A special permanent gallery on the New-York Historical Society’s fourth floor offers a chance to wipe the past four years clean with photographs, audio clips, objects, and a detailed re-creation of the White House Oval Office that together trace the evolution of the American presidency. The exhibition includes a replica of the Resolute Desk, presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria of England, in 1880, and used by most every president since then. Audio clips range from Lyndon B. Johnson discussing civil-rights legislation with Martin Luther King Jr. to Richard Nixon learning that The New York Times planned to publish the Pentagon Papers. There is also the actual Bible used during George Washington’s 1789 inauguration, and a 1962 student scrapbook chronicling John F. Kennedy’s leadership during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It’s the good and the bad of U.S. presidential history, minus the Trump ugliness. —J.V.