Meja Theodore Roosevelt

Meja di Kantor Seremonial Wakil Presiden Gedung Kantor Eksekutif Eisenhower yang lebih dikenal dengan nama meja Theodore Roosevelt adalah meja alas mahogani besar yang dipelihara oleh Gedung Putih. Meja ini adalah meja pertama dari enam meja yang telah digunakan oleh presiden Amerika Serikat di Kantor Oval dan digunakan sebagai meja Wakil Presiden Amerika Serikat sejak tahun 1961.

Meja ini dirancang oleh Charles Follen McKim pada tahun 1903 untuk Sayap Barat yang baru dibangun (kemudian disebut Gedung Kantor Eksekutif) dan merupakan salah satu dari beberapa perabot yang dibuat khusus untuk ruang interior baru. Pada tahun 1929, meja ini selamat dari kebakaran besar di Sayap Barat dan kemudian disimpan di gudang selama lebih dari satu dasawarsa. Meja ini digantikan oleh meja Hoover di Kantor Oval hingga Franklin Delano Roosevelt wafat, dengan dua presiden berikutnya yaitu Harry S. Truman dan Dwight D. Eisenhower menggunakan kembali meja ini. John Fitzgerald Kennedy sempat menggunakan meja ini di Kantor Oval sebelum beralih ke meja Resolute dan memindahkan meja ini ke Kantor Seremonial Wakil Presiden. Richard Nixon menggunakan meja ini di "kantor kerjanya" di Gedung Kantor Eksekutif Eisenhower, tempat beberapa kaset Watergate direkam dengan mikrofon yang terpasang di meja ini. Setelah Richard mengundurkan diri, meja ini dipindahkan kembali ke Kantor Seremonial Wakil Presiden di mana sejak itu meja tersebut digunakan oleh setiap wakil presiden. Banyak pengguna meja sebelumnya telah menandatangani nama mereka di bagian bawah laci tengah.

 Rancangan dan penandaan
Meja Theodore Roosevelt adalah meja alas mahogani yang dimiliki oleh Gedung Putih."Memo, Frank Pagnotta to Robert Hartmann" Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Handwriting File, retrieved January 25, 2017Serratore , Angela.  The presidential desk: A brief history. Curbed. November 8, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2020. Meja dengan tinggi 30  ini memiliki ruang kerja dengan lebar  dan kedalaman . Rancangannya yang bersahaja ditandai dengan garis-garis yang elegan dan maskulin serta dirinci dengan tarikan kuningan. Terdapat dua perubahan meja yang keduanya terjadi selama pemerintahan Richard Nixon. Sebuah lubang dibor di bagian atas sehingga kabel telepon dapat dimasukkan melalui meja agar tidak terlihat dan kunci ditempatkan di laci kiri untuk mengamankan alat perekam yang terletak di sana.Room 180.  George W Bush whitehouse.gov archives. Retrieved December 3, 2020. Meja itu digambarkan sebagai usang, bekas kebakaran, dicat ulang dalam artikel tahun 1949 di Parade Magazine.The President's Desk. Parade magazine. May 22, 1949. Retrieved December 5, 2020.

Bermula pada dasawarsa 1940-an, setiap pengguna meja ini menandatangani bagian dalam laci tengah pada akhir masa jabatannyaVice President's Ceremonial Office. George W Bush whitehouse.gov archives. Retrieved December 3, 2020. Pada tahun 1974, tercatat dalam sebuah memo bahwa tanda tangan Harry Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, dan Lyndon Baines Johnson (serta inisial Truman dan Eisenhower) berada di laci ini. Sejak itu laci tersebut ditandatangani oleh wakil presiden Nelson Rockefeller, Walter Mondale, George H. W. Bush, Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, Joe Biden, dan Mike Pence.Liptak, Kevin. Biden signs desk in farewell tradition. CNN. January 6, 2017. Retrieved December 4, 2020.Linge, Mary Kay. "Pence says to 'hold your heads high' in emotional meeting with staffers". New York Post. January 9, 2021. Retrieved January 9, 2020.

