Oval Office

The oval room has three large South Lawn-facing windows, in front of which the president's desk traditionally stands, and a fireplace at the north end.

Examples include Kennedy presenting news of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962), Nixon announcing his resignation from office (1974),[1] Ronald Reagan following the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster (1986),[2] and George W. Bush in the wake of the September 11 attacks (2001).

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.

[11] Sitting 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.

[14] 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.

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.

[16] 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.

[25] The same year the British Admiralty launched a competition to design a piece of furniture made from the timbers of the Resolute which Queen Victoria could gift to the American president.

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.

A portrait of Andrew Jackson by Thomas Sully hung in the offices of Lyndon B. Johnson, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Three landscapes and cityscapes – City of Washington from Beyond the Navy Yard by George Cooke, Eastport and Passamaquoddy Bay by Victor de Grailly, and The President's House, a copy after William Henry Bartlett – have adorned the walls in multiple administrations.

Passing the Outpost (1881) by Alfred Wordsworth Thompson, a Revolutionary War genre scene of a carriage stopped at a British checkpoint, hung in Gerald Ford's office, and in Jimmy Carter's and Ronald Reagan's.

[33] 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.

Abraham Lincoln has been the most common subject, in works by sculptors Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Gutzon Borglum, Adolph Alexander Weinman, Leo Cherne and others.

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.

President Harry S. Truman displayed works related to his home state of Missouri, prints of biplanes and sailing ships, and models of jet airplanes.

[37] 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.

President Lyndon Johnson installed sconces on either side of the mantel, and added the office's first painting by a woman artist, Franklin D. Roosevelt by Elizabeth Shoumatoff.

President Richard Nixon tried three different portraits of George Washington over the mantel, and hung a copy of Earthrise – a photograph of the Earth taken from the Moon's orbit during the Apollo 8 mission – beside his desk.

President Bill Clinton chose the Childe Hassam and Norman Rockwell paintings mentioned above, along with Waiting for the Hour by William T. Carlton,[39] a genre scene depicting African-Americans gathered in anticipation of the Emancipation Proclamation going into effect on January 1, 1863.

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.

[34] Former President Joe Biden's Oval Office featured a cluster of five portraits at its north end, with Frank O. Salisbury's Franklin D. Roosevelt given pride of place over the mantel.

Since the present Oval Office's construction in 1934 during the administration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt the room has remained mostly unchanged architecturally.

[citation needed] The Georgian style plaster ornament has been cleaned to remove accumulated paint, and a series of electrified wall sconces have come and gone.

In 1982, President Ronald Reagan had the floor replaced with quarter sawn oak and walnut, in a cross parquet pattern similar in design to a 1933 Eric Gugler sketch, which had never been executed.

In the late 1980s, a comprehensive assessment of the entire house, including the Oval Office, was made as part of the National Park Service's Historic American Buildings Survey (HABS).

The Bronco Buster by Frederic RemingtonThe Thinker by Auguste RodinAppeal to the Great Spirit by Cyrus DallinBust of Abraham Lincoln by Robert BerksBust of Franklin D. Roosevelt by Jo DavidsonNumerous family pictures Moon rock returned by Apollo 17 crew[83]Gold framed 10" TV[84]Numerous family picturesNumerous booksFamily BiblePresidential Medal of Freedom[85] George Washington by Charles Willson Peale Martin Van Buren by Francis Alexander Theodore Roosevelt by Tadeusz Styka John Adams by Gilbert StuartThomas Jefferson by Gilbert StuartAlexander Hamilton by John TrumbullBenjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze Zachary Taylor by John Vanderlyn Franklin D. Roosevelt by Alfred Jonniaux Ronald Reagan by Everett Raymond Kinstler[86]The Bronco Buster by Frederick RemingtonBust of Winston Churchill by Jacob EpsteinBust of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Charles AlstonBust of Abraham Lincoln by Augustus Saint-GaudensEquestrian statue of Andrew Jackson by Clark MillsNumerous family picturesAbraham Lincoln plaqueReplica 2026 World Cup trophyCollection of Challenge coinsTrump International Golf Club Championship trophy Originally, President Trump used the same portrait layout as his first term, but soon filled the room with more portraits.