The decorative¹ china plates are long gone. Historic metal gadgets² and Native American pottery³ now stand in their stead. Resting on a bookshelf is a framed program from the 1963 March on Washington, where civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech.

瓷盘装饰品早就不见踪影，取而代之的是具有历史纪念意义的金属器件和印第安陶器。书架上摆放着1963年“华盛顿游行”活动计划的相框，就在这次活动中，民权运动领袖马丁•路德•金发表了著名的演讲《我有一个梦想》。

President Barack Obama's Oval Office is seen at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009.

President Barack Obama gradually has made the Oval Office总统办公室 his own.

To varying degrees, each president puts his own imprint⁴ on this celebrated著名的，有名望的 workspace. Even the smallest change - Obama's penholder笔架, for example - is closely watched for symbolism.

While recent presidents have each done a big overhaul详细检查 upon taking office, Obama decided⁷ against major redecorating. It would have struck a sour酸臭的，讨厌的 note in a time of economic distress⁸. But over his first year in the White House, the office has come to reflect his tastes.

The table behind Obama's desk is full of family photos - a wedding picture, shots of his girls as toddlers初学走路的孩子, 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." Out the window, the president can watch daughters Sasha and Malia climb on the playscape erected⁹ for them last spring.

There's now a bust¹⁰半身像 of King in the Oval Office, in addition to the March on Washington program that previously¹¹ hung on Obama's "wall of heroes" in his Senate office.

"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," Obama said in a recent television interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

Perhaps no room in the White House is more closely associated with the presidency¹².

It is where Obama signs letters to the families of fallen soldiers. Where he told his war council of his decision to ship thousands more troops to Afghanistan. Where he receives daily briefings on the security threats facing the nation and on the state of the economy.

As Obama on updating the look of the Oval Office, in came four pieces of pottery陶器 by contemporary当代的 Native American artists, all on loan from the National Museum of the American Indian. Also new to the Obama bookshelves are three mechanical devices on loan from the National Museum of American History's patent collection: models for Samuel Morse's 1849 telegraph register, John Peer's 1874 gear-cutting machine and Henry Williams' 1877 feathering paddlewheel浆轮 for steamboats.

White House curator William Allman said the patent models fit Obama's personality - his "interest in American history, his interest in technology and his interest in the creative spirit."