Detail of the Octagon House Dining Room Mantel

This is a detail photograph of the first-floor dining room Coade stone mantel with figures of dancing maenads or frenzied female followers of Dionysus, in the Octagon House. Bruce White took this photograph for the White House Historical Association on April 11, 2012. The original architect of the U.S. Capitol William Thornton designed the unusual but aptly named Octagon House in 1800 for plantation owner Colonel John Tayloe III. After the burning of the White House during the War of 1812, the Octagon became the temporary Executive Mansion for President James Madison and his wife, First Lady Dolley Madison. The house remained a fashionable salon for Washingtons elite after the Madisons residency. It now houses the American Institute of Architects Foundation.