Slant-top Desk

Following the assassination of President William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt was inaugurated on September 14, 1901, in the home of Buffalo, New York, attorney Ansley Wilcox. After a somber and subdued ceremony in the library of the Wilcox home, Roosevelt is believed to have used this desk to draft his first presidential proclamation. On the same day, Theodore Roosevelt wrote to Booker T. Washington, saying, “I must see you as soon as possible.” An uproar ensued when the two men met in October; it was the first time that an African American had been entertained by a president at the White House.