It started with a BlackBerry—that now-defunct wireless device and precursor to present-day smartphones. Photographer and author Peter Adams was interested in how consumer products influence politics, and kept returning to the “BarackBerry,” the vintage silver BlackBerry that President Barack Obama had used during his administration, which was modified for security reasons. How, Adams thought, can I locate and photograph that phone?
As his idea grew into a yearslong project, Adams paid visits to, and photographed presidential ephemera from, the Presidential Libraries operated by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The result is the upcoming POTUS: Icons, Artifacts, and History That Shaped the American Presidency (Abrams). The following pages contain just a few of the book’s most memorable images, from the sobering (the safety plug, kept by Truman, for the “Fat Man” atomic bomb) to the propagandistic (a Hoover campaign light bulb) to the touching (pleas for help written on pieces of lumber sent to the Carter White House during the runaway inflation of the late 1970s).
For some, these artifacts will cue a memory; for many others, they’re a window into a time they may have read or heard about but didn’t witness firsthand. Taken together, the objects are a record of the collective American experience—the type of experience that, thanks to our fragmented political and media ecosystems, we’re increasingly missing out on in the twenty-first century.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON
Television Remote Control
President Johnson used this remote to control the three television sets he installed in the Oval Office, one for each network: ABC, CBS, and NBC.
JOHN F. KENNEDY
Map of Soviet Missile Ranges From Cuba
During the first day of crisis deliberations on October 16, 1962, the CIA briefed President Kennedy with maps like this to illustrate the potential reach of Soviet medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles installed in Cuba.
WILLIAM J. CLINTON
Painted Toilet Seat (Saddam Hussein)
President Clinton received this gift in the late 1990s, as U.S.-Iraq tensions lingered after the Gulf War amid provocations and multiple weapons-inspection crises. Using bathroom humor to lampoon Iraq’s dictator, it turns an everyday object into pointed political satire.
HARRY S. TRUMAN
Safety Plug for “Fat Man” Atomic Bomb
This plug prevented accidental arming of the plutonium bomb nicknamed Fat Man en route to its target in Japan.
GEORGE H.W. BUSH
Chemical Protective Mask
After Iraq’s battlefield use of nerve agents in the Iran-Iraq War, coalition forces trained and fought in the gulf with chemical defense gear at the ready.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER
Campaign Women’s Gloves, “I Like Ike”
President Eisenhower’s 6.6 million-vote margin of victory was thanks in large part to women. Just 32 years afer gaining the right to vote, women made up more than half the electorate in 1952, and nearly 17.6 million of them voted for Eisenhower.
HERBERT HOOVER
Campaign Light Bulb
This novelty bulb, circa 1928, married campaign publicity to the modernity of electric light. Bearing President Hoover’s initials and the GOP elephant, the keepsake advertised Hoover’s technocratic image and Republican Party loyalty.
RICHARD NIXON
Lockpicks
These simple wrenches were part of the lockpick set seized by police after the arrest of five burglars inside the Democratic National Committee’s Watergate headquarters.
GERALD FORD
Gun Holster
Federal officers seized this holster from the residence of Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme after she attempted to assassinate President Ford in Sacramento, California, in September 1975.
RONALD REAGAN
Jelly Bean Jar
Jelly beans became a popular symbol of President Reagan’s lighthearted persona. He began eating them in the 1960s while giving up pipe smoking, and the habit stayed with him into the White House. Jars of the candy appeared on his desk in the Oval Office, in the Cabinet Room, and even aboard Air Force One. His fondness for the treat soon became part of his public image. Admirers sent handcrafted jars like this one, which he received in 1981.
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT
Lucky Campaign Hat
President Roosevelt wore this fedora for luck during all four of his presidential campaigns.
GEORGE W. BUSH
Butterfly Ballot
Used in Palm Beach County, Florida, during the 2000 presidential election, this Votomatic voting machine featured a “butterfly” ballot layout that placed candidate names on facing pages but offered only a single center column of punch holes. This confusing interface led to frequent “wrong-hole” punches and the now-infamous “hanging,” “dimpled,” and “pregnant” ballot chads—errors that many observers concluded inadvertently diverted thousands of votes to Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. The resulting controversy over voter intent prompted Palm Beach County to abandon the layout and led the United States to retire most punch card systems under the Help America Vote Act of 2002.
BARACK OBAMA
Desk Plaque, “Hard Things Are Hard”
During the contentious effort to pass the Affordable Care Act, senior adviser David Axelrod ordered President Obama a moment of perspective, remarking that “hard things are hard.” Axelrod later commissioned this small plaque bearing the phrase and presented it in 2011 to the president, who displayed it on the Resolute Desk for the remainder of his time in office.
Excerpted from the new book POTUS: Icons, Artifacts, and History That Shaped the American Presidency by Peter Adams. Published by Abrams.
© 2026 Peter Adams. Used by permission of Abrams Books, an imprint of Harry N. Abrams Inc., New York. All rights reserved.
