Resolute desk

The Resolute desk, also known as the Hayes desk, is a nineteenth-century partners' desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House Oval Office as the Oval Office desk. It 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 (590-kilogram) desk was created by William Evenden, a skilled joiner at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford. 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 two-inch tall plinth was added to the desk in 1961 and replaced in 1986.

Resolute desk
President Barack Obama sitting at the Resolute desk in 2009
DesignerWilliam Evenden (probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford)
Kneehole panel designed by Lorenzo Winslow built by Rudolph Bauss
Date1880
MaterialsOak timbers of HMS Resolute
Style / traditionPartners desk
Height32.5 in (83 cm)
Width72 in (180 cm)
Depth48 in (120 cm)

HMS Resolute was abandoned in Melville Sound 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. The Resolute was repaired and returned to England as a gesture of goodwill from the United States. After serving in the British Navy for a further 23 years as a supply vessel, the ship was decommissioned in 1879 and subsequently broken up in Chatham Dockyard in Chatham, England. A competition was held to design and build a piece of furniture that Queen Victoria could gift to the American president, built from the timbers of Resolute. Morant, Boyd, & Blanford won this contest and this desk was constructed shortly after.

The Resolute desk was moved to the second floor of the White House shortly after it was received on November 23, 1880. It stayed in the President's Office and Presidents Study on the east side of the second floor 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 both radio and television broadcasts. Jackie Kennedy rediscovered the desk languishing under electrical equipment 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, when President Lyndon Johnson allowed it to be taken 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.

Two other furniture pieces were created from the timbers of the Resolute. The widow of Henry Grinnell, a wealthy philanthropist who spent large sums of money trying to find Sir John Franklin and his ships, received a desk now known as the Grinnell Desk. Queen Victoria also had a table made from the Resolute's timbers for herself to be used on her steam powered yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert. The first replica of the Resolute desk was commissioned in 1978 for a permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts, and since then five other presidential libraries and countless other museums, libraries, tourist attractions, and private homes and offices have acquired copies of the desk.

Design and markings
H.M.S. 'Resolute', forming part of the expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852, was abandoned in Latitude 74º 41' N. Longitude 101º 22' W. on 15th May 1854. She was discovered and extricated in September 1855, in Latitude 67º 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'.

– brass plaque affixed to the desk[1]

The Resolute desk is built from oak timbers that were once part of HMS Resolute.[1] The double pedestal, partners desk is 32.5 in (83 cm) high with a workspace which is 72 in (180 cm) wide and 48 in (120 cm) deep.[2] The 1,300 pounds (590 kilograms) desk was created by skilled carver William Evenden at Chatham Dockyard in Kent, probably from a design by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford in 1880, and is decorated with carved moldings and carved floral swag designs.[3][4] There are sets of drawers behind the cabinet doors on each side of the desk pedestals.[5][6] Built at the same time as the Grinnell Desk, the two desks together cost 380 pounds (equivalent to £38,106 in 2019).[7]

A plaque, mounted on the front center drawer, explains the history of the Resolute and the meaning behind the desk.[4] This plaque was originally on the back of the desk but was moved to the front at some point.[8] The underside of all the exterior drawer fronts are stamped "MORANT BOYD & BLANFORD / 91 NEW BOND STREET" and the lock plates are stamped "BY ROYAL / LETTERS PATENT / FOUR LEVERS / SAFETY LOCK / COMYN CHINC & Co."[9]

A photo taken on January 20, 1993 by David Hume Kennerly for Getty Images shows the Resolute desk broken down into constituent parts, the tabletop and the two pedestals, while being moved into the Oval Office for Bill Clinton's redesign.[10]

Modifications
The Resolute desk before the kneehole panel was added in William Howard Taft's Presidential Study

President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the rear kneehole.[1] Roosevelt wore leg-braces and was in a wheelchair most of the time due to polio so he wanted this panel added to hide his legs from his visitors as well as to disguise a safe placed in the kneehole.[5][4] This panel was designed by White House architect Lorenzo Winslow and constructed out of hard oak by Rudolph Bauss in 1945.[4] The kneehole panel is hinged, opens up, and features a carving of the presidential seal. The carved seal depicts the eagle's head facing left, turned towards the arrows in the eagle's talon. In 1945 the presidential seal was changed by Harry S. Truman to have the eagle turned towards the olive branch in the right talon instead.[11][12]

In 1961, during the John F. Kennedy administration, a plinth was installed to elevate the knee hole.[9] This two-inch tall base added to the bottom of the desk was replaced in 1986 for the 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall president Ronald Reagan so that he could more comfortably use the desk.[13] The base fits the shape of the desk, sitting flush with the molding above it.[5]

History

HMS Resolute
A view of Resolute, Intrepid, Pioneer, and Assistance, before they left Beechey Island
A print after a drawing by George Frederick McDougall, drawn while he was a Master on the Resolute, showing the Resolute and Intrepid in their 1852-53 winter quarters at Melville Island.
An engraving after the artwork of William Simpson, of Queen Victoria visiting HMS Resolute on December 16, 1856

In May 1845 Sir John Franklin, a British explorer, launched an expedition to find the Northwest Passage. Using two of the Royal Navy's best ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, stocked with enough provisions to last three years, he charted a course through Baffin Bay. The expedition and all 129 crew members vanished.[3]

