Map Room and Map Case, Nixon Administration
This photograph was taken in the Map Room on August 1973 during the administration of President Richard M. Nixon. A framed 1755 map of Maryland and Virginia by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson, father of President Thomas Jefferson, is ajar to reveal a hidden map case behind it. The Map Room is located on the Ground Floor of the Executive Mansion and got its name during the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration, when the space was used to monitor and intake classified information during World War II as a predecessor to the Situation Room. In 1970, First Lady Pat Nixon worked with curator Clement E. Conger to transform the Map Room from an office space to a sitting parlor, with maps adorning its wall in homage to its former use.