Lincoln Table

This Sheraton style game table was used by President Abraham Lincoln and his family in the White House.

This folding game table was given to the Historical Society by Marianne Dahlgren Domek Pattyson. It can sit flat against a wall, as it is here, or opened out into a round shape suitable for playing cards or other games. It is sometimes referred to as a demilune (“half-moon”) table.

It was given to President Lincoln by his friend, Rear Admiral John Adolphus Dahlgren, commander of the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron circa 1863-65, Marianne Pattyson’s great-grandfather.

The table remained at the White House until the late 1940s, when the executive mansion was completely renovated. White House staff contacted the Dahlgren family, and the table was returned to them along with the photograph of Sarah Bush Lincoln, President Lincoln’s stepmother.

John Dahlgren, an expert in naval armaments, established the Navy’s Bureau of Ordnance in Annapolis, Maryland, and was its first chief (1862-63). He had developed a cast iron muzzle-loading cannon that proved to be much safer than other cannons of the era. Designed after much meticulous research, it became known as the Dahlgren Gun, although it was nicknamed the “soda bottle” cannon because of its distinctive shape.