Retro Renovation » vacation spots, historic homes, museums

Mamie Eisenhower and “Mamie pink”: More insight from Gettysburg

pam kueber — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:00:30 +0000

HOW DID AMERICA END UP WITH 5 MILLION pink bathrooms? Credit goes to: A super-efficient military wife with sparkling blue eyes.

Mamie Doud Eisenhower had a tried-and-true method for setting up new households as she traveled the world with her husband the General. She knew she looked good in pink. Put the two together and ultimately you get: Mamie Pink bathrooms all across America. Five million is my conservative estimate. Maybe even 10 million, a reader yesterday estimated. Today we dive into the story of how Mamie Eisenhower led us down this primrose pink path. Above: 1960 Christmas card made by Hallmark for Mamie. All images in this post courtesy The Eisenhower National Historic Site.

Mamie Doud Eisenhower was First Lady to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953-1961. But before that, she was wife to Ike the General, and they moved from base to base constantly. In a recent interview with Carol Hegeman, Supervisory Historian at the Eisenhower National Historic Site, I learned that whenever Mamie and Ike moved to a new posting, Mamie carried her favorite color samples with her so that she could efficiently set up a new yet familiar household. With no fuss and little muss, Mamie had her home sweet home – over and over again.

“Throughout all their military moves, she would carry a stick of wood with her favorite colors – green, pink and a creamy color – and use them again and again in her military housing,” explained Carol. “She could get rooms painted, roll out her rugs, and instantly call it home.”

Bedroom at Gettysburg

Mamie brought the same palette to the White House, her penultimate home. And it was here that her preference for pink really caught the eye and the imagination of America. The public fascination with pink got its start when Mamie wore a pink gown studded with pink rhinestones to Ike’s inauguration. The gown is quite famous. She then proceeded to decorate the White House with so much pink that the White House press corps referred to the place as “The Pink Palace.” The pretty pastel, which is now iconic to 1950s decorating, became known at “Mamie Pink.”

Mamie's tea tray, Gettysburg. "Mamie believed that once a woman reached the age of 50, she was entitled to stay in bed until noon." Hey, count me IN.

I am not an academic, but from looking at kitchen, bathroom and other marketing materials from the postwar era, it seems pretty clear that the penchant for pink in the home – especially bathroom fixtures and tiles but also kitchen appliances and then cabinets – was at a frenzy from about 1954 through to 1960 or so. It still existed well into the 60s, but at a less rampant rate. In the 60s, America and its color choices were sobered by the Cold War, JFK’s death, environmentalism and the plain old pendulum swing of color trends. We’ve also seen pink bathrooms from the 1930s, but these were not the “golden years” for this color or for bathrooms in general due to economic circumstances. The thing about pink bathrooms from the 50s is that they came hand-in-hand with America’s postwar middle class boom — in that sense, they are almost emblematic.

The living room at Gettysburg.

From 1953-1956, Mamie and Ike also built their retirement home, a farm, in Gettysburg, Pennsylania. This is today’s Eisenhower National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service. The couple built a new house, starting with the salvageable portion of the original 1840s farmhouse. And sure enough, Mamie used her same favorite color palette.

circa 1950 Elephant figure. Ike was apolitical during his military years, but ran as a Republican in '52, the NPS site says

She also used furniture that she had since the 20s and 30s, getting old favorites refinished or slip-covered. Mamie was a woman knew what she liked. And, she had lived through the Depression – it sounds like she didn’t want new stuff that she didn’t need.

Mamie's pink bathroom at Gettysburg - note the gorgeous American Standard fixtures

Of course, her bathroom was pink.

Mamie Eisenhower's pink bathroom in Gettysburg. Note the wonderful pink doctor's scale, too.

And there is pink in the bedrooms and her dressing room.

Dwight Eisenhower's bathroom at Gettysburg

Ike’s bathroom was green.

Why pink?
Carol has been with the site since 1980. But – I don’t think she has ever been peppered by so many questions about Mamie’s predilection for pink. And of course, she chuckled right away when she heard about SaveThePinkBathrooms.com and how Mamie is the patron saint.

Why did Mamie like pink so much? Carol answers, “I’ve done a lot of oral histories with the family and associates and I remember Barbara (Barbara Eisenhower, Mamie and Ike’s daughter-in-law) telling me that she [Mamie] liked pink because she realized she looked good in it. It flattered her coloring. Nancy Reagan liked her red, Mamie Eisenhower liked her pink.”

Carol says that Mamie had sparkly blue eyes, and that pink set them off. She simply enjoyed the color.

hair dryer, gettysburg

Hey, you know how Michelle Obama got all that grief for her gorgeous arms? Well, Mamie also got criticism from the press for her pink, Carol says. She did wear some other colors, but ultimately would come back to pink – because she liked it.

What do folks visiting the Eisenhower site say about the Mamie Pink bathroom they see there? Carol says, “People do mention it a lot because they remember it back to the bathrooms when they were growing up.” I quiz her further on colors. “Colors get popular. Colors do go in cycles. In the 80s we saw pink and greens again. We go through the palettes. Olives…golds…rusts…they’re coming back again. The 60s and 70s colors are in vogue again.”

