Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 250 CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY PAPER 62, PAGES 109-120 WHITE HOUSE CHINA OF THE LINCOLN ADMINISTRATION IN THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY _Margaret Brown Klapthor_ SMITHSONIAN PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. 1967 [Illustration: WHITE HOUSE COLLECTION Figure 1: A TABLE SETTING showing the Lincoln china being used for a luncheon during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.] _Margaret Brown Klapthor_ WHITE HOUSE CHINA OF THE LINCOLN ADMINISTRATION _In the Museum of History and Technology_ _This article on the china of the administration of President Abraham Lincoln is intended to be the first of a series of articles on Presidential china based on the collection in the Smithsonian Institution. From contemporary records in National Archives, newspaper articles and family records it is our hope to assemble material which will ultimately present the story of White House and Presidential china of every administration. Myths and facts surrounding this interesting topic will be examined and presented to assist the many collectors of this porcelain as well as others who admire and appreciate its historical interest._ _In this first article, the author describes the efforts of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln to acquire porcelain suitable for official entertaining in the White House._ THE AUTHOR: _Margaret Brown Klapthor is associate curator of political history in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology._ When Mrs. Lincoln arrived at the White House in 1861 she found the pantry sadly deficient in elegant tableware to set a State dinner. The last official State service had been purchased by the White House during the administration of President Franklin Pierce (it is the china known popularly as the "red edge" set), and not enough of that was left to serve a large dinner party. Theodore R. Davis, who designed the State china purchased during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes, wrote an article, published in the May 1899 issue of the _Ladies' Home Journal_, on the "Presidential Porcelain of a Century." He records that in 1860 he saw the State Dining Room of the White House set up for the formal dinner given for the visiting Prince of Wales, and that "the dishes were more or less odd, but generally comprised what was known as the 'red edge set'."