Oval Office

The Oval Office has become associated in Americans' minds with the presidency itself through memorable images, such as a young John F. Kennedy Jr. peering through the front panel of his father John F. Kennedy's desk, President Richard Nixon speaking by telephone with the Apollo 11 astronauts during their moonwalk, and Amy Carter bringing her Siamese cat Misty Malarky Ying Yang to brighten her father President Jimmy Carter's day. Several presidents have addressed the nation from the Oval Office on occasion. Examples include Kennedy presenting news of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Lyndon B. Johnson announcing that he will not run for reelection (1968), Nixon announcing his resignation from office (1974), Ronald Reagan following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986), and George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks (2001). ==History, 1789–1909 ==

, Philadelphia. George Washington's bow window (not depicted) is echoed in the shape of the Oval Office. Washington's bow window The White House was not ready for occupancy until 1800. George Washington never occupied the White House. He spent most of his presidency in Philadelphia, which served as the temporary national capital for 10 years, from 1790 to 1800, while Washington, D.C., a new city, was under construction. In 1790, Washington built a large, two-story, semi-circular addition to the rear of the President's House in Philadelphia, creating a ceremonial space in which the public would meet the president. Standing before the three windows of this bow window, he formally received guests for his Tuesday afternoon audiences, delegations from Congress and foreign dignitaries, and the general public at open houses on New Year's Day, the Fourth of July, and his birthday. Washington received his guests, standing between the windows in his back drawing-room. The company, entering a front room and passing through an unfolding door, made their salutations to the President, and turning off, stood on one side. President John Adams occupied the Philadelphia mansion from March 1797, and used the bow window in the same manner as had his predecessor. Curved foundations of Washington's bow window were uncovered during archaeological excavation of the site of the President's House in 2007. They are exhibited under glass at the President's House Commemoration, next to the Liberty Bell Center. White House Architect James Hoban visited President Washington in Philadelphia in June 1792, and probably saw the bow window. The next month, Hoban won the design competition for the White House. The elliptic salon at the center of the White House was the outstanding feature of Hoban's original plan. Oval rooms became common in neoclassical architecture early in the 19th century. In November 1800, John Adams became the first president to occupy the White House. He and his successor, President Thomas Jefferson, used Hoban's oval rooms as Washington had used his bow window salon, standing before the three windows at the south end to receive guests. In the 19th century, some presidents used the White House's second-floor Yellow Oval Room as their private offices and libraries. This cultural association, between the president and an oval room, was more fully expressed in the Taft Oval Office (1909) in the West Wing. File:WH2Yellow.png|Location of the Yellow Oval Room on the second floor of the White House. A number of presidents used this as their private office or library. File:Yellow-oval-room-c1868.jpg|The Yellow Oval Room about 1868 used as President Andrew Johnson's private office File:Yellow Oval Room 1886.jpg|The Yellow Oval Room as President Grover Cleveland's private office, 1886. The Resolute desk stands before the windows. File:President presents regatta cup.tif|The Yellow Oval Room as President Franklin D. Roosevelt's private office, 1933 West Wing The West Wing was the idea of President Theodore Roosevelt, brought about by his wife's opinion that the second floor of the White House, then shared between bedrooms and offices, should be solely a domestic space. Completed in 1902, the one-story Executive Office Building was intended to be a temporary structure, for use until a permanent building was erected there or elsewhere. Siting the building west of the White House allowed the removal of a vast, dilapidated set of pre–Civil War greenhouses, which had been erected by President James Buchanan. Roosevelt moved the offices of the executive branch into the newly constructed wing in 1902. His workspace was a two-room suite of Executive Office and Cabinet Room, occupying the eastern third of the building. Its furniture, including the president's desk, was designed by architect Charles Follen McKim, and executed by A. H. Davenport and Company, both of Boston. Now much altered, the 1902 Executive Office survives as the Roosevelt Room, a windowless interior meeting room situated diagonally from the Oval Office. ==Taft Oval Office: 1909–1933==

