Window Treatments at the White House
With the historical inauguration taking place tomorrow, I came across this article that has some interesting history about the White House Window Treatments. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
Vita
West Wing Window Treatments
By Kate Phillips as published in the New York Times
We’ve often been struck by the cliche on the campaign trail, where a candidate bemoans an opponent who’s already “measuring the drapes” while en route to a bid for the White House or to another higher office. Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee has used it recently against his rival, Senator Barack Obama, to suggest a level of presumptuous ascension.
When President Bush uttered the phrase in 2006 to talk about Democratic leaders, including Representative Nancy Pelosi, before she became House speaker, we happened to be watching a rerun of the documentary “War Room” in which the president’s father, known as “41? or “Poppy,” famously invoked it against his eventual successor, Bill Clinton, in 1992. We sat up in our chairs, listening. Ah-ha, this writer thought. That’s where it came from.
So, when The Washington Post’s Richard Leiby tried to mine the origins of the phrase earlier this week, with a headline about a “moth-eaten metaphor,” ears and eyes perked up. Especially those of linguists across the country. Our very own Bill Safire, who doggedly pursues the new and noteworthy in political lingo, came up blank when asked by Mr. Leiby about this particular locution. Mr. Safire hadn’t investigated the worn phrase.
But it does date back beyond Mr. Leiby’s search. He ended it at 1980. Then Benjamin Zimmer, a member of the Executive Council of the American Dialect Society and the executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus, took up the challenge, and traced it beyond that, if you included curtains as well as draperies. He offered a new post on the Language Log. There is a distinction between the two window adornments, and we’ll get back to that later.
Mr. Zimmer sent ’round a note or email to members of The American Dialect Society earlier this week, (courtesy of our very own crack researcher, Barclay Walsh). To wit:
From the Chicago Tribune on Jan. 4, 1976, in a profile of Donald Rumsfeld:
Kissinger had quipped that he found it necessary to announce that he was signing on with Ford through ‘76 because “Something had to be done. Mrs. (Elliott) Richardson and Mrs. Laird were running in and out of my office measuring it for curtains, and Rumsfeld too was coming in to measure.”
From the Hartford Courant, on Dec. 22, 1978, in a United Press International article about a Canadian political cartoon.
Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau sits scowling in an armchair at home as Conservative Party leader Joe Clark — his wife Maureen busying herself in the background — leans over and says, “We have come to measure the curtains.”
And then back to The Washington Post on April 21, 1974, when Art Buchwald (recently deceased) wrote of an imaginary conversation between Gerald and Betty Ford during Watergate:
“What are all those swatches on the floor?”
“I was just looking at drapery material. You know the drapes in the Lincoln room are so ugly.”
“Why are you looking at drapery material for the Lincoln room, Betty?”
“You have to order this stuff six months in advance. You can’t just get them by calling up Macy’s.”
“Betty, I don’t think you should be ordering drapes for the White House, even if it takes six months to get them. If I’ve told you once I’ve told you a hundred times, there is absolutely no way I will be President of the United States.”
“Then why do you keep standing in front of a mirror every night in a morning coat with your hand on a Bible repeating ‘So help me God.’ ”
Mr. Zimmer digs down even earlier in his Language Log post:
The expression turns up with drapes or curtains used interchangeably, which may offend interior decorators (”Drapes are pleated and are more formal, whereas curtains are informal and generally gathered,” says Well Dressed Windows), but the distinction matters not a stitch to most of us.
Putting up new drapes (or curtains) in the White House has traditionally been seen as an appropriate task for a new First Lady, along with picking out china patterns and other domestic busywork. (Jacqueline Kennedy was perhaps the most famous White House decorator, and on Jan. 17, 1961, Helen Thomas of the UPI noted that Mrs. Kennedy “brushed aside questions about fashion but said she already has ordered fabric for curtains and slipcovers at the White House and the Kennedy weekend home at Middleburg, Va.”).
An early example of a hubristic First Lady-in-waiting was Martha Taft, wife of Senator Robert Taft, the early favorite for the 1940 Republican presidential nomination. Martha spoke too soon in February 1940, since her husband didn’t even manage to get the party nod, losing out to Wendell Wilkie:
Martha Taft is sure that “Bob is going to get it.” She is ready to answer questions in regular stump style, though she refuses to say whether she will change the drawing-room drapes in the White House.
–(St. Petersburg, Fla.) Evening Independent, Feb 19, 1940.
Isn’t this grand? Yes there is a distinction between draperies and curtains, as someone once lectured us. In addition, it seems the metaphor is an outgrowth of an incredibly distinctive historical reference point for all first ladies-and-men in-waiting.
Of course, in this modern era, searches from here on out will have to include the term “window treatments,” presumably to include blinds and other dressings like valances.
March 16th, 2010 at 4:49 pm
I was googling just this topic when I came across your blog. So much excellent information you have here!
March 16th, 2010 at 9:25 pm
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thanks so much.
come back often!
where can we find you? what’s your website?
-vita
February 16th, 2011 at 7:24 pm
Hello there! Would you mind if I share your blog with my twitter group? There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content. Please let me know. Thanks
February 16th, 2011 at 11:49 pm
that’s so nice.
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-v