Diplomatic Reception Rooms, U.S. Department of State

For the Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the White House, see Diplomatic Reception Room (White House).
John Quincy Adams State Drawing Room. The 1783 Treaty of Paris, ending the Revolutionary War, was signed on the desk in the foreground. The unfinished painting over the mantel depicts Benjamin Franklin and John Adams signing that treaty.

The Diplomatic Reception Rooms at the U.S. Department of State constitute forty-two principal rooms and offices where the secretary of state conducts the business of modern diplomacy. Located on the seventh and eighth floors of the Harry S Truman Building in Washington, D.C., the diplomatic reception rooms contain one of the nation’s foremost museum collections of American fine and decorative arts.

Architect Edward Vason Jones designed several of the rooms between 1965 and 1980. Clement Conger, curator of the collections from 1961 to 1990, assembled many of the art, furniture, and decorative arts objects.[1][2]

  1. ^ Files, John (January 13, 2004). "Clement Conger, 91, Curator Who Beautified Federal Halls". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Kempster, Norman (August 7, 1990). "Insider : He Took Charge of a Shabby State Department : Clement Conger is his name and furnishing is his game. For the last 30 years, he has made sure that foreign VIP's like what they see in Washington D.C". Los Angeles Times.