Presidential perspective

A silhouette is seen at an exhibit during a tour of The People’s House: A White House Experience in Washington. — Photos: ©2024 The New York Times Company

In this ‘Oval Office’, tourists can solve or start a world crisis.

FOR most of the past 75 years, it would have been impossible for a family touring Washington DC, to recreate the iconic photo of John F. Kennedy Jr as a toddler, playing under the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office while his father directs the affairs of government.

That changed recently, when the White House Historical Association opened a museum and educational centre across the street from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (the formal address of the White House). At the centre of the new, three-story facility is a full-scale replica of the Oval Office, complete with a duplicate of the famous desk that toddlers are welcome to crawl under.

“You can sit at the chairs in front of the fireplace like a president and head of state,” Stewart D. McLaurin, president of the association, said during a recent pre-opening tour. “You can be, in your mind, a president of the United States, and the real president is just 150 yards away from where we are. You could pick up the phone, and you could either solve or start a world crisis.”

The museum has opened at a tumultuous moment, when the current president is dealing with several crises and a deeply divided nation is poised to choose its next leader. There are few, if any, references to current events, but McLaurin said the goal of the association is to provide visitors insight into the difficult choices that presidents face.

To accomplish that, one room in the museum mimics a meeting in the Cabinet Room, where a video shows a president having a debate with his advisers. Visitors are then asked to use a screen to indicate how they would have voted.

In one scenario, Abraham Lincoln hears from his advisers about whether to resupply Fort Sumter. Some advise him to abandon the fort to avoid heightening the coming conflict, while others urge him to send food – even if it risks setting off a civil war.

History is at the heart of the museum, even when it is grim. Association researchers identified 200 enslaved people who worked in what is now Lafayette Park, across from the White House, to construct the building in 1790. Visitors will learn that 11 of the first 12 presidents owned slaves or hired them from slave owners to work on the White House.

There is also an exhibit about the fire that consumed the White House in 1814, when invading British soldiers set it ablaze during the War of 1812. Visitors will see faux flames leaping from the windows of the stately building just as onlookers did more than 200 years ago.

An introduction to the museum is narrated by Martin Sheen, who played President Bartlet in the West Wing television series.

The museum’s stories are told in part through new technologies. As visitors walk past a scale model of the rooms in the White House, ghost-like images animate the way the real rooms were once used. Press a button for the Red Room, and the swearing-in of Rutherford B. Hayes comes to life.

Constrained by limited space, the museum uses high-tech lighting and video to turn a white-walled room into a series of spaces in the White House. One moment, visitors are standing in the East Room; the next, they are in the State Dining Room.

At one point, a window appears on the wall, through which visitors can see Richard Nixon emerge from the Marine One helicopter on the South Lawn, just as the occupants of that room would have viewed it in the 1970s.

McLaurin said the museum would change frequently to reflect the real White House and its occupants. The current Oval Office is decorated the way it looks as Biden ends his term, complete with a replica of the Bible that was used at his swearing-in and that has been in his family since 1893.

After the next president is inaugurated, the Oval Office at the museum will eventually be redesigned to reflect its new occupants. Art on the walls will be replaced. Busts will be swapped out. Even the carpet under the furniture will be duplicated.

Some things will not change, however. Among the exhibits is a replica of the private movie theater that has served presidents and their families since the early 1940s.

A portion of the museum is dedicated to those who have worked behind the scenes at the White House. In one gallery, visitors are presented with the stories of the cooks, gardeners, florists and maintenance workers who kept the building running.

Among those profiled: Dale Haney, who started working as a gardener at the White House in 1972 and now serves as superintendent of the White House grounds, a position he has held since 2008.

“Something we all need to be reminded of is our country is not just about the now, the news happening now,” McLaurin said. “It’s about all that went before – all those women and men who lived and served and worked in that White House.” — ©2024 The New York Times Company