While Pope Francis travels around the US this week, I was reminded of a previous visit from the papal office. In October of 1965, Pope Paul VI visited the U.S. to address the United Nations in New York City. While he was there, President Lyndon Johnson traveled to NYC to call upon the pope at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

Shown in the photo, left to right: Mrs. Lyndon Johnson (Ladybird); Luci Johnson, daughter of the Johnsons; unknown official; Pope Paul VI; President Lyndon Johnson. Photograph courtesy LBJ Presidential Library, Austin, Texas.

Before the visit, the White House Staff called the David Findlay Galleries in NYC. The Findlay Galleries was known for representing works of great 19th-century American artists like Frederic Remington, George Caleb Bingham and Charles Russell. Those in Fort Worth might be familiar with one of the most famous Western paintings, Remington’s A Dash for the Timber, which was acquired through the Findlay Galleries. The White House Staff reached out to Mr. Findlay to request the loan of some appropriately beautiful paintings to be placed in the meeting room as a backdrop for the meeting between the pope and the president. David Findlay, Sr., lent them Frederic Remington’s The Love Call, seen to the right of President Johnson.

Frederic Remington | The Love Call | 1909 | Oil on canvas | 31 x 28 inches

Today, The Love Call sits prominently on display among the Sid Richardson Museum’s collection of Remington’s nocturnes.