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LBJ Document cited in RAIN 07/14



Recently an article was cited on the listserv which contained a passage about a collector who had a document signed by President Johnson on Air Force One on November 22, 1963, following the assassination of President Kennedy and the flight from Dallas to Washington, D. C.  The article said that the document was "Johnson's official acceptance of the presidential office."  The posting on the listserv asked if anyone at the Johnson Library knew about the item and asked if it was an official record belonging to the government.

The Johnson Library is unaware of any document that LBJ would have signed to officially accept the office of the presidency.  There was an item that was auctioned in 1991 which came with a letter of authenticity from Congressman Seymour Halpern of New York that may be the item cited in the article. 

The item was listed in a manuscript catalog for a Superior Galleries' Manuscript Auction on October 15, 1991, with the following description: "NEWLY SWORN IN PRESIDENT LYNDON B. JOHNSON SIGNS A TRANSCRIPT OF HIS OATH OF OFFICE ON AIR FORCE ONE STATIONARY, ACQUIRED BY REPRESENTATIVE SEYMOUR HALPERN, WITH HIS LETTER OF PROVENANCE DETAILING HIS ACQUISITION - WHICH MAY BE THE FIRST DOCUMENT JOHNSON SIGNED AS PRESIDENT".  Following this is a description saying that Halpern boarded Air Force One when it returned from Dallas and landed in Washington.  He asked a member of the President's staff to type the oath of office on Air Force One stationery.  Halpern then "brought the piece to the President and had him sign it in his presence."   The estimated value of the item was $25,000-35,000.

The LBJ Library staff has checked the President's Daily Diary to see if Halpern was listed on November 22, 1963. The Diary is not detailed enough to establish whether he was there.  Although Congressional leaders met LBJ at Andrews, the Diary does not say they boarded Air Force One.  According to the William Manchester book, The Death of a President, the plane landed at 6:00 p.m. and LBJ made his TV statement at 6:14 p.m. - not much time to type and sign documents.  The Diary Cards show that Halpern was aboard Air Force One on several other occasions.

If this is the document cited in the article, it would not be a federal record or part of the personal papers of Lyndon Johnson.

Claudia Anderson
Archivist, LBJ Library

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