Obama's Oval Office

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. Since taking office in January, Mr. Obama gradually has made the Oval Office his own.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. To varying degrees, each president puts his own imprint on this celebrated workspace. Even the smallest change - Mr. Obama's penholder, for example - is closely watched for symbolism.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. While recent presidents have each done a big overhaul upon taking office, Obama decided against major redecorating. It would have struck a sour note in a time of economic distress. But over his first year in the White House, the office has come to reflect his tastes.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. Resting on the bookshelf is a framed program from the 1963 March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. The table behind Obama's desk is full of family photos - a wedding picture, shots of his girls as toddlers, a picture from the day he announced for president and more - photos that he says remind him "why I'm doing what I'm doing."

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. Out the window, the president can watch daughters Sasha and Malia climb on the playscape erected for them last spring.

A gift from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is seen in President Barack Obama's Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009.

A bust of President Abraham Lincoln in seen in President Barack Obama's Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. California decorator Michael Smith worked with Mr. Obama on updating the look of the Oval Office.

A bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. is seen in President Barack Obama's Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. There's now a bust of King in the Oval Office, in addition to the March on Washington program that previously hung on Obama's "wall of heroes" in his Senate office.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. A big bowl of fresh apples on the coffee table, something of an Obama family tradition, has proved hugely popular with visitors, although the president still keeps M&Ms handy for kids.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. Obama has set a less formal tone for the Oval Office from his first days as president. When the White House released its first picture of him at work there, Obama was in shirt sleeves. George W. Bush, by contrast, made it a point to be in coat and tie whenever he entered the Oval Office.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. Since entering office in January, Mr. Obama gradually has made the Oval Office his own.

President Barack Obama's Oval Office at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009. "This office, I think, reminds you of what's at stake, how many hopes and dreams are placed in what goes on here at the White House," Mr. Obama said in a recent television interview with Oprah Winfrey.