After scandalous, unfounded reports of what befell the crew began circulating, a five-ship squadron under Edward Belcher was sent from Britain in 1852 to search for the missing ships and explorer.[11][3] HMS Resolute, captained by Henry Kellett, was joined by HMS Intrepid, HMS Pioneer, HMS Assistance, and HMS North Star, all under the command of Edward Belcher, on the expedition. The North Star stayed at a supply base on Beechey Island while the remaining four ships split up to search for Franklin.[3] The Resolute was constructed explicitly as an arctic vessel with a bow covered in iron to cut through ice but became trapped in ice in April 1854. The other three search ships also became stuck soon after. Belcher decided to abandon the four ships and on May 15, 1854, Resolute was abandoned in Melville Sound.[4] The ships' crews marched across the ice to the North Star back at Beechey Island and later sailed back to England on it and two auxiliary vessels. Belcher was court-martialed for how he ran the expedition.[3]

When the ice thawed the unmanned Resolute began drifting south traveling more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometres), roughly 7 degrees latitude, where it was spotted in September 1855 in Davis Strait, off the shores of Baffin Island, by George Henry, an American whaling ship captained by James Buddington.[5][14][11][3] The whalers tried to signal the ship but four sailors boarded it after it failed to respond. They found the ship uninhabited but still stocked.[3] The ship was badly listing to its port side and was missing its topmast. It took several weeks to pump out the water from the ship and get it back to an even keel, but Buddington knew the story of the ship and knew he could likely sell it for a large sum when he returned it to dock.[4] Buddington claimed the right to salvage for HMS Resolute, and sailed it to New London, Connecticut, arriving on Christmas Eve 1855.[3]

This all happened during an especially tense time in United Kingdom–United States relations. Then President Franklin Pierce was prepared to go to war with Britain for what would be a third time.[15] In his third annual message, in 1855, Pierce discussed disputes over fishing rights and the border between British Columbia and Washington Territory as well as Britain's territorial claims in South America, which the United States claimed violated the Clayton–Bulwer Treaty.[16] Regarding the disagreement about Britain's foot hold in South America, Britain's then First Lord of the Admiralty stated that "We are fast drifting into war with the United States".[17]

Wealthy philanthropist Henry Grinnell, who had financed an earlier expedition to try to find Franklin's lost ships to no avail, suggested to the US government that the Resolute should be refit and sent back to England as a token of goodwill. As a way to help calm tensions between the two countries, a bill was introduced to Congress on June 24, 1856 to authorize the purchase and restoration of the Resolute.[4][15] The United States Government bought the ship from Buddington for $40,000 (equivalent to $1,097,571 in 2019) with plans to return it to the United Kingdom as a gift to Queen Victoria.[3][15]

On September 12, 1856 The Resolute was towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where it underwent a complete refit, repaint, and restock.[18] The ship set sail on November 13, 1856 out of New York Harbor and arrived in Portsmouth on December 12 of the same year, captained by Henry Hartstene.[3][13][18] The ship was later brought to Cowes Harbour on the Isle of Wight where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert boarded the ship and accepted it on behalf of all of Great Britain.[3] Hartstene, as part of comments about the ship, hoped, "that long after every timber in her sturdy frame shall have perished, the remembrance of the old Resolute will be cherished."[13]

The Resolute continued serving in the Royal Navy for twenty-three years as a supply vessel but never left British waters again.[19][20] The ship was decommissioned 1879 and subsequently broken up in Chatham Dockyard in Chatham, England in 1880.[3][4]

Design and construction
Image of a "Secretaire made from the timbers of the British Arctic ship Resolute" from the December 11, 1890 Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper

On June 11, 1879, a competition was launched by the Admiralty to design a piece of furniture made from the timbers of the Resolute which Queen Victoria could gift to the American president.[21][22] A January 3, 1880 article in The Builder describes the desired furniture piece as "a magnificent article of furniture, combining writing table, bookshelves &c., ... made out of the ship's timber and sent as a present to the President of the United States."[23] Six firms, including Morant, Boyd, & Blanford and Jackson & Graham, submitted competing designs with Morant, Boyd, & Blanford chosen to complete the furniture piece.[23][24] According to Kelly's London Post Office Directory of 1871, Morant, Boyd and Blandford were "interior decorators, painters, upholsterers, estate and housing managers, carvers, gilders and cabinet makers" with two locations, one at 91 New Bond Street and the other at 4-7 Woodstock Street.[25] The company was founded by George Morant and had supplied work for Thomas Lawrence, Robert Peel, and the Dukes of Sussex, Cambridge, and Sutherland. The company also exhibited at the Great Exhibition, the Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations, and the 1862 International Exhibition. Queen Victoria granted the company a Royal Warrant of Appointment in 1840 and for the rest of the century they were seen as one of the preeminent cabinet makers in England.[26]

Morant, Boyd and Blandford sent in multiple design drawings for the competition late in 1879 for various furniture pieces that could be constructed including a large combination bookcase and chimneypiece.[21] The National Maritime Museum holds the plans for a secretaire and a library table as well.[22][27] This library table design was not built but an December 11, 1880, issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper incorrectly presented an engraving of this design as the actual desk presented to the president.[4][28] The engraving was made from drawings by H. Biscoe for an earlier Scientific American article about the proposed design.[29] This early, ornate design for the desk was created on September 9, 1879 and included portraits of both Queen Victoria and President Hayes.[30][11] These portraits were paired with side panels displaying scenes of the arctic and British and American flags along with other highly ornate details and a Moroccan leather top.[11][27]

