The Lincoln Bedroom: An Under-the-Covers Investigation
The folks here at SleepBook have investigated many of the important facets of sleep, from health to children to even sleep wear. But we have yet to dig deep into where all of the magic happens, the bedroom. So, in the spirit of this February’s Presidents’ Day, why not start with arguably the most famous bedroom of all, the Lincoln Bedroom in the White House?
In the White House, what is known today as the Lincoln Bedroom, actually isn’t a room where the Lincolns actually slept. During the Lincoln administration the 16th President used it as an office. In this office, Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 and these days you can find a holography copy of the Gettysburg Address, signed, dated and titled by Lincoln himself.
Currently, the room is decorated in a Victorian style and is furnished with three chairs, two slipper chairs and some of Lincoln’s cabinet chairs, although all of this furniture pre-dates Lincoln’s time in the White House from 1861-1865. The center piece of the room is known as the Lincoln Bed, and although it was never slept in by Lincoln it was purchased by his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln as a guest bed. The bed has been used by Theodore and Edith Roosevelt, Woodrow and Edith Wilson, and Calvin and Grace Coolidge. The bed finally found its way to the room now known as The Lincoln Bedroom after being moved there by President Truman in 1945.
Recently, the Lincoln Bedroom was a source of controversy during the Clinton administration when campaign donors and friends of the first family we’re allowed to spend the night in the Lincoln Bedroom. After the controversy blew over the room was once again opened to donors during the subsequent Bush administration. President Barack Obama noted before moving into the White House that he planned to remove the flat-screen TV saying, “Now, who stays in the Lincoln Bedroom and watches [ESPN’s] ‘Sports Center’? You’ve got your clicker. . . .That didn’t seem to me to be appropriate. So I might take out the TV, I don’t know…You should read when you’re in the Lincoln Bedroom! Reread the Gettysburg Address. Don’t watch TV.”
Over the last century, there have been many stories of reported sightings of Honest Abe in the Lincoln Bedroom. Cesar Carrera, FDR’s personal valet was once seen running through the White House and out of the front door after having an encounter with Mr. Lincoln. Eleanor Roosevelt’s assistant once saw him pull on his boots and even their dog, Fala seemed to be disturbed by a ghostly presence in the room. Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Margaret Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Jacqueline Kennedy, Ladybird Johnson, Susan Ford and Maureen Reagan have all admitted sensing the presence of the Civil War president in the White House. So, although Lincoln never officially slept in the Lincoln Bedroom, it seems to this day he still handles all of his post-presidency business out of his old office.
