TheLincoln Bedroom is a bedroom which is part of a guest suite in the southeast corner of the second floor of theWhite House in Washington, D.C. TheLincoln Sitting Room makes up the other part of the suite. The room is named for PresidentAbraham Lincoln, who used the rooms for his office.[1]
The first room in the White House to carry the name "Lincoln Bedroom" was in the northwest corner of the White House. It existed from 1929 (at which time it was changed from the Prince of Wales Bedroom) until 1961, whenFirst LadyJacqueline Kennedy transformed it into thePresident's Dining Room.
The Lincoln Bedroom and the Lincoln Sitting Room are located in the southeast corner of the Second Floor. As originally designed and completed in 1809, this space contained two very narrow, north–south running bedchambers with a toilet room between them.[2]
By 1825, the toilet had been removed and the bathroom space joined to the west bedchamber to create an office.[3] This area was used for the President's office over the next several decades. Abraham Lincoln used it as both an office and aCabinet room, and signed theEmancipation Proclamation in the room on January 1, 1863.[4] During the Lincoln presidency, the walls were covered withCivil War military maps. It had dark green wallpaper, and the carpeting was also dark green. Newspapers were stacked on the desk and tables along with large amounts of mail and requests from office seekers. Two large wicker wastebaskets were filled with debris.[citation needed] The east bedchamber in the southeast corner of the house was converted into an office for presidential aides, although PresidentJohn Tyler used it as part of his office from 1841 to 1845.[5]
During theFranklin D. Roosevelt administration, what would become the Lincoln Bedroom was used by Roosevelt stafferLouis Howe.
In 1945, newly inaugurated PresidentHarry S. Truman learned that the "President's Office" had once been used by Abraham Lincoln. Truman had the bed, furniture, and other items in thePrince of Wales Room moved into the office. The new bedroom was decorated primarily in blue, and became briefly known as the "Blue Bedroom." The White House underwent a complete reconstruction beginning in 1949, during which the rooms were rebuilt.[6]
Jacqueline Kennedyrenovated much of the White House during the Kennedy administration, including the Lincoln Bedroom. These changes included adding an unsigned portrait of aHartford, Connecticut, family in their parlor to what is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom. This unsigned oil painting, dated 1840 to 1850, was donated by theE. and A. Silberman Galleries.[7]
In late October 2025, news outlets published photos of a marble-and-gold renovation of the suite’s bathroom; no official cost was disclosed, and one independent analysis later estimated a low-to-mid six-figure range for the work.[8][9][10]
During theClinton administration theCommittee for the Preservation of the White House and thenCurator of the White HouseBetty Monkman began initial assessment for the refurbishment of the room. While most of the furniture and artwork in the room was found to be of similar related periods, and much was associated with the presidency of Lincoln, the room's carpeting, mantel and painted walls were not of the period. Initial decisions were made to replace the existing Neoclassical mantel with a mid-19th-century Victorian style mantel design, and to use more patterns as would have been used in Lincoln's day for the wallpaper and carpet. Two etchings and a drawing from the Lincoln era consistently showed a diamond patterned wallpaper and a Renaissance Revival style gas chandelier existed then in the room. A small oil painting showed a color representation of the same diamond patterned wall paper in dark green, mustard and teal. These were used to create duplicates of the fixtures and furnishings that were installed.
During the administration ofGeorge W. Bush the new curator, William Allman, along with new Bush appointees to the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, including Bush family decorator Ken Blasingame, continued the process of renovation. A boldly patterned Renaissance Revival patterned carpet was created for the room.[11] The wallpaper became a compromise, using the diamond pattern found in the historic engravings and painting, but eschewing the deep Victorian color palette found in the oil painting for a much lighter off-white color favored by the Bush family in many of the White House rooms they refurbished.
The crown-shaped canopy hood which originally held the canopy of the Lincoln bed was recreated, and the lace and silk and wool velvet bed drapes were accurately recreated, including hand-madefringe andtassels based upon 19th-century photographs. New gilded window valances in the Rococo Revival style were created in place of those shown in engravings, drawings and a painting made during Lincoln's presidency.
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38°53′51″N77°02′11″W / 38.897617°N 77.036363°W /38.897617; -77.036363
