It was an ordinary day. Sitting in my lounge chair reading an online copy of the Saturday Evening Post dated February 1, 2021. One story in particular drew my attention. It was titled "How Presidents Have Made the Oval Office Their Own." I have never had the chance to visit the Oval Office myself, but had the chance about a year ago to see photographs that my daughter Brynn had taken on her visit to the Oval Office about 2 years ago. When a newly elected President moves into our Nation's House, known in the United States as The White House, they have the option of decorating it as they see fit. I'm sure that some Presidents over the years had poor taste, but hopefully their spouses or maybe their interior decorator helped them make decisions that made the Oval Office look beautiful. Many of the Presidents included items of historical, political and personal significance that range from paintings to Moon rocks. The Oval Office was actually put into use in 1909 when President Taft selected a design from one of the many architects who submitted ideas to him. It was Nathan C. Wyeth who won the competition and made the office the oval shape that is is known for today. Mr. Wyeth also designed a large number of structures in Washington, D.C. including the Francis Scott Key Bridge, the USS Maine Mast Memorial, the D.C. Armory as well as the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge. Most of the changes to the Oval Office today from one President to the next involve the rug and drapes that highlight the historical Resolute Desk. President Taft actually had chosen an unpatriotic blue-green combination which stayed that way until First Lady Jackie Kennedy changed it to a more patriotic bright red rug with white curtains.
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| JFK's Oval Office with the bright red carpet. JFK Presidential Library/Museum |
Since then, most Presidents have used their own custom rug and drape combinations. President Biden has selected a dark blue rug with the Presidential Seal woven into the middle which happened to be the same rug that President Clinton used. For years the Presidential desk sat in the center of the room until President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the desk to the rear of the office to allow more space for visitors and guests. President Biden had his designer pick out a seating arrangement for the Oval Office and select furniture that was first used in President George W. Bush's Oval Office. Portraits line the walls of the Oval Office and show the public whom our President's heroes might have been. Pres. Biden had portraitures of Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton and Washington on the walls around him. Busts, sculptures and paintings usually fill other places in the office. Pres. Biden selected to display the Lunar Sample 76015,143. It was the Moon rock that was collected in 1971 during the landing of the Apollo 17 mission. The rock is on loan from NASA and is the oldest artifact that ever called the Oval Office it's home. It is 3.9 billion years old. The rock sits near a portraiture of Benjamin Franklin. The Resolute Desk is made from wood of the sunken HMS "Resolute". The ship was a mid-19th-century barque-rigged ship, the British Royal Nave, that became trapped in the ice and was abandoned in 1854. It was recovered by an American whaler and returned to Queen Victoria in 1856. Timbers from the ship were eventually used to construct the Resolute desk.  |
| The Presidential Desk |
One final piece in the Oval Office is the painting known as "Avenue in the Rain" by Childe Hassam. The painting depicts a rainy Fifth Ave. in New York City shadowed by several American flags. It was inspired by the American struggle of WWI and has been in the White House since 1963.  |
| The Norman Rockwell painting - The White House Historical Society |
There is also a Norman Rockwell painting titled "Working on the Statue of Liberty that hangs in The Oval Office. I'm sure if you were offered the chance to visit the White House and go through the Oval Office, you would do so. I know I certainly would...and I would take lots of photographs. But, perhaps I wouldn't be allowed to take photos since important documents may be laying around the President's desk and I could cause a big stir if someone found them as part of one of my stories. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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