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Archive 1

silly trivia

Just learned a friend of mine went inside the Oval Office last year: apparently it smells like "Pine-Sol and weirdly enough, lavender potpourri, pleasant though" Who knew? :D

Zidel333 00:27, 29 March 2006 (UTC)

(misc. discussions)

The copy on this page was lifted directly from the official White House site ([1]) with only one paragraph edited slightly. I deleted the offending copy and listed it on Wikipedia:Possible copyright infringements. Rebrane 05:34, Mar 11, 2004 (UTC)

See comment made at copyvio page. All U.S. government publications are by default public domain. --Jiang 06:11, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)

Facetious comment: I thought it was an oval office so there were no corners to hide in.

The slightly silly copy in the official website:

Preferences for oval rooms date to the time of George Washington. At the president's home in Philadelphia, Washington had two rooms modified with a bowed-end in each that were used for hosting formal receptions called levees. As his guests formed a circle around him, Washington would stand in the center to greet them. With no one standing at the head or foot of the room, everyone was an equal distance from the president. The circle became a symbol of democracy, and Washington likely envisioned the oval Blue Room as the ideal place to host a levee.

has been developed at Wikipedia to this:

George Washington specified a room's oval shape so during meetings, he could look into everyone's eyes. Originally, Washington wanted all the rooms in the White House oval but soon realized such a design was impractical.

It's just not true. Wetman 20:54, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)


This site says: "The desk used by many presidents in the Oval Office is a large partners' desk called the Resolute desk, so named because it was built from the timbers of the British frigate HMS Resolute. The desk was a gift of British Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880." But the link that is assigned specifically about Resolute desk says it was given in 1879. So which year is it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.186.248.5 (talk) 22:43, 4 November 2007 (UTC)

Previous office

Where was located previous official presidential office before creation of the Oval Office? Darth Kalwejt (talk) 13:56, 8 August 2008 (UTC)

President Taft's first Oval Office was located in the West Wing but centered east to west on the wing in a manner similar similar to the centering of the oval rooms in the White House rewsidence on the width of the building. Previous to that a rectangular office existed in the West Wing, termed "the President's Room" and he maintained an office in the second floor of the residence in the site of the present Treaty Room. Before construction of the West Wing in 1902 all of the offices were located in the east end of the second floor of the residence, in the site of the Lincoln Bedroom, Lincoln Sitting Room, Treaty Room, and Queen's Sitting Room and Queen's bedroom. CApitol3 (talk)

Window sound-reading technology

When it talked about "During the Cold War, window panes were outfitted with small vibrators when it was learned that the Soviets had developed a means of reading the effect of voice sound waves on glass panes.", was this Soviet development the laser microphone? If so, perhaps this can be linked to in the article. --76.167.241.125 (talk) 12:18, 11 November 2008 (UTC)

replicas at museums

Might be worth mentioning that a replica or re-creation of the Oval Office has become a standard feature of recent Presidential library/museums. knoodelhed (talk) 20:39, 28 November 2008 (UTC)

Oval or ellipse?

Surely, in geometry an oval and an ellipse are different things. The way of constructing (drawing the line) is different, and the result is different. The oval is constructed from four sections of circles, an ellipse has no circle-section, (i.e. it's "circle"-curves are changing continuously, think by radius). Now the question is: is the Oval office geometrically oval, or elliptical? Of course I do not suggest that the name be changed.-DePiep (talk) 02:03, 10 February 2009 (UTC)

I do suggest to remove all "ellipse"-mentioning from the topic. Could also extend to the "Blue Room (White House)" in the other wing etc. The article now mentions an oval space. Especially in the text. -DePiep (talk) 23:39, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Clutter

Looking at this article, is it absolutely necessary to have all of these pictures of the Oval Office? As a reader, I get the hint of what the room looks like. So it is not necessary to see every nook and cranny of it. A great deal of the historical shots should and could be kept while others omitted, by shuffling them around within the text itself and below in the gallery.Yoganate79 (talk) 05:38, 20 October 2010 (UTC)

FDR Oval Office is NOT FDR's...

