National Christmas Tree Lighting, 1932

In this photograph, taken on December 24, 1932, Vice President Charles Curtis, his wife Anna Baird Curtis, and Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas pose in front of the National Christmas Tree during the National Christmas Tree lighting ceremony on the Ellipse. This was the first year the president was not in attendance since the ceremony's induction in 1924; Vice President Curtis lit the tree on behalf of President Herbert Hoover. The ceremony also marked the first instance of the "Singing Tree" tradition, in which the sound of Christmas carols played on a Victrola in a nearby police box could be heard over loudspeakers hidden in the tree.