Eventually, Queen Victoria ordered that three desks be made from the timbers of Resolute, one of which is what we now know as the Resolute desk.[3] Built under orders of the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury, William Evenden was tasked with creating the desk at Chatham Dockyard.[7][31] Evenden was a skilled joiner working in the Joiner's Shop.[20] Very little is known about Evenden. In a letter from June Drake, Evenden's great, great granddaughter, to the Friends of Medway Archives in 2012, she lays out that he was born in 1828 in Rochester, Kent and worked as a Freeman of Rochester at Chatham Dockyard. Drake believes Evenden was well educated as his mother was a school mistress and his two brothers had gainfull employment; his younger brother was a master shipwright and naval architect in Devonport, Plymouth, while the other became a mining pioneer and Magistrate in Thornborough, Queensland, Australia. Drake is unsure why Evenden was chosen to build the Resolute Desk but suggests that his brother in Devonport may have suggested Evenden for the job. According to Drake, Evenden committed suicide in 1896 after "being distraught at the thought of being unemployed and maybe entering the Workhouse."[32] She surmises that is likely the reason there is not much information about him. He was buried at Chatham Cemetery, but his grave can no longer be found.[32]

Presidential desk
Jules Cambon, signing the Treaty of Paris on behalf of Spain in 1899 at the Resolute Desk during William McKinley's presidency. The daily bouquet of flowers is visible on the desk.

On August 26, 1880, Victor Drummond, the British ambassador to Washington, wrote a letter to William M. Evarts, then Secretary of State for the US, about the impending gift the president would soon be receiving of a writing table created at the direction of Queen Victoria. The letter explained that the table was to be made from the timbers of the Resolute at Chatham Dockyard. The crate containing the desk arrived in New York on November 15, 1880 by steam ship and arrived at the White House on November 23.[4] The first note written on the desk was by Hayes on the day the desk arrived at the White House to George Bancroft where he noted "It gives me great pleasure to say that I do it in the first note written on the desk made from the timbers of the Resolute sent by Queen Victoria for the President."[33][4] The desk has since been referred to by the name of the ship it was crafted from, the Resolute desk, or by the name of the president that accepted the gift, the Hayes desk.[2] On December 11, 1880, Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper ran an illustration and story about the desk praising its beauty and how it represented a major step forward in British–American relations.[13]

After receiving the desk, President Hayes placed it in the Green Room, one of the three state parlors on the first floor of the White House. It was on view here as an exhibition for tourists and visitors until Hayes ordered the desk be taken upstairs to his office on the second floor.[34] At this time the second floor of the White House acted both as the first family's living quarters as well as the President's Office, with the eastern side of the building being used for offices and the Center Hall partitioned off so that the public did not enter the first family's rooms.[35] In general the Lincoln Suite (the Lincoln Bedroom and Lincoln Sitting Room) were used as executive offices, the Treaty Room was considered the cabinet room, and the Yellow Oval Room was used as the president's library or a family parlor.[35][36] After the desk was moved to these offices by Hayes in 1880, it traveled from room to room, based on presidents' needs, for the next twenty-two years. Grover Cleveland used it in his office and library in what is now the Yellow Oval Room for both of his non-consecutive terms,[37][38] president William McKinley used the desk often in the Presidential Office and had a bouquet of flowers placed upon it every day,[39] and Theodore Roosevelt used it in the President's Room, today's Lincoln Bedroom.[40]

The desk in the Broadcast Room in 1952

The desk stayed in the President's Office until the office was moved to the newly built West Wing in 1902, during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency.[1] After the McKim, Mead, and White renovations to the White House, Edith Roosevelt moved the Resolute desk to the former cabinet room, now the Treaty Room, to create a Den, or President's Study, for her husband.[36][41] Woodrow Wilson also used the Resolute desk in this room. Wilson and his wife called the center drawer on one side of the desk "The Drawer" as it was where important communications and papers were placed if something happened between closing time the day before and that morning.[42]

Franklin D. Roosevelt turned the Yellow Oval Room into his Oval Study, where both he and Harry S. Truman used the Resolute desk.[43] While in this room President Roosevelt requested that a panel be installed in the rear kneehole, but it was not installed until 1945, after Roosevelt had died.[1]

The White House saw a major reconstruction under Harry S. Truman between 1948 and 1952 where the entire interior of the building was rebuilt.[6][1] Charles T. Haight was the interior designer in charge of the final looks for each room.[44] On June 19, 1951 Haight presented a color drawing of his design for the old kitchen, later known as the Broadcast Room and now the Office of the Curator, to Congress' Commission on Renovation of the Executive Mansion. These plans included heavy traverse draperies in dull gold, a chenille rug, a pine table and cabinet removed from the White House after the 1814 Burning of Washington, black leather sofas and chairs, small tables, two new end tables, two new coffee tables and "The large desk which was originally in the President's Study."[45] Here, in the Broadcast Room, the Resolute desk was used during both radio and television broadcasts by Dwight D. Eisenhower.[6][1]

Stanley Tretick's October 2, 1963 photo of John F. Kennedy Jr. playing in the kneehole of the Resolute desk

