“The Loneliest Job in the World” : President Kennedy in the Oval Office
Artist
George Tames
(American, 1919–1994)
Date1961
Mediumgelatin silver print
ClassificationsPhotographs
Credit LineGift of Howard G. Davis, III A.K.A. David Davis
Object number2014.1212
Label TextAfter World War II, Tames covered Washington for four decades. He is best remembered for this photograph, however, in which the President seems to bear the weight of the world on his shoulders. In fact, Kennedy had back trouble. “Particularly when it felt bad,” Tames recalled, “he had a habit, in the House, and the Senate, and into the Presidency, of . . . leaning over a desk, putting down his palms out flat, and leaning over and carrying the weight of his upper body by his shoulder muscles, and sort of stretching his back.”On View
Not on view
Wally McNamee
November 22, 1963
The Associated Press
November 22, 1963
John T. Stringer
November 1963
Arnold Newman
about 1978
