- The Vermeil Room is also referred to as the Gold Room. It houses a collection of gold-plated silver (vermeil) objects bequeathed to the White House by Margaret Thompson Biddle on her death in 1956. The collection was received on behalf of the nation by first lady Mamie Eisenhower.
- Mamie Eisenhower renovated the first room on the south corridor of the ground floor of the White House to accommodate the collection. The Vermeil Room serves to display various pieces from the collection, including works by silversmiths Paul Storr (1771-1844) and Jean-Baptiste-Claude Odiot (1763-1850). Perhaps the most famous object in the room is a vermeil wine cooler created by Philip Rundell (1746-1827).
- The room also functions as a display space for other works of art, including a Turkish Hereke carpet made in the mid-19th century, a sofa attributed to the workshop of Duncan Phyfe, tables crafted by the New York cabinetmaker Charles-Honore Lannuier, an English cut-glass chandelier from about 1785 and a circular mahogany table in the Empire revival style.
- The Vermeil Room is home to portraits of six 20th-century first ladies. Eleanor Roosevelt's portrait was painted by Douglas Chandor in 1949. Claudia (Lady Bird) Johnson's likeness was captured by Elizabeth Shoumatoff. In 1970, seven years after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, Aaron Shikler painted Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. The same artist depicted Nancy Reagan. Patricia Ryan Nixon was painted by Henriette Wyeth, and Lou (Louise) Henry Hoover was captured by Richard Brown.
- When the architect Charles McKim renovated the White House in 1902 under the direction of President Theodore Roosevelt, he made the room that is now the Vermeil Room a ladies' cloakroom. Subsequently, it became the billiard room. Today, in addition to displaying the Biddle collection of silver, the Vermeil Room is used as a formal ladies' sitting room. It was last refurbished in 2006 during the presidency of George W. Bush.
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