixon’s administration difficult. He left the White House after repeatedly clashing with chief of staff,H.R. Haldeman.
Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield’s concerns over the loss of historical furnishings and deterioration of the artwork in the U.S. Capitol led him to recruit Ketchum as Senate curator.
Ketchum realized that like the White House the Capitol was not a museum but a heavily visited working building,whose artwork needed care and conservation. His office catalogued paintings,sculpture,and furnishings in the Senate wing,supervised the restoration of historic rooms,mounted exhibits,and even catered some events.
A Senate resolution made him Curator Emeritus upon his retirement. Majority Leader Robert Dole asserted that “Jim was the driving force behind the restoration of the old Senate and old Supreme Court Chambers,the President’s Room,and countless other important treasures. Paintings and documents have been recovered and preserved due to Jim’s tireless efforts. He has helped us all better understand this institution and the Capitol though exhibitions,lectures,publications,and other educational programs.” [2]
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington,D.C.,and has been the residence of every U.S. president since John Adams in 1800 when the national capital was moved from Philadelphia. The term "White House" is often used as metonymy for the president and his advisers.
The Oval Office is the formal working space of the president of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States,it is in the West Wing of the White House,in Washington,D.C.
The Resolute desk,also known as the Hayes desk,is a nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk,including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. The 1,300-pound (590-kilogram) desk was created by William Evenden,a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent,probably from a design by Morant,Boyd,&Blanford. The desk has been modified twice,with a kneehole panel added in 1945 and a 2-inch-tall (5.1 cm) plinth added to the desk in 1961.
The Blue Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor in the White House,the residence of the president of the United States. It is distinctive for its oval shape. The room is used for receptions and receiving lines and is occasionally set for small dinners. President Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom in the room on June 2,1886,the only wedding of a President and First Lady in the White House. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of blue. With the Yellow Oval Room above it and the Diplomatic Reception Room below it,the Blue Room is one of three oval rooms in James Hoban's original design for the White House.
The East Room is an event and reception room in the Executive Residence,which is a building of the White House complex,the home of the president of the United States. The East Room is the largest room in the Executive Residence;it is used for dances,receptions,press conferences,ceremonies,concerts,and banquets. The East Room was one of the last rooms to be finished and decorated,and it has undergone substantial redecoration over the past two centuries. Since 1964,the Committee for the Preservation of the White House has,by executive order,advised the president of the United States and first lady on the decor,preservation,and conservation of the East Room and other public rooms at the White House.
The Red Room is one of three state parlors on the State Floor in the White House,the Washington D.C. home of the president of the United States. The room has served as a parlor and music room,and recent presidents have held small dinner parties in it. It has been traditionally decorated in shades of red. The room is approximately 28 by 22.5 feet. It has six doors,which open into the Cross Hall,Blue Room,South Portico,and State Dining Room.
The Green Room is one of three state parlors on the first floor of the White House,the home of the president of the United States. It is used for small receptions and teas. During a state dinner,guests are served cocktails in the three state parlors before the president,first lady,and a visiting head of state descend the Grand Staircase for dinner. The room is traditionally decorated in shades of green. The room is approximately 28 by 22.5 feet. It has six doors,which open into the Cross Hall,East Room,South Portico,and Blue Room.
The Vermeil Room is located on the ground floor of the White House,the official residence of the president of the United States. The room houses a collection of silver-gilt or vermeil tableware,a 1956 bequest to the White House by Margaret Thompson Biddle. Portraits of American First Ladies hang in the room.
The Cross Hall is a broad hallway on the first floor in the White House,the official residence of the president of the United States. It runs east to west connecting the State Dining Room with the East Room. The room is used for receiving lines following a State Arrival Ceremony on the South Lawn,or a procession of the President and a visiting head of state and their spouses.
The Yellow Oval Room is an oval room located on the south side of the second floor in the White House,the official residence of the president of the United States. First used as a drawing room in the John Adams administration,it has been used as a library,office,and family parlor. It was designated the Yellow Oval Room during the restoration overseen by First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Today the Yellow Oval Room is used for small receptions and for greeting heads of state immediately before a State Dinner.
The Lincoln Bedroom is a bedroom which is part of a guest suite in the southeast corner of the second floor of the White House in Washington,D.C. The Lincoln Sitting Room makes up the other part of the suite. The room is named for President Abraham Lincoln,who used the room as an office.
Stéphane Boudin was a French interior designer and a president of Maison Jansen,the influential Paris-based interior decorating firm.
The Jacqueline Kennedy Garden is located at the White House south of the East Colonnade. The garden balances the Rose Garden on the west side of the White House.
The Committee for the Preservation of the White House is an advisory committee charged with the preservation of the White House,the official home and principal workplace of the president of the United States. The committee is largely made up of citizens appointed by the president for their experience with historic preservation,architecture,decorative arts,and for their scholarship in these areas.
SAM 26000 was the first of two Boeing VC-137C United States Air Force aircraft specifically configured and maintained for use by the President of the United States. It used the callsign Air Force One when the president was on board,otherwise SAM 26000,with SAM indicating Special Air Mission.
Franco Scalamandré was a co-founder of ScalamandréInc.,a US manufacturer of traditional textiles,decorative textile trims,wall covering,and carpeting.
The state funeral of U.S. President John F. Kennedy took place in Washington,D.C.,during the three days that followed his assassination on Friday,November 22,1963,in Dallas,Texas.
The desk in the Vice President's Room of the United States Capitol,colloquially known as the Wilson desk and previously called the McKinley-Barkley desk,is a large mahogany partner's desk used by U.S. Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the Oval Office as their Oval Office desk. One of only six desks used by a President in the Oval Office,it was purchased in 1898 by Garret Augustus Hobart,the 24th Vice President of the United States,for the Vice President's Room in the United States Capitol.
The Johnson desk is a mahogany partners desk that was used by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson in the Oval Office as his Oval Office desk. One of only six desks used by a president in the Oval Office,it was designed by Thomas D. Wadelton and built in 1909 by S. Karpen and Bros. in Chicago. The desk was built as part of 125 seven-piece office sets for senators' offices in the Russell Senate Office Building,and was used by Johnson during his terms as U.S. Senator,Vice President,and President. It is currently located at Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum as part of a replica Oval Office.