"LBJ WILL USE CAPITOL DESK & NEW ROCKING CHAIR"

LBJ MOVES INTO THE OVAL OFFICE

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) On November 26, 1963, The Evening Star reports "President (Lyndon B.) Johnson moved into the oval White House office this morning but he will not use the desk President (John F.) Kennedy utilized."

The Star says that the JFK (a.k.a. Resolute) Desk*, "a startling discovery of history-minded Jacqueline Kennedy" early in the Kennedy's tenure in the Executive Mansion, was found gathering dust in the basement.

Mr. Johnson was using "an unadorned mahogany desk" on a temporary basis.  The desk he used in his office at the Capitol would soon replace it.

Although all of Mr. Kennedy's personal effects had been removed, LBJ had a rocker "looking very much like the one in which President Kennedy was so often photographed" brought in.

The Resolute Desk was a gift to President Hayes (1880) from Queen Victoria & built from the timbers of the HMS Resolute.  The desk was put in the President's office on the 2nd floor of the White House & after reconstruction of the mansion (1948-1952) it was placed in the Broadcast Room.

After LBJ & Nixon's tenures, President Jimmy Carter brought the Resolute back to the Oval Office (1977).  It has been used there by JFK, Carter, Reagan, GW Bush, Obama, Trump & Biden.  FDR actually had the keyhole cover (with eagle) built to conceal the steel braces on his legs, but it was not finished until after his death. 

SOURCES

"A Look at the Oval Office Desks of Presidents Past," by Mary Elizabeth Androiotis, January 20, 2021, House Beautiful, www.housebeautiful.com/

"Historic Kennedy Desk Is Take From Office," The Evening Star, Washington, D.C., November 26, 1963, Chronicling America, Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/

 

 

JFK & JFK Jr. in Oval Office

October 2 1963

Photo by Stanley Tretick

 

John White

at Resolute Desk

 (replica)
 

"FOCUS AROUND A MASSIVE PORTRAIT OF F.D.R."

A NEWLY DECORATED OVAL OFFICE FOR PRESIDENT BIDEN 

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) The newly decorated Oval Office of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. will focus "around a massive portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt" which now hangs above the fireplace.

The FDR portrait is flanked by portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson.  In front of the fireplace are the traditional chairs and tables with lamps along with two sofas facing inward.  

While, the new president has retained the Resolute Desk and gold curtains used by Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, he will be using the dark blue presidential seal rug that President Clinton originally used.

Behind the Resolute is a table bearing a sculpture of Cesar Chavez along with framed photos of the Biden family.  The flags of the United States and the President of the United States flank a window behind.

Other paintings in the Oval include a portrait of Benjamin Franklin and the work of Frederick Childe Hassam* titled "The Avenue in the Rain."  The latter hung in the family quarters bedroom of President John F. Kennedy.

The new Oval Office also displays busts of Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Daniel Webster.  There is also a sculpture of a horse and rider by Allan Houser of the Chiricahua Apache tribe.

President Biden did not retain the portrait of Andrew Jackson which President Trump had prominently displayed on the wall behind the Resolute Desk. 

SOURCES

"A look inside Biden's Oval Office," by Annie Linskey, Politics, January 21, 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/

"Treasures of the White House:  The Avenue in the Rain," The White House Historical Association, www.whitehousehistory.org/

*Frederick Childe Hassam (1859-1935) was born in Dorchester, Massachusetts.  FCH was instrumental in promoting impressionism to American collectors, dealers and museums.  He produced more than 3000 works in his career including paintings, oils & watercolors. 

   

 

"The Avenue in the Rain"

by Frederick Childe Hassam (1917)

The Athenaeum

SMOKE IN THE OVAL OFFICE & NOT FROM JFK'S CIGAR

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2198

MRS. LINCOLN, WHY DON'T YOU LIGHT THE FIRE?

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Fifty-six years ago today, John F. Kennedy walked into the Oval Office on his first Monday as President of the United States.  His personal secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, said that "he was delighted with the new (off) white wall color."

At the end of the day, with snow still on the ground outside, the President asked Mrs. Lincoln if the fireplace in the Oval Office worked.  Apparently she thought it did because he then asked her to start a fire.

She placed crumpled paper under the logs and struck a match and then, "almost immediately the room was filled with smoke."

Suddenly the West Wing was on fire alert.  Sam "Mitch" Mitchell, a Presidential assistant in charge of the Oval, shouted "Oh, my land, what has happened?"

The doors and windows were quickly opened in spite of the cold air outside. Mrs. Lincoln admitted that Mitch was visibly upset with her because she had started the fire without making sure the damper was open. 

JFK+50 NOTE:

Crytome states that Flickr photographs taken of the Oval Office fireplace and chimney taken over several years show no sign of use although discoloration of the mantle "suggests (a) smoky fire in the past."

SOURCES

"My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy," by Evelyn Lincoln, Personal Secretary to the President, David McKay Co.,Inc., New York, 1965.

"Oval Office Fireplace and Chimney," Cryptome, August 11, 2014, www.cryptome.org/

Oval Office in  1981
Reagan Adaministration
http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/photographs/large/c1612-10.jpg

GOOD MORNING MRS. LINCOLN, IS THERE ANY MAIL?

JFK+50:  Volume 7, No. 2196

FIRST DAY FOR JFK & HIS SECRETARY

Washington, D.C. (JFK+50) Today, Saturday, January 21, 2017, marks the first full day for President Donald J. Trump and his staff.  Both John F. Kennedy and Mr. Trump were inaugurated on a Friday.  

Fifty-six years ago, Saturday, January 21, 1961, President Kennedy's personal secretary Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln arrived at the White House for her first day on the job. 

Although the guard at the gate entrance to the West Wing did not know her, he took Mrs. Lincoln's word that she was the new President's secretary and that it was her husband, Abe, who was driving their 1951 red car.

She was escorted down the hall to her office which overlooked the Rose Garden.  A door opened into the Oval Office and she stepped inside.  Mrs. Lincoln was "somewhat disappointed" that most everything in the room, including the wall, was green. 

JFK suddenly appeared and said,

"Good Morning Mrs Lincoln.  Is there any mail?"

Later the President noticed a reading copy of his Inaugural Address.  He said that he had read where a former POTUS had been offered $75,000 for his Inaugural Address and then asked Mrs. Lincoln for a pen.

JFK signed the copy, handed it back to his secretary, and said...

"Here, keep this $75,000 for me."

*Evelyn Maurine Norton Lincoln (1909-1995) was born in Nebraska.  Her father, John Norton, was a U.S. Congressman.  She graduated from George Washington University & studied law for 2 years.  EMNL went to work for Senator John F. Kennedy in 1953. 

The NY Times describes their relationship as "a bond forged in political heaven" as she was "efficient, savvy and devoted."  After JFK's death she wrote two books & returned to Capitol Hill as a secretary from 1967 to 1973.

SOURCES

"Evelyn Lincoln, Secretary to Kennedy, Is Dead at 85,"  New York Times, May 13, 1995.

"My Twelve Years with John F. Kennedy," by Evelyn Lincoln, Personal Secretary to the President, David McKay Co.,Inc., New York, 1965.

Evelyn Lincoln

JFK's Personal Secretary

White House West Wing

April 28, 1961

Photo by Robert L. Knudsen

JFK Library Image