The "Span-Am" Room today |
This was not a patriotic women's organization in the same sense as the others. It was the actual auxiliary of an actual veterans group that had headquarters in the Arkansas War Memorial. This explains why this is, perhaps, the most successful of the Period Rooms. The items that encompass it are not based on someone's notion of what such a room ought to be like. Instead, they are gathered from the actual estates of real people such as Mrs. Elizabeth Herndon, who was a Spanish-American War nurse.
The room is also modest in its pretensions. Aside from the elegant rosewood grand piano made around 1875 by Kranish and Bach, few of the pieces in the room are high style. The matching mahogany settee and armchair are in the Eastlake style from around 1910, but no one is claiming they are actually Eastlake. This was a period when mass-produced furnishings were easily available through department stores or mail order catalogs such as Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.
Chandeliers that burned natural gas, called gasoliers, were a major source of light; larger towns offered the convenience of a telephone, usually hung in the hall or parlor.
Another View of the Spanish-American War Room |
Travel was becoming popular, as was the display of souvenirs such as rocks and shells. Even those who did not travel could partake of three-dimensional scenes from around the world through the miracle of the stereopticon.
"Remember the Maine" was the battle cry of the Spanish-American War. It appears on the back of the photo album on the desk as well as on the tablet in front of the fireplace, and it was supposedly cast from metal salvaged from the sunken battleship. The USS Maine exploded in Havana harbor on the night of February 15, 1898, killing 266.
One of the nicer touches in the room is the antimacassars, or crocheted scarves, placed on chairs to protect the upholstery from the macassar oil which men wore on their hair.
The furnishings of the Spanish-American War Veterans' Auxiliary Room are currently not on display due to a water wicking problem in the southeast corner of the West Wing.
Next: The Daughters of the American Revolution »
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