In 1961 John F. Kennedy was the first president to use the desk in the Oval Office.[1] The Theodore Roosevelt desk was used briefly by Kennedy in the presidential office, but Jacqueline Kennedy had it replaced by the Resolute. Mrs. Kennedy was disappointed by the interior design of the White House when she moved in stating that it "looked like it's been furnished by discount stores" and called it "that dreary Maison Blanche."[46] Kennedy's desire to update the interior was not immediately embraced by politicians. This changed with the forming of the Fine Arts Committee for the White House, later replaced by the Committee for the Preservation of the White House, in February 1961 with a stated goal of finding "authentic furniture of the date of the building of the White House and the raising of funds to purchase this furniture as gifts for the White House."[46] Mrs. Kennedy worked with the committee, including its chair Henry Francis du Pont, first White House Curator Lorraine Waxman Pearce, and interior designer Sister Parish, to find objects that were suitable for the historic building. Mrs. Kennedy physically searched the White House for valuable items hidden away. She discovered four Cézanne paintings originally intended for the White House, but on display in the National Gallery of Art, in a downstairs men's bathroom she found 100 year old busts, and after moving aside electrical equipment in the Broadcast Room she uncovered the Resolute desk.[46]

When Mrs. Kennedy discovered the desk it was covered and obscured by green baize attached to it with scotch tape. The desk was being used to prop up camera equipment when films were shown in the Broadcast Room, and the baize was apparently there to protect it from the equipment. The discovery of the desk was announced in a White House press release titled "Discovery of the Table Desk from H.M.S. Resolute" on February 6, 1961, and led to a front-page article about the desk in the New York Times the next day. The press release explains Mrs. Kennedy's choice to move the desk to the Oval Office as, "Feeling that the desk, with its connection with the sea, would perfectly compliment the naval battle scenes and the model of the Constitution which she already had secured at her husband's suggestion, Mrs. Kennedy has given the desk to the president and it was placed in his office on Saturday, Feb. 4."[47] President Kennedy was noted as being "delighted" by the return of the desk to "a place of honor in the White House."[47] Mrs. Kennedy wanted this ornate desk to be the most visible of the desks used by the president and saw a connection between her husband's love of the sea and the history of the desk.[13][48] it was moved into the Oval Office and, according to the Smithsonian Institution, the desk "gained national prominence when President Kennedy's son, John, was photographed crawling through its trap door."[49]

President Kennedy had a taping system installed in the Oval Office which was both designed and installed by Robert Bouck, a Secret Service agent, in July 1962.[50] A microphone was located in the kneehole of the Resolute desk and a button was installed under the desk for Kennedy to turn it on and off at will. A second microphone was disguised on the coffee table in the same room.[51] Kennedy was the first president to make extensive use of recording as a means to document meetings, selectively recording over 238 hours of conversation between recording systems in both the Oval Office and Cabinet Room. This system was unknown to even most of Kennedy's top aides until it was revealed during the Watergate hearings in 1973.[50]

After Kennedy's assassination, Lyndon B. Johnson did not move into the Oval Office for several days, possibly at the request of Robert Kennedy.[52] He finally did begin using the room on November 26, 1963 and had the Resolute desk replaced with the Johnson desk, the desk that he had used throughout his time in the Senate and as vice president.[53][54]

S. Dillon Ripley, Webb C. Hayes (great-grandson of President Hayes), and William Howard Taft III at a reception for the Resolute desk exhibition at the National Museum of History and Technology in 1967.

On February 12, 1964 the Resolute desk was transferred, on loan, to the Smithsonian Institution.[49] Per a September 1961 law, the White House is considered a museum and any donated items are property of the White House but cared for by the Smithsonian when not in use.[46] After being placed on loan the desk went on tour around the country between 1964 and 1965 to help raise funds for the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.[49][1] This 32,000 sq ft (3,000 m2) traveling exhibit visited 27 American cities and 15 European ones including Warsaw and Belgrade, both Communist capital cities. On the American leg of the exhibit it visited Atlantic City during the 1964 Democratic National Convention and when it visited Boston 45,000 visitors were estimated to have visited in a single day.[55][56] After this tour the desk was put on view at the Smithsonian Institution beginning in 1966.[49][1] The desk was originally displayed as an exhibit in its own right at the National Museum of History and Technology, now the National Museum of American History, with the independent exhibit opening on November 16, 1967, but it was later displayed as part of one of the five major United States Bicentennial exhibits the museum curated.[57][58] The "We the People" exhibition, which the desk was displayed in, opened on June 4, 1975 and focused on the American people and American government.[58]

Jimmy Carter returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office in 1977.[1] On the afternoon of his January 20 inauguration, Carter made his first visit as president to the Oval Office. He later said he "... sat down at the President's desk and looked it over. It was a surprise to see that it was not the same one which had been photographed when John Kennedy was there, with his little son peeping out from the door underneath. My first decision: to replace this desk with the one I remembered."[59] The next morning over breakfast he chose the Resolute desk from a set of images of desk options.[60]

Donald Trump at the Resolute desk with Vice President Mike Pence, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and Apollo 11 astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. The red Diet Coke button in a wooden box is visible on the desk.

