The Library, used also for daily family gatherings by Mr. and Mrs. Davis, contains the following furnishings originally in use there and later returned to the Shrine by Davis descendants in Colorado; a pair of sofas (gentleman’s in leather and lady’s in fabric); marble bust of two year old Samuel Davis, first child of Mr. and Mrs. Davis; desk with double section of drawers and the large book on the desk, Winnie’s dictionary. Here also is the large Oriental rug just recently returned to Beauvoir House. Other interesting pieces in the room are the cane seated chair, used by Jefferson Davis in the United States Senate Chamber, and the bookcases, with grilled doors of heavy wire, filling every inch of wall space. These bookcases, copies of ones Jefferson Davis saw in use in Washington, were built and installed under his supervision.
View of West or Hayes Cottage, Beauvoir House and East or Library Cottage
Bedroom of Jefferson Davis
East Cottage or Library Where Jefferson Davis Wrote “The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government”
WINNIE DAVIS MEMORIAL ROOM
The front room on the right of the reception hall was, according to Mrs. Davis’ will, the room of Miss Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis, “The Daughter of the Confederacy”. Her request was that this room and the other rooms of members of the family, who lived in Beauvoir House, be kept and preserved as a memorial to each occupant. In planning to refurnish this front room on the right as a memorial to Winnie Davis, it was found that only a few pieces of the original furnishings were left. It was then that the ever constant lover of Confederate ideals and the exponent of those ideals, the late Walter Lampton of Columbia, Mississippi and the Gulf Coast, supplied the money for certain members of the UDC to purchase the necessary period furniture which was to be as similar as possible to the suite of furniture formerly used by Winnie in this room. To this period furniture was added the following original pieces already there, or returned to the Shrine by members of the Davis family—the washstand, washstand set, two little cane seated chairs, little slipper chair and rocker, the table, flowers pressed by Winnie, framed and hung; the book, “An Irish Knight”, written by Varina Anne (Winnie) Davis and published in 1888, and one of her favorite books, “The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott”.
Topping in interest the other pieces in the room is the oil painting of Winnie hanging over the mantel. It was painted by the Swiss artist, Rupel, for Mrs. A. McC. Kimbrough who presented it to the Shrine to make sure that a true likeness of this favorite daughter of the South would be preserved. In this picture Winnie is shown in the crown jewels and robe she wore as Queen of Comus for the New Orleans Mardi Gras in 1892. She had served as a Maid of this Court in 1884 when Mildred Lee, the daughter of Robert E. Lee, was its Queen.