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September 12, 1947
Dear Mother and Daddy,
The stockings you sent arrived last night, and I was so happy to get them. It certainly was thoughtful of you to send them to me. Although, I really didn't need them, I can certainly use them, and they are such a beautiful color. I will take very good care of them and wear them only when I am dressed up.
This morning Mrs. Nyswander took me to the Folger Library. Which is a Shakespearean Librarian - and I should think the most complete in all the world. It had all the first four folies of his complete works, and some of the first editions of his individual plays. They also had a theater made just like a Sakespearen theater, and I think they give plays there. They also had some old Bibles and scientific books of Shakespeares temes, and some royal papers with the royal seals attached.
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It was certainly interesting.
This afternoon Ruth and I went shopping and I found my wool dress which I know you will be mad for. It's quite tailored and very smart looking. It is a tiny black, brown and white plaid with big red cuffs and and a little collar piped in red. They were also showing some original fashions which they had just gotten in from Paris, and they were all very exagerated. There was one evening dress which could easely have been wore about 1860 and all of the formals had hoops with them. We are now getting ready to go to West Point.
Yesterday morning Ruth and I went sight seeing and took a tour through the capital building. It was extremely different from what I expected. It looked more like a palace than a govenment building. It was terribly decorated and ornate and even had
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a winding hidden staircase. She saw both the old and the new Senate and House Chambers and the President Room. After we went through the Capital Building we went across the street to the Congressional Library which was also everh ornate and I saw the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and a second copy of the Magma Carta. The Magna Carta was about six hundred years older than the other documents, but it is much better preserved.
After this, Ruth and I met Mrs. Nyswander downtown at a department store where we had lunch and shopped for a formal for Ruth, and some other things for her. Ruth had a dentist appointment at four; so while she was there, Mrs. Nyswander drove me around and showed me Ford's Theater which has now been turned into a Lincoln Museum and also the house where Lincoln
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died. She also showed me the Cosmos Club - but we couldn't go in. It is a horribly musty looking old place, but evidentally has a tremendous amount of prestige. We also saw Blair House and Tudor House and some other very famous old houses. After we picked up Ruth, we went out to dinner at a place called Water Gate Inn which was a very charming place with Bohemian decorations inside. It was situated on a drive with the Patomac River on one side and Rock Creek Park on the other. We looked right out on the Patomac; so you can imagine how beautiful it was. We had a very delicious dinner and then we drove around Haines Point, which I think I told you about once before. It is a little penninsula that sticks out into the Patomac. On one side you see the Washington Air Port and on another you see a
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Yacht Harbor - after that we drove through the Army War College and saw all the buildings, which are red brick and covered with ivy -- we also saw the row of officers homes which were simply beautiful. They were all practically just alike and of colonial architecture and each had a lawn in back that went down to the Patomac.
On Wednesday we went through the White House. Of course we didn't get to see anything but the state rooms, and a few rooms in the basement. Of course it is simply beautiful. I am going to try and find you a little pamphlet about it, because I could write for pages and hours about it, and still not describe it very well. We saw the East Room which is a formal drawing room or ball room, with beautiful red velvet draperies and a gold piano that has gold eagles for
