The WWII years
This double pedestal partners' desk, usually called the "Resolute desk", was made from the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes from Queen Victoria in 1880. It has been used by every president since Hayes, excepting Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, 1964-1977.
It was used in the President's Office on the Second Floor of the Residence from 1880 until 1902, at which time the office was moved to the newly constructed West Wing. This desk remained, however, on the Second Floor of the Residence in the President's Study. The oval room, or yellow room, as it is often referred, to is in the private quarters of the White House.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the rear kneehole be fitted with a panel carved with the presidential coat-of-arms, but he did not live to see it installed in 1945.
After the Truman Renovation of the White House, 1948-1952, it was placed in the Broadcast Room on the Ground floor where it was used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during radio and television broadcasts.
It was first used in the Oval Office in 1961, at the request of President John F. Kennedy.
After President Lyndon B. Johnson selected another desk for his office, the desk was loaned to a Kennedy Library traveling exhibition from 1964-1965, and then to the Smithsonian Institution for another exhibition from 1966-1977.
In January 1977, President Jimmy Carter requested that this historic desk be returned to the White House for use in the Oval Office. In 1981, President Ronald W. Reagan also chose to use this desk in the Oval Office.
The WWII Years
Replica displayed at the Reagan Library during a World War II exhibit
PLAQUE ON RESOLUTE DESKH.M.S. Resolute, forming part of the expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852, was abandoned in Latitude 74 41 N. Longitude 101 22 W. on 15th May 1854. She was discovered and extricated in September 1855, in Latitude 67 N. by Captain Buddington of the United States Whaler George Henry. The ship was purchased, fitted out and sent to England, as a gift to Her Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and People of the United States, as a token of goodwill & friendship. This table was made from her timbers when she was broken up, and is presented by the Queen of Great Britain & Ireland, to the President of the United States, as a memorial of the courtesy and loving kindness which dictated the offer of the gift of the Resolute.
Resolute Desk
WIKIPEDIAThe Resolute Desk
AKA Hayes Desk
nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk, including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 and was built from the oak timbers of the British Arctic exploration ship HMS Resolute. The 1,300-pound desk was created by William Evenden.HMS Resolute was abandoned in the Arctic waterway Tariyunnuaq in 1854 while searching for Sir John Franklin and his lost expedition. It was found in 1855 floating in Davis Strait by George Henry, an American whaling ship. Resolute was repaired and returned to the United Kingdom as a gesture of goodwill from the United States. The ship was decommissioned in 1879, broken up, and a competition was held to design and build a piece of furniture from its timbers that Queen Victoria could give to the American president. Morant, Boyd, & Blanford won this contest, and this desk was constructed shortly after.
The Resolute desk was received at the White House on November 23, 1880, and shortly thereafter was moved to the second floor. It stayed in the President's Office and President's Study until the White House Reconstruction from 1948 to 1952. After the reconstruction, it was placed in the Broadcast Room where Dwight D. Eisenhower used it during radio and television broadcasts. Jackie Kennedy rediscovered the desk and had it brought to the Oval Office in 1961. The desk was removed from the White House after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and went on a traveling exhibition with artifacts of the Kennedy Presidential Library. It was then put on display in the Smithsonian Institution. President Jimmy Carter brought the desk back to the Oval Office in 1977, where it has remained since, save that George H. W. Bush used the C&O desk in the Oval Office but kept the Resolute desk in the White House.
The desk has been modified twice. Franklin Roosevelt requested the addition of a door with the presidential seal to conceal his leg braces and a safe, but it was not installed until 1945, after his death. A 2-inch-tall (5.1 cm) plinth was added to the desk in 1961 and replaced in 1986.