State Dining Room at Christmastime, Nixon Administration

This photograph shows the State Dining Room decorated for the holiday season in December 1973, during the administration of Richard M. Nixon. Over the mantelpiece, the 1895 landscape painting "Under the Palisades, in October" by Jasper Francis Cropsey replaces the painting of Abraham Lincoln by George Healy that customarily hangs in that spot. Due to its brooding depiction, the Lincoln portrait was temporarily moved to the East Room in 1973, however it was returned to the State Dining Room during the Gerald R. Ford administration in August 1974. Also noteworthy in this photograph is a German A-frame style gingerbread house, an early example of the annual tradition of the official White House Gingerbread House, created by White House Assistant Executive Chef Hans Raffert and, on the long dining table, is James Monroe's 13-foot gilded bronze surtout de table centerpiece or plateau that is the oldest object in the State Dining Room. This photograph is part of a collection belonging to former White House Executive Chef Henry Haller. Haller served as executive chef of the White House from 1966-1987.