Diplomatic Reception Rooms Anchor D.C. Gathering

by Matthew A. Thurlow

Within the State Department’s restrained Harry S. Truman Federal Building reside the Diplomatic Reception Rooms, containing one of the nation’s most important and most inaccessible collections of fine and decorative arts. The chance to tour this incredible resource of statecraft provided the impetus for our recent Special Program, Diplomacy and Design in D.C. (figure 1).

The extraordinary suite of 42 rooms is contained within a rather unassuming Mid-Century office building. Constructed as an addition to the War Department Building of 1939–41, the so-called State Department Extension was designed by Harley, Probst Associates (a joint venture between Harley, Ellington, and Day of Detroit and Graham, Anderson, Probst, and White of Chicago) and completed in 1960. Executed in the International Style with buff limestone over reinforced concrete, the structure is easy to pass over as an anonymous governmental facility.

Intended, in part, as a reception space to entertain visiting dignitaries, Clement E. Conger (1912–2004), the State Department’s Deputy Chief of Protocol, was immediately embarrassed by the antiseptic interiors. Conger fought to inject a sense of elegance and design into the building and suggested that diplomacy would be furthered by references to American history and artistry. He hired noted Classicist Edward Vason Jones (1909–80), who drew inspiration for interiors from notable houses, including Cliveden and Powel House in Philadelphia and Carter’s Grove in Williamsburg. Architects Walter M. Macomber, John Blatteau, and Allan Greenberg also contributed to the impressive enfilade of galleries.

With an appropriate architectural backdrop underway, Conger set out to build a complementary collection to display in his Colonial Revival confection. Unlike the static period rooms of museums, these would be active spaces where visitors would interact with the objects on display. Conger, who would concurrently serve as Curator of the White House under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Carter, and Reagan, began to solicit contributions from individuals around the country. The collection now consists of more than 5,000 objects, including paintings by John Singleton Copley and Gilbert Stuart, silver and porcelain owned by George Washington and other presidents, and furniture such as the desk on which the treaty that ended the Revolutionary War was signed.

A saucer from Martha Washington’s States Service (figure 2) was probably designed by Dutch trader Andreas Everardus van Braam, who traveled from Guangzhou via Cape Town with 116 packages—including “a box of China for Lady Washington”¹—before landing in Philadelphia in 1796. The border design of a snake biting its tail represents eternity, and a chain encloses the names of the 15 states. A central golden sunburst features Martha Washington’s initials, and the motto “Decus et tutamen ab illo” from Virgil’s Aeneid translates to “[Our Union is our] Glory and [our] Defense against [Him].”

A standout in the furniture collection is a Boston desk and bookcase (figure 3) that may be the first documented piece of bombé cabinetwork in America. The bombé shape, from the French word for “bulging,” was developed by 16th-century Italian artisans and adapted by Dutch, French, and British makers. Boston artisans were trained in British design, and their patrons preferred it. The 1753 mahogany desk is the earliest piece of furniture documented to the renowned Massachusetts craftsman Benjamin Frothingham, who was only about 20 years old at the time. Frothingham later served in the Continental Army, rising to the rank of major, and George Washington visited him in 1789 during a New England tour.

An armchair (figure 4) attributed to Thomas Affleck is worth noting not only as a testament to the talent of its maker, but in acknowledgment of his use of the skilled labor of enslaved African artisans, who also worked in the shops of other leading cabinetmakers, including Anthony Hay and Thomas Day, as well as joiner John Hemmings and silversmiths Peter Bentzon and John Hastier, among others. Affleck, a Quaker, emigrated from Scotland to Philadelphia in late 1763. The set of at least 13 chairs was likely commissioned c. 1766 by Richard Penn and John Penn, the grandsons of William Penn. In 1772, Affleck married Isabella Gordon, the daughter of a plenipotentiary (an agent who negotiates agreements on behalf of a national government) for the Penn family, and received many commissions through her family’s connections. These chairs were inspired by plate 19 of the 1762 edition of Thomas Chippendale’s The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director.

Following a recent reappraisal of the collection, the State Department commissioned a stunning new book, America’s Collection: The Art and Architecture of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State (Rizzoli Electa, 2023). The first publication on the collection in more than two decades, this volume surveys the spaces that have now hosted political negotiations for six decades and the collections they contain. Virginia B. Hart, the director and curator of the Diplomatic Reception Rooms (and who hosted Trust members for the tour), assembled a stellar cadre of scholars for this publication, including Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser, Alice Cooney Felinghuysen, Alexandria Alevizatos Kirtley, Elliot Bostwick Davis, and Deborah Dependahl Waters. This volume is a must have for the decorative arts enthusiast, and the collection is accessible online at diplomaticrooms.state.gov.

1. Hannah Boettcher and Ronald W. Fuchs II, “Martha Washington’s ‘United States China’: A New Link Found in a Family Notebook,” Ceramics in America 2020, Chipstone Foundation.

Matthew A. Thurlow is the Executive Director of the Decorative Arts Trust.

A print version of this article was published in The Magazine of the Decorative Arts Trust, one of our most popular member benefits. Join today!