President William Howard Taft made the West Wing a permanent building, doubling its size by expanding it southward, and building the first Oval Office. Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth and completed in 1909, the office was centered on the building's south facade, much as the oval rooms in the White House are. Taft wanted to be more involved with the day-to-day operation of his presidency, and intended the office to be the hub of his administration. The Taft Oval Office had ample natural light from its three windows and skylight. It featured a white marble mantel, simple Georgian Revival woodwork, and twin glass-doored bookcases. It also was likely the most colorful presidential office in history; its walls were covered with vibrant seagrass green burlap. On December 24, 1929, during the first year of President Herbert Hoover's administration, a fire severely damaged the West Wing. Hoover used this as an opportunity to create additional space, excavating a partial basement for staff offices. He restored the Oval Office, upgrading the quality of trim and installing air conditioning. He also replaced the furniture, which had undergone no major changes in twenty years. File:West Wing between 1910 and 1920 cropped.jpg|Exterior of the West Wing (), showing the curve of the Taft Oval Office File:President Hoover views West Wing fire ruins 15 January 1930 cropped.jpg|President Hoover views West Wing fire ruins, January 15, 1930 File:West-wing-1934-construction.jpg|West Wing expansion, 1934 File:Oval Office Exterior.jpg|Exterior of the Oval Office from the South Lawn, July 15, 2006 ==Modern Oval Office: 1934–present==

Dissatisfied with the size and layout of the West Wing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt engaged New York architect Eric Gugler to redesign it in 1933. To create additional staff space without increasing the apparent size of the building, Gugler excavated a full basement, added a set of subterranean offices under the adjacent lawn, and built an unobtrusive penthouse storey. The directive to wring the most office space out of the existing building was responsible for its narrow corridors and cramped staff offices. Gugler's most visible addition was the expansion of the building eastward for a new Cabinet Room and Oval Office. The modern Oval Office was built at the West Wing's southeast corner, offering Roosevelt, who was physically disabled and used a wheelchair, more privacy and easier access to the Residence. He and Gugler devised a room architecturally grander than the previous two offices, with more robust Georgian details: doors topped with substantial pediments, bookcases set into niches, a deep bracketed cornice, and a ceiling medallion of the Presidential Seal. Rather than a chandelier or ceiling fixture, the room is illuminated by light bulbs hidden within the cornice that wash the ceiling in light. In small ways, hints of Art Moderne can be seen, in the sconces flanking the windows and the representation of the eagle in the ceiling medallion. Roosevelt and Gugler worked closely together, often over breakfast, with Gugler sketching the president's ideas. One notion resulting from these sketches that has become fixed in the layout of the room's furniture is that of two high back chairs in front of the fireplace. The public sees this most often with the president seated on the left and a visiting guest on the right. This allowed Roosevelt to be seated, with his guests at the same level, de-emphasizing his inability to stand without help. Construction of the modern Oval Office was completed in 1934. Decoration . The basic Oval Office furnishings have been a desk in front of the three windows at the south end, a pair of chairs in front of the fireplace at the north end, a pair of sofas, and assorted tables and chairs. The Neoclassical mantel was made for the Taft Oval Office in 1909 and salvaged after the 1929 West Wing fire. President Harry S. Truman replaced the Oval Office's 23-year-old dark green carpet in 1947. He had revised the seal of the president of the United States after World War II, and his blue-gray carpet incorporated the 1945 revised seal, represented monochromatically through varying depths of its cut pile. The Truman carpet remained in the office through the Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy administrations. Jacqueline Kennedy's redecoration of the Oval Office began on November 21, 1963, while she and President Kennedy were away on a trip to Texas. The following day, November 22, a red carpet was installed, just as the Kennedys were making their way through Dallas, where the president was assassinated. Lyndon B. Johnson had the red carpet removed and the Truman carpet reinstalled, and used the latter for his administration. Since Johnson, most administrations have created their own oval carpet, working with an interior designer and the curator of the White House. Desks and Kerry Kennedy beneath the Resolute desk in 1963. Note the Truman carpet. Six desks have been used in the Oval Office by US presidents since its construction in 1909. The desk usually sits in front of the south wall of the Oval Office, which is composed of three large windows. Some presidents only use the desk in this room for ceremonial purposes, such as photo opportunities and press announcements, while others use it as their main workspace. The first desk used in the Oval Office was the Theodore Roosevelt desk, and the desk currently in use by Donald Trump is the Resolute desk. Of the six desks used in the Oval Office, the Resolute desk has spent the longest time there, having been used by eight presidents in the