This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman the night they returned to the White House following the completion of its four-year renovation. Left to right: Charles K. Claunch, Usher; President Truman; Howell G. Crim, Chief Usher; Mrs. Truman; Alonzo Fields, Maître d'hôtel; and J. B. West, Usher. At far right, William Kelly, Project Manager, Public Buildings, and Jess Larson, General Services Administration, admire the ceremonial White House key they are about to present to the President.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows the Truman family standing in front of a Christmas tree on the North Portico of the White House. Left to right: First Lady Bess Truman, President Harry Truman, and their daughter, Margaret Truman.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows President Harry Truman, First Lady Bess Truman and daughter Margaret at Truman's second inaugural ball. Left to right: Unidentified man, Mrs. Bess Truman, Perle Mesta, President Truman, Margaret Truman, Arthur Bergman (Director of the National Guard Armory), unidentified man.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman greeting crowds outside the White House on VJ Day -- the day the Japanese surrendered and World War II unofficially ended.

This photograph shows the Truman family posing for a family portrait in the Red Room of the White House. Left to right: First Lady Bess Truman, President Harry Truman, and their daughter, Margaret Truman.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman receiving a clock and two candelabra from the French Ambassador on the occasion of the completion of White House renovations. Left to right: Bess Truman, Harry Truman, Ambassador Henri Bonnet, Madame Hellé Zervoudaki. See image number 841 for a detailed look at the clock.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows Princess Elizabeth (the future Queen Elizabeth II) of the United Kingdom presenting a mid 19th century trumeau to President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman. It was sent on behalf of her father, King George VI, to commemorate the completion of Truman's White House renovations. Left to Right: Bess Truman, President Truman, Princess Elizabeth, and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The word trumeau is taken from the French word for "the space between windows," which is a common, but not exclusive, place for this type of piece to reside. See image numbers 840 and 688 for examples of this trumeau in situ.

This photograph shows President Harry Truman, First Lady Bess Truman, and their daughter Margaret eating Christmas dinner with Mrs. Truman's family in the White House Family Dining Room. Seated around table from left end: Fred Wallace, Madge Gates Wallace, Natalie Wallace, Marion Wallace, Bess Truman, David Wallace, Christine Wallace, Frank Wallace, George Wallace, Mary Jane Truman, Harry Truman, Margaret Truman.

This photograph by Abbie Rowe of the National Park Service shows President Harry Truman and First Lady Bess Truman returning to the White House after living in Blair House during the four-year long renovation.

This is a photograph taken by National Park Service photographer Abbie Rowe of President Harry S. Truman taking the oath of office in the Cabinet Room on April 12, 1945, after the sudden death of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. First Lady Bess Truman and daughter Margaret Truman stand to Truman's right. Rowe was a prolific photographer, providing extensive coverage of the presidency from the Roosevelt through the Lyndon B. Johnson administrations.

This oil on canvas portrait of First Lady Bess Wallace Truman was painted by Martha Greta Kempton. As a child, Mrs. Truman led an active life and played a wide range of sports. She and Harry Truman met during their early childhood education, became engaged right before he left to fight in World War I, and married when he returned home. She found the lack of privacy in political life distasteful, but faithfully fulfilled the social obligations of a first lady throughout her husband's time in office, which ran from April 12, 1945 until January 20, 1953.