I add to that list: Mamie Pink.

Pink flyswatter, Gettysburg

Mamie and the 50s
Mamie Eisenhower was immensely popular in the 1950s. Beloved. The Historic Site says in its online virtual tour that:

1950s America had a First Lady with whom it could truly identify. Mamie shared the country’s popular interests and middle class values. She made a home in the White House and at the Gettysburg farm for Ike and her family.

Mamie watched soap operas, played scrabble, served TV dinners, wore noisy charm bracelets, and enjoyed listening to Lawrence Welk. She proudly heralded her role as a traditional housewife saying, “Ike runs the country, I turn the pork chops.”

Marilyn Irvin Holt’s biography “Mamie Doud Eisenhower: The General’s First Lady” was released in 2007. In an interview* at the time, she said:

“People try to dismiss Mamie in today’s world. She always referred to herself as a homemaker but she was not living the ‘happy days.’ I find her more enlightened than the stereotype of the 1950s.”

I’m very grateful for the opportunity to get to know more about Mamie.

Links:

Eisenhower National Historic Site, Gettysburg, PA
Slide show and history of the Gettysburg house.
*Topeka Capitol-Journal story on Mamie’s biography

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A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen

Erica Donnis — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:00:27 +0000

A view of the Koravos family kitchen. Courtesy of Historic New England. Used on this site with permission.

THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover, Massachusetts is the eye candy of the America’s Kitchens exhibition. Imagine original robin’s egg blue metal cabinets, stainless Westinghouse wall oven and cooktop, and canary yellow Formica counters with space-age patterning, all in near pristine condition. Mrs. Koravos preferred to cook in a second full kitchen in her basement, leaving this one on the first floor, which her guests would see, clean and clutter-free. According to curator and co-author Nancy Carlisle, show kitchens were popular in Greek- and Italian-American homes during the twentieth century. And take heart, retro renovators: Historic New England acquired the Koravos gem when a relative of co-author Melinda Nasardinov saw it posted on Craigslist!

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is her fifth and final vignette reviewing America’s Kitchens — the book and now, a traveling national exhibition. Thank you, Erica!

Readers, click on the image below THREE times and it will get very big so that you can see the detail.

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The Gropius Kitchen THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white...
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The White House family kitchen: Jackie Kennedy had Geneva metal cabinets!

pam kueber — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:55:07 +0000

This photo of the White House family kitchen is from 1992…but if you jump onto this White House Museum page, you can see the kitchen when it was first installed in the private family quarters area by and for Jackie Kennedy. And glory be, it sure looks like her cabinets were Geneva’s. I can tell by the cabinet pulls — you can just barely see that they have the white plastic recess piece that gets hard and cracked and discolored and is in great demand by retro renovators today. There’s also a cool photo of Gerald Ford with a harvest gold stove in the background — but by then, the steel cabinets were out, and wood cabinets were in. Hey, where have we heard that story before. Before the Kennedys converted the space to a kitchen, the room had been a guest room and bedroom. The Clintons converted it to a family room. (Photo: Historic American Buildings Survey/HABS.)

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Modern Kitchen “Wife-Savers”

Erica Donnis — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 08:00:50 +0000

Kitchen accessories from the trade catalogue “243 New Ideas for Your Kitchen", ca. 1955. Kalamazoo Stoves and Furnaces, Kalamazoo, Mich., publisher. Promised gift to Historic New England from a private collection. Used on this site with permission.

ACCORDING TO AMERICA’S KITCHENS, many of the things we take for granted today in our kitchens were introduced or became widely available in the 20th century, driven by emerging technologies, consumer demand, and commercial marketing that influenced people to update frequently and to buy the latest gadgets. Electric stoves and refrigerators made their appearance in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. The postwar years brought freezers, refrigerators with freezer compartments, and an explosion in small appliances like mixers, blenders, and waffle irons. Tupperware, Saran Wrap, and plastic sandwich bags were introduced in the 40s and 50s, and the first countertop microwave oven arrived in the 60s.

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is her fourth vignette from America’s Kitchens — the book and the traveling exhibition.

Click on the image below several times to enlarge and see the detail:

Mid-Century Kitchen Design THE 20th CENTURY WAS A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE in...
A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover,...
The Gropius Kitchen THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white...

The Gropius Kitchen

Erica Donnis — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 08:00:13 +0000

A view of the Gropius House kitchen. Courtesy Historic New England. Used on this site with their permission.

THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white kitchen and pantry designed by Bauhaus architect Walter Gropius for his 1938 Massachusetts home. According to curator and co-author Nancy Carlisle, the adjoining galley spaces are “models of efficiency” that function almost as “laboratories.” They contained the latest appliances, including a General Electric dishwasher and garbage disposal. The kitchen and pantry, in the rear of the house, worked well when the family employed a cook. But when Mrs. Gropius took over the meal preparation, she found it difficult to interact with family members or guests. Consequently, Mr. Gropius would often spend time with his wife there, assisting by loading the dishwasher or simply sitting and chatting while she worked.