Besides moving the Resolute desk back into the Oval Office, the Carters also established a trust fund to purchase American Art for a permanent collection in the White House. White House Curator Clement Conger noted that "The Carters really were surprisingly interested in American art and antiques... They were better informed than any president and first lady that I've known in this half century."[61] The Resolute desk has been used by every president since in this room with the exception of George H. W. Bush who used it for five months in the Oval Office before moving it to his Residence Office in the Treaty Room of the White House. Bush used the C&O desk in the Oval Office instead.[1] Bill Clinton returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office on his first day as president, January 20, 1993.[62]

In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown visited President Barack Obama and gave him the original framed commissioning papers for Resolute and an ornamental pen holder made from the timbers of the anti-slavery ship HMS Gannet.[63] Obama also found himself in a minor controversy when in 2013 he was photographed with his foot resting on the Resolute desk. Multiple other presidents have also been photographed with their feet up on the desk.[64]

A button to call aides was noted as being on the Resolute desk since at least the George W. Bush presidency.[65] This button sits in an approximately 9 in (23 cm) long by 3 in (7.6 cm) wide wooden box marked with a golden presidential seal.[66] While Barack Obama used the button to summon tea from an aide, Donald Trump used the button to request a Diet Coke, of which he drank up to 12 a day.[67][68][69] Trump stated to one reporter that "everyone thinks it is [the nuclear button]".[70] The button was not on the desk on Joe Biden's first day in office.[67]

Timeline
The Resolute desk in the Yellow Oval Room, in 1886, during the presidency of Grover Cleveland
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher reads the inscription on the front of the desk in 1979, accompanied by President Jimmy Carter
The Resolute desk in the Treaty Room in 1992 during the term of George H.W. Bush
President Barack Obama and then–Vice President (later President) Joe Biden discuss the desk with Charles, Prince of Wales and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall in 2015.

Below is a table with the location of the desk from 1880 when Queen Victoria gifted it to President Rutherford B. Hayes to the present day. Each tenant of the desk is noted as well as the location of the desk through time.

Tenant Location Dates Ref.
Rutherford B. Hayes White House Green Room 1880 [34]
Rutherford B. Hayes White House President's Office 1880–1902 [1]
James A. Garfield
Chester A. Arthur
Grover Cleveland
Benjamin Harrison
Grover Cleveland
William McKinley
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt White House President's Study 1902–1933 [1]
William Howard Taft
Woodrow Wilson
Warren G. Harding
Calvin Coolidge
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt White House Oval Study 1933–1948 [43]
Harry S. Truman
Truman Renovation of the White House 1948–1952 [1]
Harry S. Truman White House old kitchen / Broadcast Room (now Office of the Curator) 1952–1961 [1][6]
Dwight D. Eisenhower
John F. Kennedy White House Oval Office 1961–1963 [1]
John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum Traveling Exhibition 1964–1965 [1]
Smithsonian Institution display 1966–1975 [1][58]
"We the People" exhibition
National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution		 1975–1977 [1][58]
Jimmy Carter White House Oval Office 1977–1989 [1]
Ronald Reagan
George H. W. Bush
George H. W. Bush White House President's Residence Office (Treaty Room) 1989–1993 [1]
Bill Clinton White House Oval Office 1993–present [1][71]
George W. Bush
Barack Obama
Donald Trump
Joe Biden

Other Resolute desks

Queen Victoria had a total of three tables built from the timbers of HMS Resolute. The Resolute desk given to President Hayes was one of these three tables.[19] According to letters listed in Volume 40 of the Parliamentary Papers, two "memorial tables" made out of timbers from the Resolute were announced as "recently manufactured" by Robert Hall to the Lords Commissioners of the Treasury on November 18, 1880. Hall says that both tables were to be presented by the Queen with one going to the president of the United States and the other given to the widow of Henry Grinnell. Four days later, on November 22, a second letter was listed describing how the Queen has "expressed a desire to have a table manufactured out of the same timbers" and that it was subsequently made by Morant, Boyd, & Blanford for a cost of 62 pounds (equivalent to £6,217 in 2019).[7]

The desk given to Henry Grinnell's widow is now known as the Grinnell Desk.[13][72] Mr. Grinnell spent large sums of money trying to find Sir John Franklin and his ships.[13] This desk is 42.25 in (107.3 cm) high, 48 in (120 cm) wide, and 26.75 in (67.9 cm) deep. Designed and made by William Evenden in 1880, the desk has a leather covered surface, fluted legs, and a leather foot rest. An upper cabinet exists on this desk with two cupboards covered by paneled doors. The left door is carved with an anchor and the right has a lion carved in it. A balustrade sits above these cupboards and between them sits a shelf with a silver plaque.[72] The plaque attached to this desk states, "This table... is presented by the Queen of Great Brittan and Ireland to Mrs. Grinnell as a memorial to the disinterested kindness and great exertions of her late husband Mr. Henry Grinnell in assisting in the search to ascertain the fate of Captain Sir John Franklin, who perished in the Artic regions."[13] This desk was donated to the New Bedford Whaling Museum in 1983 by Peter S. Grinnell.[73]

Queen Victoria also had a table made from the Resolute's timbers for herself to be used on her steam powered yacht, HMY Victoria and Albert. This table is now part of the British Royal Collection and stored in Kensington Palace.[19] This furniture piece is 70 cm (28 in) high, 120 cm (47 in) wide, and 60 cm (24 in) deep. The rectangular side table has a plain top with a chamfered edge. The frieze contains two drawers. Both the frieze and legs have blind fretwork decorations. This table also has a brass plaque stating the Resolute "...was purchased, fitted out and sent as a gift to Her Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and people of the United States as a token of goodwill and friendship. The table was made from her timbers when she was broken up in 1880."[74]