 Sejarah 
 Renovasi Gedung Putih 1902 
Pada tahun 1901, Wakil Presiden Theodore Roosevelt menjadi Presiden Amerika Serikat setelah pembunuhan presiden petahana William McKinley. Setelah pindah ke Gedung Putih, keluarga Theodore menemukan interior Victoria penuh sesak dan suram serta umumnya terlalu kecil untuk keluarga besar merekaWHITE HOUSE. An archive of drawings and blue prints from Davenport Co. and McKim, Mead & White, 1902. Christie's. December 3, 2007. Retrieved December 4, 2020.The East and West Wings of the White House: history in architecture and building. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 4, 2020. Renovasi besar-besaran Gedung Putih dimulai pada tahun 1902 untuk menghilangkan nuansa Victoriana dan sebaliknya membawa bangunan ke standar modern. Istri Theodore, Edith Roosevelt, bekerja dengan Charles Follen McKim dari McKim, Mead, dan White untuk mencapai renovasi ini yang mencakup pembangunan Gedung Kantor Eksekutif baru, yang sekarang dikenal sebagai Sayap Barat.Roosevelt, Edith Kermit Carow. Theodore Roosevelt Center. Dickinson State University. Retrieved December 4, 2020The White House Building. White House. Retrieved December 4, 2020.Restoration. p. 7. As part of this renovation, all furniture in the White House was replaced with new pieces, including this desk.Monkman, Betty C. The White House Collection: The Beaux Arts Furnishing of 1902. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 4, 2020 This refurnishing was done with the stated aim to "design and furnish the interior in harmony with its neoclassical exterior architecture, in order that it would not be subject to changing fashion."

These new furnishings were part of a widespread attempt to develop a national design identity which had been growing since the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition. Betty C. Monkman explained through the White House Historical Association that at this time, "Americans looked back to the nation's origins and an idealized past and sought representative antiques or reproductions of furnishings from the earliest periods of the country's history. Colonial Revival furnishings and copies of English and French neoclassical styles were selected for rooms at the same time that a growing emphasis on lighter spaces and a reaction away from pattern in wallpaper, fabrics, and carpets—and from a certain busyness and 'artistic' clutter". A pamphlet explaining the renovations of the White House from the time claimed that before this new set of furniture was purchased there was "an inequality in the furniture of the whole house (owing to the unwillingness and piecemeal manner with which Congress votes any moneys for its decoration) which destroys its effect as a comfortable dwelling."Restoration. pp. 45–46. The pamphlet continued extolling the new furniture and interiors with, "It is to be hoped that Congress will not always consider the furniture of the President's House as the scapegoat of all sumptuary and aristocratic sins, and that we shall soon be able to introduce strangers not only to a comfortable and well-appointed, but to a properly served and nicely kept, Presidential Mansion."

Planning for the interiors began in earnest in 1902 for the executive offices, state rooms, and family spaces. Because of delays in funds appropriation from Congress, the project had less than six months for the interiors to be designed, built, and installed. The goal was to finish the spaces for the Winter 1903 social season. Mrs. Roosevelt was very hands on with the redesign of the White House and new office building and all fabrics and furniture had to be approved by her. The budget for all of the furniture was $10,000 , though a total of$14,054.77  was actually spent on "furniture, carpets, rugs, electric lighting and other fixtures". Construction began on June 20, 1902,Restoration. pp. 11–13 wrapped up on September 29, and this building was eventually occupied in the middle of October.Restoration. p. 13.


The desk, as well as all other furniture in the Executive Office Building, was designed by McKim and built by furniture-maker A. H. Davenport and Company in Boston, Massachusetts in 1903.The President's Office, Theodore Roosevelt Administration. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 4, 2020 Davenport worked closely with McKim to create furniture that worked within their concept and may have contributed design ideas as well.

 Referensi 

 Daftar pustaka 
 Restoration of the White House: Message of the President of the United States Transmitting the Report of the Architects. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903. Retrieved December 4, 2020.

 Pranala luar 

 Clip from The President: January 1969. MP904. showing the Johnson desk being moved out of the Oval Office and the Theodore Roosevelt desk being moved in.

Kategori:Karya tahun 1903