Richard Nixon, the everyman
In
1969, friends of Richard Nixon paid for and had a two
lane bowling alley installed in the lower level of
the Executive Office Building. Nixon was an avid
bowler and spent quite a bit of time at this bowling
alley over the next five years. He had been known to
bowl up to twenty games without a break.
Ollie Atkins was the official White House
photographer and snapped this photo in 1970. Later
that year, Nixon's White House staff used this photo
to demonstrate that Nixon was not out of touch with
the average citizen, and in fact was just like any
other citizen.
It later achieved iconic status because of a single
scene from the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski".
There is a tremendous amount of public domain imagery
available from the US Government, some of it
noteworthy and historically significant. Some of it
kitschy. Since it was paid for with tax dollars, it
really is owned by the public.