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“In his inaugural address of March 5, 1877, President Hayes attempted to reassure the nation that change was necessary. He called for “not merely a united North or a united South, but a united country.â€3 The Hayes service translated this message to the president’s official table, with the nation united – if only symbolically – through polychrome representations of the diverse flora and fauna from the north, south, east, and west.4 Pictured is an Ice Cream Plate.”
No doubt presidential tableware communicates some message at the time and to posterity. It also demonstrates the limits of house museums, presidential or other. The Woodrow Wilson House [still Washington D.C.’s only “Presidential Museum”!] is opening yet another exhibit of White House china from various administrations.
What lessons do we learn? That plates can unite the [white] nation! Rutherford Hayes err, “complex” service was all about bring some of us together to forget the recent unpleasantness.
“The United States of the 1870s was experiencing vast immigration from Europe as well as continuing growing pains through western expansion. Added to these was the very potent aftermath of the Civil War; Hayes’s 1876 victory was secured through his promise to remove Federal troops from the South, bringing the Civil War to a full close twelve years after its text book ending.”
The Wilsonists claim “…most Americans think that museums and historic sites are the most trustworthy sources for exploring the past,” but many Americans might find the statement above a rather bloodless description of the end of reconstruction and acceleration of black disenfranchisement.
