The inauguration began before January 20
The public story of the inauguration unfolded across several days. On January 17, Obama traveled by train from Philadelphia through Wilmington and Baltimore to Washington, deliberately invoking the rail journey Abraham Lincoln made before his 1861 inauguration. A free concert at the Lincoln Memorial followed on January 18, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 19 was organized around community service.
These events established the themes that the formal ceremony would carry forward: democratic continuity, national service, pluralism, and renewal during crisis. They also widened the inauguration beyond the ticketed Capitol platform, presenting it as a civic gathering in which people could participate from the Mall, their communities, or their homes.
- January 17 · Whistle-stop journey to Washington
- January 18 · “We Are One” concert at the Lincoln Memorial
- January 19 · Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service
- January 20 · Oath, address, luncheon, parade, and official balls
Why the setting and theme mattered
The Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies selected “A New Birth of Freedom,” a phrase from the Gettysburg Address, as the official theme. The inauguration coincided with the bicentennial year of Lincoln’s birth, and the West Front platform faced across the National Mall toward the Lincoln Memorial.
Obama’s election as the first African American president gave the transfer of power a meaning inseparable from the history of slavery, emancipation, segregation, and the civil-rights movement. The ceremony did not complete that history; it became a highly visible moment within it. The archive treats the symbolism and the governing record that followed as related but distinct subjects.
The ceremonial sequence
The Congressional Record preserves the official order of proceedings, including the assembly of federal officials and former officeholders, the invocations, music, oaths, address, poem, benediction, and national anthem. The sequence below follows that record and the Joint Congressional Committee’s program rather than later recollection.
The platform assembles
Members of Congress, governors, the diplomatic corps, former presidents and vice presidents, the Supreme Court, and the outgoing and incoming presidential parties take their places.
The formal ceremony opens
Senator Dianne Feinstein calls the ceremony to order. The Reverend Rick Warren delivers the invocation, followed by Aretha Franklin singing “My Country, ’Tis of Thee.”
The vice-presidential oath
Associate Justice John Paul Stevens administers the oath to Joseph R. Biden Jr.; Jill Biden holds the Biden family Bible.
The presidential oath
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. administers the constitutional oath to Barack Obama while Michelle Obama holds the Lincoln Bible.
Address, poem, and benediction
Obama delivers the inaugural address. Elizabeth Alexander reads “Praise Song for the Day,” the Reverend Joseph Lowery offers the benediction, and the U.S. Navy Band performs the national anthem.
Luncheon and pass in review
Congressional leaders host approximately 200 guests in National Statuary Hall. The new president and vice president then review the armed forces from the Capitol’s East Front.
Parade and inaugural balls
The presidential party proceeds along Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. The official celebration continues at ten inaugural balls.
The oath and the Lincoln Bible
Michelle Obama held the small, burgundy velvet Bible used when Abraham Lincoln took office on March 4, 1861. The Library of Congress lent it for the ceremony; the volume had entered the Library’s collections in 1928 through Mary Harlan Lincoln, the widow of Lincoln’s son Robert Todd Lincoln.
During the public oath, Chief Justice Roberts and Obama placed the word “faithfully” differently from the sequence printed in Article II of the Constitution. White House Counsel Greg Craig said the oath had been administered effectively. Because the oath appears in the Constitution and one word had been out of sequence, Roberts administered it again in the White House Map Room on January 21 “out of an abundance of caution.”
Music, prayer, poetry, and the address
The program placed constitutional ritual beside religious observance and American cultural performance. Aretha Franklin’s appearance connected the platform to gospel, soul, civil rights, and popular culture. “Air and Simple Gifts,” composed and arranged for the occasion by John Williams, was performed by Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, and Anthony McGill.
Obama’s address named recession, war, expensive health care, energy dependence, and weakened confidence as a collective crisis. It resisted presenting the election itself as the solution. Instead, the speech argued that institutions had to work, public officials had to be accountable, and citizens had to accept obligations to one another.
- Invocation · The Reverend Rick Warren
- Musical selection · Aretha Franklin
- Instrumental performance · Perlman, Ma, Montero, and McGill
- Poem · Elizabeth Alexander
- Benediction · The Reverend Joseph Lowery
A mass public event and a military tradition
The Mall became an immense viewing space for people without seats at the Capitol. The scale changed how Washington moved: road closures, security zones, pedestrian routes, temporary facilities, and record transit demand turned the city itself into part of the historical record. The regional after-action report recorded approximately 1,120,000 Metrorail trips, 423,000 bus trips, and 1,721 MetroAccess trips: 1,544,721 trips across the three services, then Metro’s highest daily ridership total.
The inauguration was also a military ceremonial operation under civilian authority. Service members supported the oath ceremony, pass in review, parade, communications, transportation, and security. The Army reported that approximately 17,500 service members participated in support roles across events that continued into the ten official balls.
Luncheon, parade, and the evening
After the address, congressional leaders hosted the president, vice president, their families, Supreme Court justices, Cabinet designees, and congressional leaders in National Statuary Hall. The luncheon program connected the meal and its featured painting—Thomas Hill’s 1865 “View of the Yosemite Valley”—to the inaugural theme of renewal after national conflict.
Following the pass in review, the inaugural parade moved from the Capitol to the White House. Barack and Michelle Obama left their vehicle and walked portions of Pennsylvania Avenue. That evening they attended ten official balls; at the Neighborhood Inaugural Ball, Beyoncé performed “At Last” for their first dance.
How the day survives in the archives
No single document contains the entire inauguration. The Congressional Record preserves the spoken proceedings; the Joint Congressional Committee preserves the program and luncheon; the Library of Congress documents the Lincoln Bible; and the archived White House preserves the address and counsel’s statement about the repeated oath.
The photographic record is unusually extensive. A National Archives finding aid describes 5,033 assets covering the inauguration and related balls, including 4,841 photographs in the January 20 inauguration series. Thousands are released in full and available to researchers under the Presidential Records Act and Freedom of Information Act review process.
- Begin with the official program to understand sequence
- Use the Congressional Record for the proceedings as entered into the legislative record
- Compare transcripts with photographs and video
- Distinguish records created during the event from later interpretation
Evidence: Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5, Source 6