62 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 19 64 



vironments in which the dresses are worn. Two rooms reproduce 

 those in the house at 190 High Street in Philadelphia where President 

 and Mrs. Washington lived before the White House was built and 

 display furniture and fixtures owned and used by them. The other 

 room settings combine architectural details from the White House, 

 including four original White House mantels and the 1902 paneling 

 from the East Room, with furniture and accessories used both in the 

 White House and in Presidential family homes. This hall was devel- 

 oped by associate curator Margaret Brown Klapthor in cooperation 

 with exhibits chief Benjamin W. Lawless. 



The new Hall of American Costume adequately presents for the 

 first time the Museum's rich and extensive collection of men's, wom- 

 en's, and children's clothing of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. 

 It includes accessories of dress such as shoes, hats, handkerchiefs, 

 parasols, and gloves and such decorative accessories as fans, em- 

 broidered and beaded purses, and many fine examples of period 

 jewelry. Many of the clothing items are exhibited on mannequins 

 which portray the hair dress appropriate to the costumes, and some 

 are shown in groupings in partial room settings. Illustration of 

 various types of clothing selected from paintings and engravings 

 dealing with the history of costume supplements the original speci- 

 mens on display. The entire hall has been one of great interest for 

 historians, artists, and students of American style and taste. The 

 exhibits were planned and installed under the direction of assistant 

 curator Anne W. Murray. Hall design was by exhibits designer 

 Robert M. Widder; graphic design by exhibits designers Judith 

 Borgogni, Virginia Mahoney, and Deborah Bretzfelder. 



The Hall of Historic Americans is unlike other museum presenta- 

 tions in the United States. A portion of the hall is devoted to a 

 capsule histoiy of American political campaign techniques, tracing 

 their development from the era of genteel "parlor politics" to the 

 modern political use of the mass media of communications. A dra- 

 matic political parade illustrates the development of Presidential cam- 

 paigning between 1840 and 1930 with papier mache marchers carrying 

 authenic political banners, pennants, and torchlights and wearing 

 campaign clothing and badges. An adjoining area, illustrating the 

 important relationship between politics and the press, radio, and tele- 

 vision, includes microphones used by Franklin D. Roosevelt in de- 

 livering his historic fireside chats on radio and by Dwight D. Eisen- 

 hower in television broadcasts. Several exhibits display memorabilia 

 of distinguished families and individuals — the Washington and 

 Adams families, Ulysses S. Grant, and Abraham Lincoln. In one 

 of these a newly sculptured figure of Abraham Lincoln wearing the 

 business suit which he wore on the day of his assassination, stands 



