23 OCTOBER 2026

Norman Rockwell’s Eventful Trip to the White House

If there is one artist that’s synonymous with classic Americana, it’s Norman Rockwell. For decades, his illustrations perfectly captured ordinary people doing ordinary things, and his scenes at the ballpark, barber shop, and dinner table are iconic.

While everyday life was a common theme in his art, this doesn’t mean that Rockwell didn’t touch on sensitive subjects, including political issues. The work below is particularly poignant, as it depicts six-year-old Ruby Bridges heading to school on the first day of desegregated classes in Louisiana in 1960, surrounded by U.S. Federal Marshals.

Painting of a young girl in a white dress walking between four men in suits wearing yellow armbands, past a wall with a splattered tomato and graffiti

Norman Rockwell, “The Problem We All Live With,” 1963

Source: nrm.org

Even when he did get political, Rockwell often included a bit of whimsy in his work, and this is evident in So You Want To See The President!, a series of paintings and sketches that appeared in The Saturday Evening Post magazine in November 1943. It depicts a variety of people – some government officials, others just regular Joes – waiting to meet with President Roosevelt.

While citizens were able to just waltz into the White House and see the President for decades, that wasn’t really a thing by the 1940s. However, press secretary Stephen Early wanted to show that FDR was – at least theoretically – willing to connect with his constituents, and it was he who commissioned Rockwell for the work.

"Early wanted to show President Roosevelt as accessible, as being engaged with the American people at a time when you could only know what was going on in the White House by reading the newspaper or listening on the radio," said Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association (WHHA).

Painting of four men reading large newspapers on a red leather sofa, with a lamp post, a guard statue and cameramen sketched around the edges

Norman Rockwell, men reading on a red sofa

So You Want to See the President!

Bruce M. White/The White House Historical Association

Source: npr.org

Rockwell mixed whimsy into politics. Does a lighter touch make a serious subject easier to see?

Tap one and the reply writes itself.

Yes, it does

Sometimes

Not at all

A Devastating Fire and a Couple of Miss Americas

To capture the realism in his work – particularly the facial expressions and emotions of people – Rockwell would painstakingly photograph and sketch his subjects, and he spent a long time in the West Wing capturing the atmosphere and energy. He then took everything back to his studio in Vermont. However, in May of 1943, his studio and everything in it was destroyed in a fire. In a letter to the White House he asked if he could come back and start over, and they agreed.

One figure that really stands out in the work is a woman wearing a bright yellow dress and a Miss America sash. This is Rosemary LaPlanche, says the WHHA, who won the title in 1941 and was involved in promoting war bonds during WWII. However, it was another beauty pageant winner, Marie McIntyre, who was used as a model for the woman painted.

Photograph of a blonde woman in a floral dress and hat sitting beside a sleeping man, next to Rockwell's painting of the same pair on a red sofa

Norman Rockwell, a Miss America beside a tired man

Marie McIntyre, left, posed as "Miss America" for Rockwell's series.

Source: npr.org

His studio burned down and he started over. Would you have gone back?

Tap one and the reply writes itself.

Probably not

Maybe

Absolutely, from scratch

The Work Led to a Nearly 50-Year Marriage

There’s another interesting tidbit with a woman featured in the piece. Sitting in a chair gazing off to her right is Eloise English, a member of the WAVES, or Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. On the day of her visit to the White House, she actually wore her dress blues, but Rockwell decided to give her a white uniform. Nonetheless, when the work appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, it changed her life.

This is because Thomas Davies, who was a fighter pilot, saw the magazine and immediately became enamored with Eloise. Meredith Davies Hadaway, Thomas’ and Eloise’s daughter, recalls her father saying: “As soon as I get back stateside, I'm going to look her up. And that's exactly what he did. And subsequently, they got married. And that's why I'm here."

Thomas and Eloise were married for 46 years.

“I think Rockwell became symbolic of something good that came out of all that chaos,” said Hadaway. “My mother was not a very sentimental person in general, but she saved both the drawing and a copy of the magazine for her whole long life.”

Photograph of a smiling woman in a dark naval uniform and hat, next to two versions of a drawing with figures seated on chairs and a sofa

Norman Rockwell, a WAVES officer waiting her turn

Eloise English Davies

Meredith Davies Hadaway; Bruce M. White/The White House Historical Association

Source: npr.org

For years, the paintings hung in the Elam’s dining room, and William recalls one time eating SpaghettiOs and using his spoon as a catapult in an attempt to splatter Miss America. When Helen died, William says that she stipulated that he would get the work. But, in 2017, another member of the family claimed ownership. After a long legal process, a judge ruled that the work belonged solely to William.

In 2025, he decided to sell the paintings at auction, and the winning bidder was the WHHA, which purchased them for $7.25 million. They now sit a mere block from the White House, and anybody can stop in to see them.