White House List of Attendees for the Ceremony Formally Admitting Alaska as the 49th State (1959)

Date: January 3, 1957

Created By: No Author

Original or Replica: Original

Era: The Presidency, Alaska & Hawaii Statehood

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: DDE’s Records as President, Official File, Box 630, OF 147-D Alaska (5); NAID #12012416

This White House document identifies the individuals scheduled to attend the January 3, 1959 ceremony formally admitting Alaska as the 49th state. During the ceremony, President Dwight D. Eisenhower was to sign both the proclamation admitting Alaska into the Union and the executive order establishing a new design for the American flag. The guest list demonstrates the national and Alaskan representation present for the historic occasion.

Attendees included Vice President Richard Nixon, Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Secretary of the Interior Fred Seaton, and several prominent Alaskans, including senators-elect E. L. Bartlett and Ernest Gruening, congressman-elect Ralph Rivers, acting governor Waino Hendrickson, and former governor Michael Stepovich. Officials associated with the design of the new flag were also invited. A memorandum attached to the document records that Eisenhower used twelve pens to sign the proclamation and executive order in the Cabinet Room. He personally presented nine pens to individuals on the list, while the remaining three were distributed afterward. The document provides a behind-the-scenes view of the ceremonial details surrounding Alaska’s formal admission and the creation of the 49-star American flag.