Fine Writing - Stylus Magazine

lyndon B. Johnson Presidental Pens
Below: signing of the nuclear test Ban treaty
that “one of the personalized Parker
Arrow clip ball-point pens” was found
inside the President’s desk a year after
his assassination. but both pen models
had arrow clips and both were referred
to as Jotters. my own suspicion is that
given the greater variety and numbers,
the Parker 45 Jotter was the gift pen
that found favor with JFK and came
after the standard Jotter was rejected.
neil Grauer also writes that the pen
found in JFK’s desk had a presidential
seal on it. If that report is correct then
that pen represents another otherwise
unseen Parker gift-pen variety, but I
tend to suspect that Grauer, a writer
and not a collector, simply erred in his
description.
special Occasion Pens
beyond bill signers and general gift
pens, there are also Presidential Pens
for special occasions. one such pen for
JFK was for celebrating his first birthday
in office. It is a silver capped, black
barreled Fischer, engraved on five lines
in white, “President Kennedy’s / birthday
Dinner / beverly Hilton Hotel /
beverly Hills / may 22, 1961.
related Pens
closely related to specially imprinted
Presidential Pens are similar pens for
the vice President, White House staff
and the president’s family.
vice President Johnson loved to
give away pens and, in contrast with
President Kennedy, was a prolific giver,
distributing literally thousands in his
travels throughout the world. His vice
Presidential pen was a U.S. Pencil co.
ball pen first supplied in five different
colors but then in two successive reorders
only in four different colors with
the imprint language changing for
each reorder. Given the large number
of these pens and his general exclusion
from camelot, vP LbJ pens are
usually found for less than $50.
the personal secretaries for both
President Kennedy and First Lady
Jackie Kennedy had pens, although al-
P r e s i d e n t a l P e n s
most certainly personal gifts to them
rather than for “give aways” from
them. mary Gallagher, Jackie’s secretary,
had the nicer Silvercraft ball pen
and pencil set with her name cutout
in the sterling wrap over red Parker
Jotters, matching the First Lady’s
similar set. but evelyn Lincoln, the
President’s secretary, had the more
interesting, gold-tone ready riter
ball points, one imprinted with her
name and the other with that of her
husband. they are of particular interest
because they are the first White
House appearance of a pen that became
the inexpensive Presidential gift and
office pen for the next thirty years,
for every President from LbJ through
George H.W. bush. Apparently there
was more than one pen company during
the Kennedy Administration trying
to gain the imprimatur of being a Presidential
Pen supplier.
typically least valuable, President
Kennedy’s specially imprinted family
pens are hardly so. Apparently, when
JFK took office, Silvercraft gifted ted
Kennedy (and maybe even robert
Kennedy) with Parker ball pen(s),
with a sterling overlay “edward m
Kennedy” cutout, and the First Lady
received a Silvercraft turquoise Parker
Jotter ball pen and pencil set with a
sterling overlay “Jacqueline Kennedy”
cutout. At the Hantsman auction
those pens sold respectively for
$360 and $1,800. And following their
respective elections as United States
Senators in 1962 and 1965, Silvercraft
supplied the brothers with Silvercraft
“Senator” Parker ball pens as it had
for JFK.
coming full circle, following the
1968 assassination of robert Kennedy,
Silvercraft made up fifty memorial
gifts sets consisting of replicas of
its “Senator John F. Kennedy”, [President]
“John F. Kennedy”, “Senator
edward m. Kennedy” and “Senator
robert F. Kennedy” ball pens each on
s t y lu s october/november 2003 75