The photo of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Oval Office [HorydczakOvalOfficeFDR.jpg] cannot be FDR's. The President's flag to the right behind the desk dates to October 25, 1945 or later, designed in the first year of the new Truman Administration. FDR died on April 12, 1945. The President's flag at that time of the FDR Administration was a completely different design: White, left-facing American eagle with four large stars near each corner of the flag dating from Woodrow Wilson's era in 1916. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bobw0432 (talk • contribs) 01:00, 6 April 2013 (UTC)

You're absolutely right. And the desk in the photo is the Theodore Roosevelt Desk, which Truman used, but FDR did not. Here's FDR's desk, now at his Presidential Museum in Hyde Park, NY:[2]
-- BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 02:40, 23 July 2013 (UTC)
I replaced the photo with one from FDR's presidency, and someone else recategorized the erroneous photo. -- BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 20:39, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Be on the lookout

Please be on the lookout for an image of the interior of the Oval Office as rebuilt by Herbert Hoover following the December 1929 fire. This would have been used by Hoover from mid-1930 to March 1933, and by FDR from March 1933 into the summer. The only images I've been able to find of Hoover in his office pre-date the fire. And all the FDR images I've seen seem to be in the current Oval Office.
Thank you. -- BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 01:41, 26 July 2013 (UTC)

I found images of both at the Library of Congress's online digital photo collection. -- BoringHistoryGuy (talk) 03:46, 30 July 2013 (UTC)

What About the Lewinsky scandal

shouldnt it be put down under history that bill clinton and monica lewinsky have oral sex in this office? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.243.126.112 (talk) 23:05, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

  • I've added a See also section and placed a link to the Lewinsky scandal. This is the least that has to be done for the sake of accuracy and completeness. Anyone challenging this modest and clearly due link should be prepared to present a painstakingly prepared, policy-based and bulletproof reasoning for why not even a See also link belongs in the article. 78.34.149.154 (talk) 18:25, 21 January 2009 (UTC)

I disagree with the inclusion of the Lewinsky scandal, and I removed the section. Among all notable events which have occurred in the Oval Office, why are we creating a "see also" section specifically for this event? This article is about the room in the White House. It should not turn into an exhaustive list of notable and notorious events which have occurred in that room, and it certainly shouldn't contain a poorly placed "see also" link for a single event of dubious relevance to this article. I do want to thank you for bringing this up on the talk page so that it can be discussed. Hopefully others will also voice their opinions here. Rhobite (talk) 02:54, 22 January 2009 (UTC)

But it wasn't a single event after all, was it? And it was the most highly publicised incident that happened in the OO in recent times. I still firmly believe a See also link is more than in order considering all the facts. The question you should answer is: why should the article avoid mentioning this particular part of the history of the room? 78.34.146.122 (talk) 04:15, 22 January 2009 (UTC)
You got me - yes, to be very specific, it was not a single event. However the affair is not relevant to the specific rooms and locations where the acts occurred. We might as well link to the scandal article from hallway, intern and cigar. But we wouldn't do that, because on Wikipedia we don't revel in trivia sections and irrelevant list-making. Rhobite (talk) 14:28, 24 January 2009 (UTC)

I agree with the inclusion of the Lewinsky scandal, because of the fact that the event is notable to the room in so far as it was in the popular media at the time, and because of the fact that it is the only distingushable act of impropriety to have ever occured in this specific room. USN007 (talk) 07:02, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

As this article is currently written, mentioning LS seems out of WP:PROPORTION. LS is relevant to Clinton and his presidency, not this room. Gråbergs Gråa Sång (talk) 18:25, 24 October 2018 (UTC)

Trump Oval Office: missing portraits

In the table showing the various Oval Office designs through the different presidents, Trump's Oval Office is listed having four images. These images seem accurate, but there are two more that are not mentioned. In addition to a second Thomas Jefferson portrait, there is another figure who I can't identify hung to the left of Washington's portrait: 1,2 These should be added, though I would rather let someone with more knowledge of the specific portrait identities add them. --1990'sguy (talk) 23:34, 12 January 2019 (UTC)

Midterm renovation

According to this picture (and some others), Trump recently changed the portraits in the Oval Office. Lincoln replaced Jefferson's photo, and there's a different Jackson portrait. I'm not sure if any other images were switched, though I believe that Lincoln portrait was previously in another spot in the Oval Office. --1990'sguy (talk) 22:56, 19 January 2019 (UTC)

It now has a Benjamin Franklin portrait, per this photo: [3] --1990'sguy (talk) 20:33, 20 January 2019 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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Trump Oval

The trump oval mentions "Clinton drapery" but the clinton drapery was a darker shade of gold that was distinct from the lighter shade of drapes used by the Trump oval. Accompanying citation does not mention that the trump oval used the clinton drapery? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.162.103.188 (talk) 22:54, 20 January 2021 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion

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Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:06, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

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