room. The Resolute has been used by all US presidents since 1977 with the exception of George H. W. Bush, who used the C&O desk for his one term, making it the shortest-serving desk to date. Other past presidents have used the Hoover desk, the Johnson desk, and the Wilson desk. The British Resolute was trapped in Arctic ice in 1854 and abandoned. The ship was discovered in 1855 by an American whaling ship and later underwent a complete refit, repaint, and restock paid for by the United States Government. It was returned to England in 1856 and decommissioned in 1879. Following a design competition, Queen Victoria ordered that three desks be made from the timbers of Resolute. The one that is now known as the Resolute desk was designed by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford, built by William Evenden at Chatham Dockyard, and announced as "recently manufactured" on November 18, 1880. The desk was delivered as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the kneehole during his presidency. Following the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, the Resolute desk was transferred, on loan, to the Smithsonian Institution and went on tour around the country to help raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. After this tour, the desk was put on view at the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1966. The Avenue in the Rain by Childe Hassam and Working on the Statue of Liberty by Norman Rockwell flanked the Resolute desk in Bill Clinton's office and did the same in Barack Obama's. Avenue in the Rain hung beside the Resolute desk in Joe Biden's office. Statuettes, busts, heads, and figurines are frequently displayed in the Oval Office. Abraham Lincoln has been the most common subject, in works by sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Adolph Alexander Weinman, Leo Cherne and others. Over time, traditional busts of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, or Benjamin Franklin have given way to heads of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman or Dwight Eisenhower. Western bronzes by Frederic Remington have been frequent choices: Lyndon Johnson displayed The Bronco Buster, as did Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump. Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush added its companion piece, The Rattlesnake. Paintings According to The New York Times, as of 2021, an estimated 43 paintings and one photograph have decorated the walls of the Oval Office since 1961. Luis Cadena's George Washington (the gift of Ecuador), and a copy of Tito Salas's Equestrian Portrait of Simon Bolivar (the gift of Venezuela). A large photograph of the White House portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt, under whom Truman had served as vice president and who died in office in 1945, hung beside the mantel and later beside his desk. He also displayed the painting Fired On by Western artist Frederic Remington. President Dwight D. Eisenhower filled the office walls with landscape paintings, as well as a portrait of Robert E. Lee. a genre scene depicting African-Americans gathered in anticipation of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect on January 1, 1863. President George W. Bush mixed traditional works with paintings by Texas artists and Western sculptures. Following the September 11, 2001 attacks, British Prime Minister Tony Blair lent him a bust of Winston Churchill, who had guided the United Kingdom through World War II. President Barack Obama honored Abraham Lincoln with the portrait by Story, a bust by Augustus Saint-Gaudens, and a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation. Below the proclamation was a bust of Martin Luther King Jr. by Charles Alston, and in the nearby bookcase was displayed a program from the August 28, 1963, March on Washington, at which King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. President Donald Trump hung mostly portraits on the office walls: Rembrandt Peale's George Washington, George H. Story's Abraham Lincoln, Asher B. Durand's Andrew Jackson, George P. A. Healy's Thomas Jefferson, John Trumbull's Alexander Hamilton, Joseph-Siffred Duplessis's Benjamin Franklin. Detailed photographs and measured drawings were made documenting the interior and exterior and showing even slight imperfections. A checklist of materials and methods was generated for future conservation and restoration. Dimensions The ratio of the major axis to the minor axis is approximately 21:17 or 1.24. ==Gallery==

File:Kennedy children visit the Oval Office, October 1962.jpg|John F. Kennedy's children visit the Oval Office. File:Richard M. Nixon and Bob Hope in the oval office. Bob Hope is putting into an ashtray held by the President. - NARA - 194433.tif|President Richard M. Nixon and Bob Hope play golf in the Oval Office. File:Oval Office from above.jpg|View from above: President George W. Bush seated at lower left holds meeting. File:Paul Kagame with George Bush March 4, 2003.jpg|Traditional hand-shake photo seated in front of the fireplace. President G. W. Bush at right, the guest (Paul Kagame, President of Rwanda) to the left. One of the rare images where there is fire in the fireplace. File:P082914PS-0000 (15379615486).jpg|View from fireplace mantel: President Barack Obama from the back sitting near the fireplace with view toward desk, Rose Garden doorway at left, private study door ajar at right, and door to his secretary's office ajar at far left. File:Trump Oval Office panorama.jpg|A panoramic view of the Oval Office, January 26, 2017. President Donald Trump is seated at the Resolute desk. ==Designs and furnishings==