The John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room

Adams Room

The John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room, in which the Secretary of State receives guests at state luncheons and dinners, is furnished with masterpieces of 18th-century cabinetmakers.

Among the important furnishings are Paul Revere silver, Chinese export porcelain once the property of George Washington, and the desk on which the Treaty of Paris, ending the American Revolution, was signed in 1783. Walls of raised panels with handcarved architectural details display portraits of John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, John Jay, Andrew Jackson, and Henry Clay.

Please Select an Object
Writing Table
Served for the signing of the Treaty of Paris, September 3, 1783.
Dressing Table
A well-appointed chamber or bedroom, in 18th century Philadelphia was furnished with a dressing table that matched the high chest of drawers.
Side Chair
This chair belongs to one of at least three different sets of chairs with similarly scrolled strapwork backs and carved pendant tassels that were popular among wealthy Philadelphians prior to the American Revolution.
Roundabout Chair
As depicted in eighteenth-century portraits, roundabout, or corner, chairs were popular for both reading and writing.
Arm Chair
Few pieces of furniture evoke the magnificence to which Philadelphia's elite aspired during the colonial period as well as this armchair.
Easy Chair
Standard colonial American easy chair, a form derived from English examples of the 1720s and 1730s.
Card Table
Known in this century as the "Cornelius Stevenson table," this object has a traditional history of ownership in the Stevenson, Large, Meade, and Easby families of Philadelphia.
Architect Table
Developed in England in the late 18th century for the fashionable interest of gentlemen in architecture, it commonly had an adjustable drawing board and sliding drawer for supplies.
Punch Bowl
This punch bowl celebrates Western trade with China by focusing on the bustling port of Canton.
Punch Bowl
The punch bowl commemorates the moment when Burgoyne offered his sword to Gates.
Seven-Piece Coffee and Tea Set
This set glorifies the neoclassical style of the 1790s. It is among the earliest of the large matched coffee and tea sets made in the United States.
Bowl
This bowl was made for prominent Boston merchant, Moses Michael Hays.
George Washington
Late in 1795, Charles Willson Peale requested President Washington to sit yet again for his portrait; however, this time it was for the benefit of his seventeen year old son.
Louisa Adams
The thoroughly Regency style of the painting is striking. The elegant yet casual pose, the poetic aura, the sumptuous textures and colors all bespeak Thomas Lawrence, not Benjamin West. It is impressive that Leslie, who turned twenty-two on October 19, should command this style with such conviction.
John Quincy Adams
This portrait of Adams as America's Minister to Great Britain (1815 - 1817) is striking among the multitude of characterizations of him for the serenity the artist captured.