Facts About Furnishings in The First Whie House of the Confederacy

We have a number of important pieces in the First White House. Two are especially appropriate, a historic Senate Desk, and a "gondola" armchair, in that they were used by the Confederate Senate during the period that the Alabama State Capitol was the Capitol of the Confederate States of America. These two pieces were used for copying the reproductions that are now used in the capitol building since the early 1990 restorations

 

The chair President Davis used while imprisoned after the war is in the second parlor, as is the  family Bible that was taken from Brierfield during the war and returned years later by his brother. We also have the table on which he wrote his history of the Confederacy, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government. This table was at Beauvoir and was given to the First White House by Mrs. Davis.

 

We also have in her bedroom a tester bed that had been used by General Lafayette in 1825. The President's bedroom is furnished with his custom-made bed as well.

 

Tomorrow I will tell you about some of the furniture that is original to the House or that was in the House when the Davis family lived there.