ABSTRACT
Cecil Stoughton was the first official White House photographer. President Kennedy wanted someone to visually record his activities for history and use pictures to expand on his popularity as a political celebrity. Stoughton arrived at the White House in early 1961, after he was recommended by Major General Chester Clifton, Kennedy's military aide. Journalist Richard Reeves, referring to Kennedy's cultivation of an image of glamor and grace under pressure, wrote: "Kennedy seemed to be bringing out the best in the American people. Perhaps he was just the end of an old America, but he wanted to be seen as the beginning of the new-and photographs were the record of that ambition". Stoughton discovered a PR gold mine when he realized that John Kennedy Jr., the president's young son, had found a door on the front of his father's desk in the Oval Office.
