Future to the older ones

1. Lincoln Dashes Into the Future

Even though telegram technology emerged in the mid-1840s, it wasn’t until the Civil War that Abraham Lincoln pioneered government use of the messages. Under Lincoln’s leadership, the War Department housed a telegraph room that would become an early Situation Room during important battles. (Before this development, government officials had been forced to use public telegram offices to send messages.) In 1866, the offices of the White House were remodeled, and with the makeover Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, moved the telegraph room into the White House. Johnson made sure to have it right next to his office, so urgent messages could be relayed quickly.


2.

Rutherford B. Hayes had the first telephone installed in the White House telegraph room. Telephone use was still limited, so Hayes couldn’t call up just anyone—there were so few phones that it was only used for calling the Treasury. In fact, in order to reach the White House, all Treasury officials had to do was dial “1.”
Some sources have characterized Hayes as being unreceptive to the new technology, with the president reportedly saying “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?” Historians dispute that claim, citing The Providence Journal’s detailed account of Hayes’ first phone conversation, a chat with Alexander Graham Bell himself.

And makes scribes’ lives easier

Hayes was more than just a phone pioneer. Few technologies would have such immediate effect on the workflow of the Oval Office as the arrival of the typewriter during his term. In 1880, a Fairbanks & Company Improved Number Two Typewriter eliminated the need for clerks to write all presidential memos by hand.

President Hayes may have gotten the first phone, but it took over five decades for the president to get a little privacy. It took until 1929 for the Oval Office to receive its own direct line. Herbert Hoover must have gotten tired of walking to the foyer, so he had it routed directly to his desk.


3.

In 1922, Warren G. Harding ordered the White House’s first radio. It sat in his study on the second floor. On top of listening to the radio, Harding was the first president to have his voice broadcast across the airwaves during a dedication of a memorial site to Francis Scott Key on June 14, 1922.
When Hoover took office seven years later, he had 13 more radios installed, presumably so he could listen in every room. Radio broadcasting became a presidential staple with Franklin D. Roosevelt, who in 1933 gave the first of his famous "fireside chats."