MOVING TOWARD PEACE : Chairs for Dignitaries Struck a Historical Note Too
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WASHINGTON — It was a tough assignment: Find two chairs suitable for a king and a head of state for Tuesday’s historic speeches in Congress by Jordan’s King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Normally, foreign visitors speak standing up and then leave. But having two at once required a chair, so one could sit while the other talked.
And the standard government-issue seats just wouldn’t do.
Finally, someone suggested a pair of ornately carved chairs in the House Speaker’s lobby.
These were chairs with style and history.
Made in 1857 in Philadelphia for the House of Representatives, the chairs later came into the possession of Civil War-era photographer Matthew Brady. They were returned in 1962.
Brady “photographed literally hundreds of people sitting in those chairs, including at least four presidents--Lincoln, Garfield, Grant and Johnson,” said Donald K. Anderson, the House clerk.
For the Hussein-Rabin visit, the battered black leather upholstery was changed to red velvet.
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