The President’s Desk
By:
February 22, 2011
We often invest objects and places with the spirit of those who used or passed through them; the President’s desk is just such a thing.
Originally repurposed from the timbers of the HMS Resolute, an abandoned Arctic exploring vessel, it was given by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes over 130 years ago.
But its recent relevance began with John F. Kennedy, after Jackie discovered it stashed in another room in the White House and had it installed in the Oval Office in 1961. It remains in use today, so you can’t go root around in it. However some of its 50-year-old secrets have been released to the internet, where they are hyperlinked via its new virtual avatar.
That avatar, The President’s Desk, debuted yesterday. The well-designed interactive exhibit by The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston, Massachusetts features videos, photos, sound recordings, memorabilia and notes from the 35th president.
One can even access secret tapes, an Oval Office practice which dates back to Franklin D. Roosevelt, and which ended, in a burst of scrutiny and notoriety, with Richard Nixon in 1974.
The material devoted to the Cuban Missle Crisis makes an excellent companion piece to The Fog of War, Errol Morris’ 2003 documentary about Robert McNamara, Kennedy’s Secretary of Defense.
However, there is as yet no interactive Flash site of The President’s Death. The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza does sponsor a cellphone walking tour, but Dealey Plaza itself, a similarly storied place, with its bullets, Book Depository, and grassy knoll, remains wide open for virtual development.