The 1881 Parliamentary papers only list expenditures for three tables made from the Resolute, the Resolute desk, the Grinnell desk, and the table Queen Victoria had made for herself.[7] In a description of the furniture made from the Resolute at the New Bedford Whaling Museum, a docent suggests it is possible that a fourth desk was built as well.[19] Martin W. Sandler notes in his book, Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship that Lady Jane Franklin, the widow of Sir John Franklin, may have also received a desk.[13]

The National Maritime Museum, one of the four member intuitions of Royal Museums Greenwich, holds a few other objects created from the timbers of the Resolute. These include three picture frames,[75][76][77] a paper knife,[78] and a box bearing a brass plaque.[79] The museum also has a block of wood from the Resolute[80] and the ship's figurehead, which is in the shape of a polar bear.[81]

Replicas
Construction of the replica Resolute desk for the George W. Bush Presidential Center by Eli Wilner & Company
Carving the frieze
Assembling the desk structure
Carving the panels
Installation of drawers

The first replica of the Resolute desk was commissioned in 1978 for a permanent display at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in Boston, Massachusetts. To build the replica Robert C. Whitley, an American woodworker, spent three days measuring and photographing the original desk. This was done in the Oval Office while president Jimmy Carter was away in Germany. The replica desk took almost a full year to complete and is still found at the Kennedy Library.[82][83] Five other presidential libraries also display replicas of the Resolute desk. Besides the Kennedy Library, four others display the desk as part of recreation Oval Offices: the Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas,[84] the George W. Bush Presidential Center in University Park, Texas,[85] the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia,[86] and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.[87] Additionally the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center, in Fremont, Ohio, displays a reproduction of the Resolute desk in their "Presidents Gallery" exhibition.[88]

Other museums and libraries also have replica Oval Offices on display featuring the Resolute desk. These include the New-York Historical Society's recreation of Reagan's Oval Office in New York City,[89] The Presidents Hall of Fame in Clermont, Florida,[90] the Treehouse Children's Museum in Ogden, Utah,[91] the Star Spangled Center at The Magic House in Kirkwood, Missouri,[92] and the American Village Citizenship Trust in Montevallo, Alabama.[93] The George and Barbara Bush Center at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine also displays a replica Resolute desk but not in an Oval Office setting.[94]

Other tourist attractions across the United States have Oval Offices exhibits which contain replica Resolute desks. This includes American Madame Tussauds museums in Washington, D.C., Hollywood, Las Vegas, and New York.[95] The Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport has an Oval Office meeting facility featuring a smaller replica of the Resolute desk.[96]

There are a few private replica Oval Offices which display copies of the Resolute desk including the Ron Wade House in Longview, Texas,[95] and a 10,000-square-foot home in Kirtland Hills, Ohio.[97]

There are multiple permanent Oval Office sets in Hollywood, all with a replica Resolute desk. The Castle Rock set was built in 1995 for The American President and the films Nixon (1995) and Independence Day (1996) used it. The set built for the 1993 film Dave subsequently hosted over 25 films, including The Pelican Brief (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and Absolute Power (1997).[98] The replica Resolute desk from The West Wing is in the Warner Bros. Prop House where it can be seen on studio tours.[99] A replica of the desk was used in the 2007 film National Treasure: Book of Secrets, in which a secret compartment in the desk contained pieces of a clue to the location of treasure.[73]

A replica of the desk was on display during the 58th Venice Biennale as a part of Kenneth Goldsmith's exhibition HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails. Hillary Clinton sat at the replica for nearly an hour, leafing through over 60,000 of her emails that were printed out.[100]

The commercial sale of presidential furniture reproductions is a small but growing business. Companies such as New York First Co. and Victorian Replicas build or distribute replicas of the Resolute desk for commercial buyers. In a 2009 article in Woodshop News David Newton from Victorian Replicas notes that he has sold more than fifty replica Resolute desks. He states that, "Some people use them in their homes, and a large number of people who are lawyers like to have them."[101] Replicas were also on sale in 2015 through SkyMall for $5,499,[102] and in 2020 a full-scale replica of the Oval Office was put up for auction as part of Bonhams American Presidential Experience Auction for $40,000–$60,000.[103]

