Vermeil Room
The room takes its name from the large collection of vermeil (gilded silver) received by the White House in 1958 as a bequest of Margaret Thompson Biddle, selections of which have been on display in this room ever since.
The 1,575 piece collection contains examples of work by the most prominent English and French silversmiths working in the 18th and 19th centuries. Pieces from the vermeil collection are also on display throughout the house.
Until the end of the 19th century, Ground Floor rooms were the domain of White House servants, who probably used this room as a bedroom or storeroom.
During a complete renovation of the White House for President Theodore Roosevelt in 1902, this room became a coat/dressing room for female guests. Later, it was used as an office, waiting room, conference room, and billiard room. Since the Nixon administration, it has served as a sitting room.
China Room
Since 1917, the Ground Floor room known as the China Room has been used as an exhibition space for examples of ceramics, glass, and silver used in the White House or owned by the first families.
Throughout the 19th century, this room, like the rest of the Ground Floor, had been used by White House servants. It became a public space in 1902, when it was transformed into a coat/dressing room during the Theodore Roosevelt renovation of the White House.
When she became first lady in 1889, Caroline Harrison continued to pursue the Victorian art form of china painting. This hobby and her interest in history (she was the first president of the Daughters of the American Revolution) led her to take an active interest in collecting and preserving White House tableware used in previous administrations. Although she planned to have a cabinet built in the State Dining Room to display examples of White House china services, her idea was not executed before her premature death in 1892, while her husband was running unsuccessfully for re-election.
In 1901, Mrs. McKinley allowed journalist Abby Gunn Baker to survey the surviving White House service pieces which resulted in a scholarly article. In 1904, Mrs. Roosevelt (http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/edithroosevelt) had two cabinets made for the newly refurbished Ground Floor Corridor to display samples of White House china chosen for this purpose by Ms. Baker, and together they publicized their search for past White House tableware and actively collected examples to supplement what had survived at the White House.
Edith Wilson decided to devote an entire room to display the growing collection of White House china, creating the “Presidential Collection Room” in 1917. Abby Gunn Baker was again asked to select and arrange the china, silver, and glassware installed in built-in cabinets around the room.
Reagan and Clinton china on display in 2000
