Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration

by James Archer Abbott, Elaine M. Rice, Elaine Rice Bachmann

Firsthand accounts and photographs chronicle the restoration of the White House during the Kennedy Administration.

Designing Camelot recounts one of the most influential interior design projects in American history, the restoration of the White House during the Kennedy administration. Fueled by the intense fascination with the charismatic First Family, the project had a profound effect on the popular American imagination and taste in interior furnishings. Emphasizing the historic restoration of each room and the efforts to have these rooms reflect the personalities and tastes of Jack and Jackie, Designing Camelot features a wealth of first-person quotations, personal and public correspondence, media accounts, and photographs. Included are detailed room-by-room analyses of the restoration, anecdotes about the people involved, and insights into the choices made.

James Abbot (Baltimore, MD) is currently Curator of Decorative Arts at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Elaine Rice (Wilmington, DE) is an independent consultant on American fine and decorative arts.

272 pages, Paperback

First published September 25, 1997

About the author

JAMES ARCHER ABBOTT is a graduate of Vassar College (B.A.) and the State University of New York’s Museum Studies Program through the Fashion Institute of Technology (M.A.). Currently the executive director of the Lewes Historical Society in Lewes, Delaware, Abbott has served as director of Johns Hopkins University’s Evergreen Museum & Library, curator of American and European decorative arts for the Baltimore Museum of Art, and curator and educator for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Boscobel House and Gardens, and Historic Hudson Valley. His publications include Jansen (Acanthus Press, 2006), Jansen Furniture (Acanthus Press, 2007), and Baltimore’s Billy Baldwin (Evergreen Museum & Library, 2010).

Reviews

[Tim Evanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a much-expanded version of James A. Abbott's exhibition catalog, A Frenchman in Camelot: The Decoration of the Kennedy White House by Stéphane Boudin. It is terrific.

Jacqueline Kennedy's extensive redecoration of the White House from 1961 to 1963 has been much-written about in the popular press. Little of this work has actually been of value, however, because this writing has been bland and overstated. There is woeful confusion about who assisted Mrs. Kennedy with the restoration, and what, exactly was done.

This book rectifies the problem. It opens by providing an overview of the state of the White House's furnishings, beginning with the gutting of the structure from November 1948 to March 1952 and the materials which were used to decorate it after its reconstruction was complete.

Abbott provides an extensive account of Mrs. Kennedy's reaction to the White House and her decision to engage in a major refurbishment of it, but glosses over the work Dorothy "Sister" Parish did in the family quarters.

Abbott provides an excellent review of the work done by American antiques autodidact Henry Francis du Pont and the White House Fine Arts Committee she asked him to lead. This committee was almost immediately superceded by Kennedy's decision to hire French interior designer Stéphane Boudin and his company, Maison Jansen, and utilized Boudin's expertise in refurbishing the White House. Boudin and du Pont often were in conflict, as du Pont favored a more American approach and Boudin favored a more historicist French Empire style. du Pont's influence was highly limited, Abbott points out. He largely came to rubber-stamp Boudin's decisions, making few suggestions and confining his comments to improvements rather than changes or opposition. du Pont ended up designing only a single room, and the National Society of Interior Decorators had as much influence as du Pont did.

Most of the book follows a room-by-room description of Boudin's choices for the Kennedy restoration. The book provides a wealth of detail regarding fabrics, materials, manufacturers, costs, colors, and history. Almost every item in every room is documented. A dedicated fan or historian of the White House might quibble with some of the omissions Abbott makes, which to me (a fan with only limited knowledge) sometimes seemed glaring. Abbott seems to focus more on decor than "items in the room", and generally his omissions can be explained away that way.

The book doesn't get into the refurbishment of the service areas of the White House. Although these areas -- which included the kitchens, pool, press room, West Wing, and the underground offices and service space beneath the North Portico and Lafayette Park -- were refurbished, Abbott is not concerned with this. His focus is on interior design and fashion.

This book is not a raison d'etre, and not an academic work (despite its tone). Documentary evidence and endnotes are sparse, although sometimes Abbott does provide some good insider stuff in the endnotes. If one wanted to replicate Abbott's work or check his sources, one would be hard-pressed to discover just where he got most of his information.

Overall, however, this is a superb work. It's the standard by which all other White House refurbishment books (such as the work of Patrick Phillips-Shrock and Robert Klara) should be judged. It's outstanding, even if it is not perfect.

[Austin Bachmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

My wife, Elaine Rice Bachmann, co-wrote this book.

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the little details and the photos of the move to restore, not refurnish the White House. Especially after reading Upstairs at the White House. This book has many lovely photographs.

[Joseph J. · Rating 5 out of 5]

At once scholarly and deeply interesting. Beautiful photographs accompany room-by-room descriptions and transformations. Jacqueline Kennedy not only had a vision of the White House as a repository of antiques, art and fine design. She had to juggle donors with strong willed curators and often times clashing antiques experts and decorators-from Henry Francis DuPont to Stephan Boudin to "Sister" Parrish. Some rooms are shown not only in transition but also wonderfully "undone" with bare walls, windows and tattered furniture. A timeless volume of history, culture and decoration.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was rather disappointed in this book. There were not enough pictures and most of them in black/white.