President Kennedy’s desk has been painstakingly recreated in a digital format based on historical photographs of the Oval Office. Digitized resources, ranging from recordings of meetings in the Oval Office to family photographs, populate the site and provide an engaging and fascinating look into John F. Kennedy’s life and presidency.
The President’s Desk acts as a gateway to seven different interactive modules featuring a variety of topics related to President Kennedy’s life and presidency. Each module is launched by clicking on a particular desk item (Telephone, White House Diary, Scrimshaw, Coconut Paperweight, Secret Recording Button, Campaign Button, and Picture Frame.) The presentation strategy is different for each item, but all offer the chance to explore a number of different primary source materials. Learners of all ages may reveal the stories and decipher the meaning behind the objects President Kennedy chose to keep on his desk. More than 1,000 primary sources are featured on this site.
The President’s Desk interactive exhibit can be used in a variety of ways in the classroom. As a teaching tool, it has applications to classroom learning ranging from civil rights and the "Space Race" to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam. In the accompanying manual, The President's Desk: A Resource Guide for Teachers, you will find a detailed description of the site’s layout and featured artifacts, as well as suggestions for how to use these materials with students in grades 4-12. The Resource Guide features more than fifty-five curricula-relevant lesson plans and activities with ties to national standards and the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework that help students gain a deeper understanding of what it is like to hold the highest office in the land.