Image: 2021 White House Holidays Annual Christmas Ornament
This year’s White House Annual Christmas Ornament has a link to Arkansas State University-Mountain Home — 50 years in the making.
The 2021 ornament features the White House’s State Dining Room, a location that can now seat as many as 140 people. Originally, it was much smaller and has served many purposes, including as President Jefferson’s office and cabinet room.
After an extensive renovation of the White House in 1902, the State Dining Room became home to the familiar 1869 oil-on-canvas painting by George P.A. Healy, depicting a seated, contemplative Abraham Lincoln.
Image: George P.A. Healy’s oil-on-canvas portrait of President Lincoln
Because of the attraction of the portrait of Lincoln in this significant setting, presidents Nixon, Reagan and Clinton showcased aspects of the State Dining Room on their official Christmas cards or gifts.
Image: From President Nixon’s 1971 Christmas cards on display in McMullin Lecture Hall on the ASUMH campus.
A booklet accompanying the 2021 holiday ornament notes 50 years ago, President Nixon included a reproduction of Healy’s portrait of Lincoln in his series of portraits of presidents that he gave as Christmas presents to members of his White House Staff.
Image: From President Nixon’s 1971 Christmas cards on display in McMullin Lecture Hall on the ASUMH campus.
Among the recipients of the series of portraits was staff member Betty McMullin. Many in the Twin Lakes Area will recognize her name, as it graces the entrance to McMullin Lecture Hall inside Dryer Hall on the campus of ASUMH.
In addition to the Nixon administration, McMullin served in the White House while the Eisenhowers, the Kennedys and the Johnsons were occupants, for a total of 25 years. Items from all four presidents are housed in McMullin Lecture Hall, with other materials from the collection available in the college’s Normal Wood Library.
While Betty McMullin and her husband, Don, endowed the lecture hall during the development of the new campus that opened in 2000 and gifted her series of portraits to the local college, their relationship with ASUMH had an unusual start.
According to Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Ed Coulter, the relationship between the late McMullins and ASUMH officials began over a search for a new home for a blue Cadillac. Dr. Coulter says the car was Don McMullin’s pride and joy.
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Dr. Coulter notes before the campus expanded to include the Vada Sheid Community Development Center, McMullin Lecture Hall was the prime meeting location on campus for not just student and employee gatherings but for the community, the area and for folks across the state.
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Coulter says the relationship between the McMullins and ASUMH is a wonderful story of what the couple meant to the university and in return what it meant to them.
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Coulter says McMullin Lecture Hall will be here for a long time, continuing to provide opportunities for students and the community to meet.
Those future meetings will give others an opportunity to view Betty McMullin’s White House Christmas gift from President Nixon 50 years ago.
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