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Rockwell's White House drawings, made to humanize FDR, go on public display
Norman Rockwell's West Wing drawings, commissioned during WWII to humanize FDR, have gone on public display for the first time.
Norman Rockwell created colorful drawings of the White House West Wing, commissioned during World War II to humanize President Roosevelt. The works hung in the White House for decades without public access.
Now on display for the first time, they are accessible to audiences beyond the building. The commission shows how visual art served as a tool of deliberate presidential image-making during wartime.
Why it mattersSeeing how Roosevelt used commissioned art during wartime reveals a deliberate strategy behind presidential public perception, now visible for the first time.
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