See also

References
  1. Treasures of the White House: "Resolute" desk. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  2. "Memo, Frank Pagnotta to Robert Hartmann" Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library. Gerald R. Ford Presidential Handwriting File, retrieved December 21, 2020
  3. From the Arctic to the Oval Office — the story of HMS Resolute. Christie's. Retrieved December 23, 2020
  4. The Presidency: Decorative Arts and Design in the White House. C-SPAN. Program ID 444985-5. 32:10 - 38:50 May 3, 2018. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  5. Oval Office Tour. C-SPAN. Program ID 282818-1. December 16, 2008. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  6. Transcript of Televised Tour of the Renovated White House with President Harry S. Truman, Walter Cronkite, Bryson Rash, and Frank Bourgholtzer. National Archives and Records Administration. 1952. Retrieved January 7, 2021.
  7. Parliamentary Papers, Volume 40. House of Commons of the United Kingdom. H.M. Stationery Office. 1882. p. 130. Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  8. Lyall, Andrew. David Lyall (1817–1895): Botanical explorer of Antarctica, New Zealand, the Arctic and North America. The Linnean. 2010. Volume 26(2). Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  9. Monkman. p. 294.
  10. Changing Of The Guard. Getty Images. January 20, 1993. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  11. Decorative Arts in the White House. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 21, 2020
  12. Matthew Costello (October 5, 2018). "A Brief History of the Presidential Seal". The White House Historical Association.
  13. Sandler, Martin W. pp. 215-219.
  14. What is the Resolute Desk and Where did it Come From?. White House Historical Association. Retrieved December 21, 2020
  15. Serratore, Angela. The presidential desk: A brief history. Curbed. November 8, 2016. Retrieved December 6, 2020.
  16. Franklin Pierce: Third Annual Message. The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  17. Leonard, Thomas M.United States–Latin American Relations, 1850–1903: Establishing a Relationship University of Alabama Press. 2014. ISBN 978-0817358235. p. 85. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  18. Sandler, Martin W. pp. 156-157.
  19. Taylor, Michael. Docent Moments. Episode 2: Grinnell Resolute Desk with Michael Taylor.. New Bedford Whaling Museum. June 2, 2020. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  20. Will Joe Biden Choose the Resolute Desk?. Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust. January 8, 2021. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  21. International Amenities: Design for a Bookcase and Chimneypiece. The Builder. April 16, 1881. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  22. Design proposal for a secretaire from the timbers of Resolute (1850). Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  23. A Piece of Furniture for the American President. The Builder. January 3, 1880. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  24. National Courtesies. The Builder. July 17, 1880. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  25. Morant & Co.; Morant and Boyd; Morant, Boyd and Morant; Morant, Boyd & Blandford (1851-1915). The British and Irish Furniture Makers Online (BIFMO) project. August 23, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  26. Butchoff: Excellence in Antiques. Butchoff. April 11, 2013. p. 10. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  27. President's Desk.Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  28. Writing Desk With a History. Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper. December 11, 1880. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  29. The Last of the Resolute. Scientific American. November 8, 1879. retrieved January 11, 2021.
  30. "President's Desk". National Maritime Museum. Retrieved February 11, 2016.
  31. Resolute desk. White House Historical Association. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  32. Drake, June.William Evenden and the Resolute Desk. The Clock Tower. Issue Number 25. Friends of Medway Archives. February 2012. pp. 11-12. Retrieved January 17, 2021.
  33. President Kennedy's Desk. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved December 21, 2020
  34. Seale, William. pp. 494, 1111.
  35. The Second Floor. White House Historical Association. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  36. Seale. p. 690.
  37. Monkman pp. 169-170.
  38. Kendall, John. American Memories: Recollections of a Hurried Run Through the United States During the Late Spring of 1896. 1896. p. 104. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  39. The President's Historic Desk. The Augustana Journal. May 16, 1898. p. 7. Retrieved January 11, 2021.
  40. Logan, Mrs. John A.Thirty Years in Washington. H. L. Baldwin Company. Minneapolis. 1901. p. 172. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  41. Morris, Edmund. Theodore Rex. Random House Publishing Group. 2010. ISBN 9780307777812. p. 176. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  42. Seale. p. 801, 812-813.
  43. The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association. 1982. ISBN 0-912308-79-6 p. 87. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  44. Clark, Alfred E. Charles T. Haight, 76, An Interior Decorator; He Redid White House. New York Times. March 7, 1980. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  45. Minutes of the Forty-Fifth Meeting of the Commission on Renovation of the Executive Mansion. Harry S. Truman Library. June 19, 1951. Retrieved January 23, 2021.
  46. Kettler, Sara. How Jacqueline Kennedy Transformed the White House and Left a Lasting Legacy. Biography. April 23, 2019. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  47. Furman, Bess. Mrs. Kennedy Finds a Historical Desk for President. New York Times. February 7, 1961. ProQuest 115257391.
  48. Mrs. Kennedy's decision to move the Resolute Desk into the Oval Office. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. March 27, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  49. Historic Desk Loaned to President Carter. Smithsonian Institution. 1977. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  50. The President's Secret Tapes. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  51. Widmer, Ted. Listening In: The Secret White House Recordings of John F. Kennedy. Hachette Books. 2012. Retrieved December 27, 2020.
  52. Ball, Moya Ann (Winter 1994). "The Phantom of the Oval Office: The John F. Kennedy Assassination's Symbolic Impact on Lyndon B. Johnson, His Key Advisers, and the Vietnam Decision-Making Process". Presidential Studies Quarterly. 24 (1): 105–119. JSTOR 27551197.
  53. "Johnson Moves Into White House's Oval Office; Also Installs Own Rocker, Pictures and Desk as Red Carpet Is Rolled Out". The New York Times. November 27, 1963. p. 16. ProQuest 116312588. Retrieved December 12, 2020.
