3 mins read

Much more than a piece of furniture, the president’s Resolute Desk has echoed through history

WASHINGTON | Franklin D. Roosevelt toiled over paperwork there during World War II’s darkest days. George W. Bush sat behind it to address the nation on 9/11. Beneath it, John F. Kennedy Jr. once crawled and peeked out from behind its front panel while his father worked above, an image so etched into American history […]

7 mins read

Norman Rockwell people-watched in the West Wing lobby. Now those sketches are on public display

WASHINGTON | For more than 40 years, sketches by American illustrator Norman Rockwell of scenes from the White House visitor’s lobby graced the walls of the West Wing, where every president from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump had seen them. Now, they’re going on public display for the first time after a nonprofit organization paid […]

6 mins read

A look at other presidential libraries as the Obama Presidential Center opens to the public

NEW YORK | Whenever historian Geoffrey Ward visits the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum to do research, he finds himself caught up in the spirit of FDR himself, the sense of landed contentment and cheerful disarray that helped define his public image. “It feels like you’re stepping back into his world,” Ward said […]