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is her third vignette taking a look at America’s Kitchens – both the book and the traveling national exhibit. Find out more about the Gropius House, which is now owned by Historic New England, here.

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Mid-Century Kitchen Design

Erica Donnis — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:46 +0000

“Kitchen No. 7,” from the trade catalogue “Kitchen Hints,” 1947. The Kitchen Maid Corporation, Andrews, Ind., publisher. Collection of Historic New England. Used on this site with their permission.

THE 20th CENTURY WAS A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE in kitchen design. As Nancy Carlisle and Melinda Nasardinov describe in America’s Kitchens, a focus on efficiency in the early part of the century transformed kitchens into compact units, with matching cabinets and built-in appliances topped with spans of countertop. Efficient kitchens were meant to reduce workloads, but their small size and usual location in the back of the house also distanced cooks from their families and guests. The open floor plans of the 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s were a reaction against that isolation. As Nasardinov frames it, they “transformed kitchens from service spaces into social spaces” by blurring the boundaries between cooking, eating, and living areas.

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is the second installment of her week-long look at America’s Kitchens — both the book and the national traveling exhibition.

A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover,...
The Gropius Kitchen THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white...
Modern Kitchen “Wife-Savers” ACCORDING TO AMERICA’S KITCHENS, many of the things we...

Julia Child’s kitchen

pam kueber — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 07:59:25 +0000

Julia Child donated her kitchen to the Smithsonian in 2001. She had been in it exactly 40 years, since 1961. Here is her kitchen still in place in her Cambridge, Mass., home, before it was disassembled and moved to its exhibit space in Washington, D.C. On the Smithsonian’s website, Childs talks about how the kitchen included many favorite things that made her happy — as a kitchen should, even one that’s been the site of a famous TV series. (I presume those are tracks for cameras and lights we see on the ceiling.) Another interesting thing I spotted on the Smithsonian website: For the exhibit, the Smithsonian’s graphic team re-created the speckled linoleum kitchen floor originally in the Childs kitchen by making color copies then laminating them onto other flooring in a repeat pattern. Julia Child’s Kitchen at the Smithsonian.

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Home Sweet Kitchen: All this Week

pam kueber — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:00:30 +0000

THE MID-CENTURY KITCHEN: It encapsulates so much about American culture of the time, including modern design, space-age technologies, and postwar consumerism. All this week at RetroRenovation.com, we’ll be taking a look at the mid-century kitchen and its place in the history of America’s Kitchens. Leading each day’s kitchen stories will be my good friend Erica Donnis, an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. She recently visited the America’s Kitchens exhibit and will be bringing us spotlights on design and technology — and a couple of fabulous examples of mid-century kitchens.

A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover,...
Mid-Century Kitchen Design THE 20th CENTURY WAS A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE in...
Modern Kitchen “Wife-Savers” ACCORDING TO AMERICA’S KITCHENS, many of the things we...

America’s Kitchens: Fascinating AND Entertaining

Erica Donnis — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:59:00 +0000

Office of War Information Poster No. 57, “We’ll have lots to eat this winter, won’t we mother?” Alfred Parker (1906–1985), graphic designer. (Washington, D.C.: United States Office of War Information, Division of Public Inquires, 1943). Promised gift to Historic New England from private collection. Used on this site with permission from Historic New England.

Reviewers generally don’t gush, but I can’t help myself! The America’s Kitchens publication and exhibition both nimbly cover a broad topic without bogging down, and they touch on important issues (think slave cooking, Irish servants, and women’s roles) along the way—without hitting you over the head with it. Both are filled with great quotes and visuals that readers of this blog will eat up (no pun intended, of course). In the exhibition, I especially enjoyed the opportunity to browse through vintage American cookbooks in a reading area set aside for that purpose. There are even recipe cards on hand in case you find something to try at home. Enjoy! — Erica Donnis

Erica Donnis is an independent historian and museum consultant based in Burlington, Vermont. This is the first installment in her week-long look at America’s Kitchens — which now encompasses both a book and a national traveling exhibition.

A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover,...
Mid-Century Kitchen Design THE 20th CENTURY WAS A TIME OF RADICAL CHANGE in...
The Gropius Kitchen THE AMERICA’S KITCHENS EXHIBITION profiles the sleek, black and white...

America’s Kitchens

pam kueber — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 07:57:59 +0000

If you are obsessed with mid-century kitchens, looking for design ideas, or interested in kitchen history, check out the book America’s Kitchens by Nancy Carlisle and Melinda Talbot Nasardinov with Jennifer Pustz, and its companion traveling exhibition, which place 20th-century cooking, eating, and entertaining within a historical context. The traveling exhibition is currently on view at the New Hampshire Historical Society until January 27, 2010. Future venues include the Long Island Museum of American Art, History, and Carriages and Heritage Museum & Gardens. For more information, see AmericasKitchens.org.

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A 1957 Time Capsule Kitchen THE 1957 KITCHEN from the Koravos family home in Andover,...