Museum exhibit showcases the pets who have lived in the White House

Transcript

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Amna Nawaz: Since our nation’s founding, pets have played an essential role in the lives of many U.S. presidents. A new exhibition at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston tells the story of the pets that called the White House home.

Jared Bowen of GBH Boston takes us there for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Jared Bowen: The role of the American president has often been described as the loneliest job in the world. No surprise then that nearly all of them have had pets.

President Bush had Barney, complete with his own Barney cam. Reagan had Rex, who would happily be in his doghouse. And Hoover had Billy, his pet possum.

Alan Price, Director, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum: This is an opportunity to see the history of the nation through the eyes of all the pets that have lived in the White House.

Jared Bowen: Boston’s John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum has gone to the dogs, cats and horses that have fetched, purred and trotted their way into American history.

This new exhibition delivers us all the way back to the founding pets. We find George Washington’s beloved horse, Nelson, and his foxhound, Sweet Lips. Speaking of lips, Thomas Jefferson fed his mockingbird Dick treats from his own.

And then there is Abraham Lincoln. Director Alan Price says he changed the course of presidential pet history.

Alan Price: Well, Lincoln’s dog is named Fido, and Lincoln has a photograph of his dog. And that’s the first known photograph of a presidential dog. And I think for so many Americans who then named their dog Fido, Lincoln is part of that origin story.

Jared Bowen: The story of presidential pets winds through the peculiar. President Calvin Coolidge and first lady Grace took their raccoon Rebecca out for evening walks. While some presidents turned the White House lawn over to grazing, Theodore Roosevelt made it a veritable zoo. You will find the Rough Rider’s saddle and crop here and a taxidermied badger gifted to Roosevelt to remind him of his live one, Josiah.

Alan Price: The menagerie was extraordinary, the one-legged rooster, a snake, the sons taking Algonquin the pony in the elevator up to their brother who had measles.

Jared Bowen: Where Teddy’s pets for Washington fodder for amusement, his distant cousin Franklin saw opportunity for politicking. His Scottish terrier, Fala, was a constant companion. Consequently, he became a public figure in his own right, a tool for humanizing the leader in turbulent times, and as a broadside to partisan sniping.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Former President of the United States: Well, of course, I don’t resent attacks, and my family don’t resent attacks. But Fala does resent attacks.

(Laughter)

Alan Price: The dog was in photographs with him everywhere. He was in the radio broadcasts. And people loved Fala, I think some people would argue the most consequential presidential dog.

Jared Bowen: If Fala was the most consequential dog, Macaroni was surely the most consequential pony. The Kennedy White House, like the Theodore Roosevelt one before it, was remarkable for both its young children and the pets that came with them.

The president kept dog treats in the Resolute Desk, fan mail poured in, and press coverage was rampant, especially regarding daughter Caroline and Macaroni.

Alan Price: Her tack, her riding gear is a gift from the king of Morocco. Whether it was at Camp David or elsewhere, she was famously photographed on it.

Mike Keiley, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell: When socks was really popular in the Clintons, there was a moment for cats that we had not seen prior. And so the influence is really incredible.

Jared Bowen: Mike Keiley leads animal protection at the KEILEY, Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals-Angell.

As presidential pets go, he says, so goes the nation. The Clintons’ cat, Socks, with all his antics and merch, led to increased adoption for black and white cats. The Obama’s dog, Bo, resulted in this likeness made from pipe cleaners gifted to the president, and in an uptick in the adoption of Portuguese water dogs.

And Keiley says animals are a softer, gentler way into presidents plagued by divisive politics.

Mike Keiley: Yes, I think it just helps us recognize that they are humans. We put them on this pedestal, but they have vulnerabilities and silliness and probably let their children name their pets to their regret. And I think it does really connect us in a way that even if we don’t agree with each other, we can agree on this and we can find common ground.

Jared Bowen: After all, even the towering, imposing Lyndon Baines Johnson, an attack dog relentless in passing the Civil Rights Act, could be reduced to a puddle by his own dog, Yuki, as we hear here.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the United States: Come on, sing for me.

(Howling)

Alan Price: A president lets out a whole other side of himself that he doesn’t even demonstrate with his kids or his family to just be silly and not think about politics. I think it’s wonderful.

Jared Bowen: If not on key.

For the “PBS News Hour,” I’m Jared Bowen in Boston.