Jacqueline Kennedy first visited the White House as a tourist with her mother and sister in 1941. She was dismayed to see so few historical furnishings on display and frustrated by the lack of a booklet to inform visitors about the history of the great house.
Twenty years later, as first lady, she sought to change things and make the White House "the most perfect house in the United States."
Prior to her husband’s inauguration, Mrs. Kennedy visited the White House as the guest of First Lady Mamie Eisenhower. Disappointed with its appearance, Mrs. Kennedy referred to the White House as “that dreary Maison Blanche.” Calling it an "18th Century house," she believed that it should be furnished with antiques in the style of past presidents. It was, she thought, a museum that should reflect the artistic history of the United States.
“All these people come to see the White House and they see practically nothing that dates back before 1948," Mrs. Kennedy said in a September 1, 1961 interview with Hugh Sidey of LIFE Magazine. "Every boy who comes here should see things that develop his sense of history. For the girls, the house should look beautiful and lived-in. They should see what a fire in the fireplace and pretty flowers can do for a house; the White House rooms should give them a sense of all that. Everything in the White House must have a reason for being there. It would be sacrilege merely to ‘redecorate’ it -- a word I hate. It must be restored -- and that has nothing to do with decoration. That is a question of scholarship.”
It was her passion for history that guided and informed her work in the White House. She wanted to share her knowledge and excitement about the past with all Americans, especially children. She recognized that to a child, American history can often be a rather dry and dull affair, and she saw a visit to the President’s House as a chance to spark each child’s interest in the people who made the country what it is today.
Mrs. Kennedy quickly learned that many White House furnishings of the past were kept in government storage facilities throughout Washington. Some pieces had accompanied presidential families when they left the White House; others had been sold at public auctions in the 19th century. With the goal of restoring the state rooms of the White House to reflect the artistic and architectural history of the presidential mansion she established, within a month of becoming First Lady, a White House Fine Arts Committee made up of experts in historic preservation and decorative arts. Mrs. Kennedy and her committee were successful in locating and soliciting the donation of furniture and artwork that had been owned by presidents, had been part of the White House collection, or exemplified the period portrayed in the different rooms. Most important among their finds were items which had belonged to Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Madison. Mrs. Kennedy personally went through each White House storage room unearthing forgotten pieces which she then had restored and returned to places of prominence.
She began with the restoration of the Oval Office. Among the items she found within the White House was a desk made from the timbers of the British sailing ship HMS Resolute, presented by Queen Victoria in 1878 to President Rutherford B. Hayes. Mrs. Kennedy had it dusted off and moved into the Oval Office where it remains today. An exact replica of the desk can be found in the Kennedy Library and Museum's Oval Office exhibit.