Presidential Grizzly Bear Chair

Everyone knows about the Oval Office, the pictures of past Presidents, the Kennedy Room, the Lincoln Room, but do you know about the Presidential Grizzly Bear Chair?  California hunter and trapper Seth Kinman killed two grizzly bears and made them into a chair.  It was presented by him through an act of Congress to President Andrew Johnson in 1865.

Made from two grizzly bears captured by Seth Kinman. The four legs and claws were those of a huge grizzly and the back and sides ornamented with immense claws. The seat was soft and exceedingly comfortable, but the great feature of the chair was that, by touching a cord, the head of the monster grizzly bear with jaws extended, would dart out in front from under the seat, snapping and gnashing its teeth as natural as life. This chair Seth presented to President Johnson, September 8, 1865.

Yes, the head would dart out from underneath… natural as life….

President Johnson put the chair in his library in the Yellow Oval Room.

Seth Kinman (September 29, 1815 – February 24, 1888)^[1] was an early settler of Humboldt County, California, a hunter based in Fort Humboldt, a famous chair maker, and a nationally recognized entertainer. He stood over 6 ft (1.83 m) tall and was known for his hunting prowess and his brutality toward bears and Indians. Kinman claimed to have shot a total of over 800 grizzly bears, and, in a single month, over 50 elk.^[2] He was also a hotel keeper, barkeeper, and a musician who performed for President Lincoln on a fiddle made from the skull of a mule.

Known for his publicity seeking, Kinman appeared as a stereotypical mountain man dressed in buckskins on the U.S. east coast and selling cartes de visites of himself and his famous chairs. The chairs were made from elkhorns and grizzly bear skins and given to U.S. Presidents.^[3][4] Presidents so honored include James Buchanan, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Johnson, and Rutherford Hayes. He may have had a special relationship with President Lincoln, appearing in at least two of Lincoln’s funeral corteges, and claiming to have witnessed Lincoln’s assassination.

Kinman was allegedly in Ford’s Theater the night of the assassination and witnessed the murder. He escorted Lincoln’s body on its way to burial as far as Columbus, Ohio.^[41] On April 26, 1865, the New York Times described Kinman in the funeral cortege in New York City: “Much attention was attracted to Mr. Kinman, who walked in a full hunting suit of buckskin and fur, rifle on shoulder.