VICTIORIAN RENOVATIONS
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Californian General Edward Beale and his wife Mary came to Washington
after the Civil War, and like so many of the Western elite pouring into the city in this period, sought a grand home and entry into the capital’s high society. A frontiersman, diplomat and entrepreneur, Beale was the initiator of the U.S. Army’s Camel Corps in the deserts of New Mexico and Arizona and served as ambassador to Austria-Hungary during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant.

The Beales purchased the by then run-down Decatur House in 1872 and rennovated it in the lavish Victorian style of the day. They installed gaslights
and added impressive parquet floors in the second floor parlors where they frequently hosted social gatherings for Washington’s elite.

The Beale’s purchase and rennovation of Decatur House attracted considerable attention in Washington. Numerous newspaper and magazine articles detailed the fine art and sumptuous furnishings of the home. An
undated newspaper article paid particular attention to the painting Diana and Her Handmaidens, a painting which today remains one of the highlights of the Decatur House collection. The article called the massive artwork, hanging prominently in the parlor, “the chief attraction to lovers of art” and related an interesting account of the painting’s origins:

“Certain connoisseurs and artists have pronounced the painting to be the famous ‘Rubens Diana,’ stolen from the Louvre during the Franco-Prussian war. However this may be, it . . . came into General Beale’s possession in a most extraordinary manner. While in California, he had it in his power to show great kindness to a wretchedly poor French herdsman, whom he found sick unto death in a hut upon his ranch. Just before the man died, he said to the General, ‘You will find in a corner of this hut, that which will compensate you for your kindness to me, a friendless stranger. . . .’ After the herdsman was dead and decently buried, General Beale . . . found this fine painting, much the worse for the rough handling it had received, and pierced with three bullet holes. Its restoration was eagerly accomplished, and it is now an object of great pride and pleasure to the General. . . .”

Edward Beale, whether through his friendship with Kit Carson or Ulysses
Grant, his involvement in the Gold Rush, or ties to the Camel Corps, simultaneously imbued his new home with a sense of style and adventure - a sense that persists today through everything from the California state seal the
he had inlaid into the floor to the intriguing anecdotes he generated in the papers.