Once the White House furnace room, the Diplomatic Reception Room was transformed during the 1902 Theodore Roosevelt renovation into a receiving room. It was from this room, during the Great Depression in the 1930s and through World War II, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered his famous Fireside Chats radio addresses to the American people. President Obama occasionally uses the Diplomatic Room as the site of his weekly video addresses.

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy added the wallpaper of scenic American landscapes to the room in 1962. The emblems of each of the 50 states border the room’s rug. The room is now used as a meeting place for guests before large events and as the principal entry for the First Family.