  54. Artifacts in the Oval Office. Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  55. 1964 Traveling Exhibit: Itinerary. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. 1964-1965. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  56. Kratz, Jessie. Celebrating JFK. National Archives and Records Administration. May 26, 2017. Retrieved January 26, 2021.
  57. Opening of the Resolute Desk Exhibit, November 16, 1967. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved January 9, 2021.
  58. Smithsonian year: 1975. Smithsonian Institution. 1975. pp. 195-197. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  59. Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1982). Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President. Bantam Books. p. 24.
  60. Carter Chooses Desk Once Used by Kennedy. New York Times. January 22, 1977. ProQuest 123408717.
  61. Whitcomb, John. Whitcomb, Claire. Real Life at the White House: Two Hundred Years of Daily Life at America's Most Famous Residence. Routledge. 2002. pp. 416-417. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  62. Miscellaneous Materials and Dartmouth. Fine Arts and Furnishings: The West Wing of the White House. William J. Clinton Library. pp. 46-47. Retrieved January 18, 2021.
  63. Burkeman, Oliver (March 4, 2009). "Obama's presidential pen, holderless no more". The Guardian. Retrieved November 18, 2019.
  64. Obama and the foot-on-desk controversy. WTOP-FM. September 5, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2021.
  65. 'Yes, Mr. President': A call button for President Bush on his desk in the Oval Office. Time Magazine. April 04, 2008. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
  66. Sims, Cliff.[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Team_of_Vipers/Ych6DwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22Oval%20Office%22%20%22red%20button%22 Team of Vipers My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White House]. St. Martin's Publishing Group. 2019. ISBN 9781250223890. p. 78.
  67. Lejeune, Tristan (January 21, 2021). "Trump's Diet Coke button appears to have left Oval Office when he did". TheHill. Archived from the original on January 21, 2021. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  68. Strutner, Suzy (October 13, 2017). "Obama Used His Oval Office Red Button For Tea, According To Richard Branson". HuffPost. Archived from the original on October 3, 2018. Retrieved January 21, 2021.
  69. Haberman, Maggie; Thrush, Glenn; Baker, Peter (December 9, 2017). "Inside Trump's Hour-by-Hour Battle for Self-Preservation (Published 2017)". The New York Times.
  70. Abramson, Alana (April 27, 2017). "President Trump Presses a Button in the Oval Office to Get a Coke". Time. Archived from the original on April 30, 2017. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  71. Linskey, Annie. A look inside Biden’s Oval Office. The Philadelphia Inquirer. January 20, 2021. Retrieved January 20, 2021.
  72. Grinnell Desk. New Bedford Whaling Museum. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  73. Hollywood Blooper: “Mr. Cage, Let Us Tell You about Our Desk”. New Bedford Whaling Museum. February 6, 2009. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  74. Side table 1880-85. Royal Collection. Retrieved December 22, 2020.
  75. Photograph frame made from H.M.S. 'Resolute'. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  76. Picture frame made from H.M.S. 'Resolute'. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  77. Rear-Admiral Bedford Clapperton Tryvillion Pim. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  78. Paper knife made from H.M.S. 'Resolute'. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  79. Box made from H.M.S. 'Resolute'. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  80. Block of H.M.S. 'Resolute'. Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  81. The figurehead of a polar bear from the exploration ship HMS Resolute (1850). Royal Museums Greenwich. Retrieved January 8, 2021.
  82. Bentzley, Craig. The consummate Renaissance man: A tribute to Robert C. Whitley. Woodcraft Magazine. Issue 97. October/ November 2020. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  83. The Oval Office. John F. Kennedy Presidential Library. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  84. Oval Office. Clinton Presidential Center. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  85. About the Museum. George W. Bush Presidential Center.Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  86. The Oval Office. Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  87. Oval Office. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  88. Core Exhibits. Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  89. Meet the Presidents. New-York Historical Society. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  90. Resolute desk. The President's Hall of Fame. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  91. Exhibit Map. Treehouse Children's Museum. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  92. "3. The Star-Spangled Center at the Magic House". St. Louis Post Dispatch. March 1, 2018. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  93. American Village Oval Office Photo Gallery. American Village Citizenship Trust. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  94. George and Barbara Bush Center. University of New England Library Services. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  95. Grospierre, Nicolas. The Oval Offices. AA Files No. 70 (2015), pp. 152-158. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  96. Oval Office Meeting Facility. Rogue Valley International–Medford Airport. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  97. Sherman, Tiffani. Ohio Home With Oval Office Replica Is the Ultimate Work-From-Home Setup. Realtor.com. September 16, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  98. Lee, Linda. Oval Offices, by Way of Hollywood. New York Times. April 13, 1997. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  99. Warner Brothers’ Studio Tour – Best in Town!. Hoffy Tours. February 16, 2017. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  100. Folley, Aris. Hillary Clinton leaves through her emails for nearly an hour at resolute desk in art exhibit. The Hill. September 11, 2019. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  101. Hail to the chair. Woodshop News. January 7, 2009. Updated September 1, 2017. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  102. Drucker, Ali, 11 Of The Most Expensive Gifts To The White House. Thrillist. April 9, 2015. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
  103. Rakewell. Own your own Oval Office. Apollo. September 18, 2020. Retrieved January 1, 2021.

Works Cited

Further reading
  • Abbott James A., and Elaine M. Rice. Designing Camelot: The Kennedy White House Restoration. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1998. ISBN 0-442-02532-7.
  • Matthews, Elizabeth. HMS Resolute. Auxilium ab Alto Press: 2007. ISBN 978-0-7552-0396-3.
  • Owen, Roderic. The Fate of Franklin, Hutchinson: 1978. ISBN 0-09-131190-X.
  • Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.