John F. Kennedy White House Rocking Chair

A doctor's prescription

Kennedy's back trouble traced to injuries and surgeries from World War II, and he underwent painful spinal surgery in the mid-1950s while a senator. Dr. Janet Travell, brought in to help with his treatment, had a Carolina rocker in her office: a bulky oak-frame chair with a woven seat and back. Kennedy sat in it, found it so comfortable that she suggested he buy one, and the rocker became part of his routine.

When Kennedy became president in January 1961, Travell became the first woman to serve as Physician to the President, and his rocker from the Senate Office Building went into the Oval Office. That May he aggravated his back at a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa and acquired more rockers. They went to the White House, Camp David, the family homes in Palm Beach and Hyannis Port, the hotels he used, and one found a semi-permanent spot on Air Force One.

Photographs of the president rocking while he met Vice President Lyndon Johnson and foreign heads of state made the chair famous. Kennedy told reporters it was his favorite piece of furniture, and he gave rockers to friends and supporters, the president of Mexico among them.

Arata, the upholsterer, and how many chairs there were

Lawrence J. Arata was the longtime White House upholsterer. The 2022 sale description says Kennedy asked him in 1961 to make twelve rockers, of which this is one, and that the remaining nine are held by the U.S. government or the Kennedy family and unlikely ever to be sold. It calls this one of only three known, fully documented rockers that Kennedy used.

Accounts differ on the chairs' origins. A 2006 description from the same Dallas auctioneer, written about a different Kennedy rocker, said the frames came from a North Carolina chair maker, that Kennedy bought or was given about 14 nearly identical chairs over the years, and that the presidential-era chairs are told apart by Arata's thick arm pads and seat cushion. Both accounts agree that Arata's upholstery is the mark of a White House chair.

This chair keeps its original covers, cream-colored cotton in a design and color picked by Jacqueline Kennedy, and it comes with a signed statement from Arata's widow attesting to its authenticity.

From Harriman to Portland to Dallas

Kennedy gave this rocker in 1961 to Averell Harriman (1891-1986), the Democratic elder statesman and former New York governor who served as under secretary of state for political affairs under Kennedy and Johnson and later led the American delegation at the Paris peace talks with North Vietnam in 1968-69.

After Harriman's death, the chair stayed with his widow, Pamela Harriman, later U.S. ambassador to France. She died in early 1997, and less than four months later more than 1,150 items from her estate went up for auction in New York over three days, May 19-21, 1997. Among them, as CNN reported at the time, was the rocking chair Kennedy had given her husband.

It was bought by Melvin 'Pete' Mark Jr., a Portland, Oregon, real estate developer and collector of American history whose holdings were shown in five exhibitions at the Oregon Historical Society. Mark died in June 2017 at 91. His children sold much of the collection to support Portland's history and arts.

On Saturday, May 7, 2022, the chair opened live bidding in Dallas at $57,500. A bidding war began as soon as the lot was announced, and it closed at $591,000. The more than 100 pieces from Mark's collection brought $4,913,750 that day, including a Pearl Harbor life ring at $495,000 and a Titanic letter at $275,000.

What sets this rocker apart

Kennedy rockers had sold well before. At the 1996 New York auction of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's estate, two brought $442,500 and $453,500, according to contemporary reports. A rocker from his suite at the Carlyle Hotel brought $332,500 in 1998, and one without its Arata upholstery sold for $96,000 in 2005. The Harriman chair passed them all.

Its case rests on three things a buyer can check: the Arata upholstery and Jacqueline Kennedy's cream cotton covers, still original; a documented chain from Kennedy to Harriman to Pamela Harriman's 1997 estate sale to Mark; and the signed Arata statement. It is a gift chair with a famous recipient, not an anonymous rocker from a back room.

The rocking chair presidency

Travell's prescription outlasted the man. The image of Kennedy rocking in the Oval Office helped make the rocking chair popular, and the chair became as tied to him as the stovepipe hat is to Lincoln.

Kennedy bought or was given far more rockers than he could use himself, and several have sold over the years. What separates one from another is the paper trail: where the chair stood, who received it, and whether Arata's upholstery survives. On all three counts, this chair's record is unusually complete.

The numbers

Made

1961, Lawrence J. Arata, White House upholsterer

Materials

Carolina oak, steam-bent bamboo weave, cream cotton cushion covers

Recipient

W. Averell Harriman (1891-1986)

Estate sale

Pamela Harriman estate, New York, May 19-21, 1997, more than 1,150 items

2022 sale

Opened at $57,500; realized $591,000

Timeline

1. 1955

   Kennedy undergoes spinal surgery before returning to his Senate seat; afterward Dr. Janet Travell introduces him to the Carolina rocker.

2. Jan 20, 1961

   Kennedy is inaugurated; Travell becomes Physician to the President and his Senate rocker moves to the Oval Office.

3. May 1961

   Kennedy reinjures his back at a tree planting in Ottawa and acquires more rockers.

4. 1961

   Lawrence J. Arata makes this rocker, one of twelve per the sale description; Kennedy gives it to Averell Harriman.

5. 1986

   Averell Harriman dies; the chair passes to his widow, Pamela.

6. 1996

   Two Kennedy rockers sell for $442,500 and $453,500 at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate auction.

7. May 19, 1997

   Pamela Harriman's estate, including this chair, goes to auction in New York over three days; Pete Mark buys the rocker.

8. Jun 2017

   Melvin 'Pete' Mark Jr. dies at 91.

9. May 7, 2022

   The chair opens at $57,500 and sells for $591,000 at auction in Dallas, a record for a Kennedy rocker.

The world in 1961

• Jan 20, 1961

  John F. Kennedy is sworn in as the 35th president.

• Mar 1, 1961

  Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps.

• Apr 17, 1961

  The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba begins.

• May 5, 1961

  Alan Shepard becomes the first American in space.

• May 25, 1961

  Kennedy asks Congress to commit to landing a man on the moon before the decade is out.

• Oct 1, 1961

  Roger Maris hits his 61st home run, passing Babe Ruth's record.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, John F. Kennedy White House Rocking Chair is number 86 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (83 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Kennedy first sat in a Carolina rocker in Dr. Janet Travell's office, and she later became the first woman to serve as Physician to the President.
• One Kennedy rocker spent so much time on Air Force One it had a semi-permanent place aboard.
• Jacqueline Kennedy chose the design and color of the chair's cream cotton cushion covers.
• Kennedy gave a rocker to the president of Mexico.
• The chair opened at $57,500 and sold for $591,000 within moments of a bidding war.
• Pamela Harriman, whose estate sold the chair, had been Winston Churchill's daughter-in-law.