Since the construction of the Oval Office in 1909, there have been six different desks used in the office by the president of the United States.[1] The desk usually sits in front of the south wall of the Oval Office, which is composed of three large windows, has an executive chair behind, and has chairs for advisors placed to either side or in front.[2] Each president uses the Oval Office, and the desk in it, differently. It is widely used ceremonially for photo opportunities and press announcements. Some presidents, such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, used the desk in this room only for these ceremonial purposes, while others, including Richard Nixon used it as their main workspace.[3]
The first desk used in the Oval Office was the Theodore Roosevelt desk. The desk currently in use by Joe Biden is the Resolute desk. Of the six desks that have occupied the Oval Office, the Resolute has spent the longest time in the room, having been used by eight presidents. The Resolute has been used by John F. Kennedy and by all U.S. presidents since 1977 with the exception of George H. W. Bush. Bush used the C&O desk for his one term, making it the shortest-serving desk to date. Other past presidents have used the Hoover desk, the Johnson desk, and the Wilson desk.[1]
The process for choosing a desk is not standardized and different presidents chose desks for different reasons. A few presidents have made public through interviews or papers in their presidential libraries how their choice was made. A 1974 memo explaining the desk options Gerald Ford could choose from is held at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library,[4]Jimmy Carter wrote about choosing a desk as his first official presidential decision in his memoir Keeping Faith: Memoirs of a President,[5] and in an interview with Chris Wallace, Donald Trump described that there are seven desks to choose from and that he chose the Resolute desk due to its history and beauty.[6]
The first Oval Office was constructed as part of the expansion of the West Wing to the White House in 1909 under president William Howard Taft.[7] The room was designed by Nathan C. Wyeth who chose the Charles Follen McKim designed Theodore Roosevelt desk, which was first used by Theodore Roosevelt in the previous executive office, for the new office space.[8] This desk remained in use by subsequent presidents until, on December 24, 1929, a fire severely damaged the West Wing during President Herbert Hoover's administration.[9][10]
Hoover reconstructed the part of the White House affected, including the Oval Office, reopening them in 1930.[9] With the repair, Hoover was gifted a suite of 17 furniture pieces including a new desk, known as the Hoover desk, by an association of Grand Rapids, Michigan furniture-makers.[11] This new desk was used for the rest of Hoover's term in office and by Franklin D. Roosevelt for his presidency.[12] Roosevelt had the West Wing expanded during his time in office including the construction of a new Oval Office.[13] After Roosevelt died in office, the Hoover desk was given to his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Theodore Roosevelt desk was brought back to the newly rebuilt Oval Office in 1945 by then president Harry S. Truman and subsequently used by Dwight Eisenhower.[12][4]
John F. Kennedy briefly used the Theodore Roosevelt desk before it was switched out in 1961 for the Resolute desk. Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy's wife, thought the more ornately carved Resolute desk should be the most visible presidential desk.[14][15]
Jimmy Carter returned the Resolute desk to the Oval Office in 1977.[20] The desk has since been used in that room by every president other than George H. W. Bush who elected to go with the C&O desk, the desk he had used as vice president.[21]Doro Bush Koch, one of George Bush's children, suggests Bush's choice to use his vice presidential desk may have been due to a perceived tradition of vice presidents that ascend to the presidency using their vice presidential desks.[22] The C&O Desk remained as part of the White House collection after Bush left office, according to Jay Patton, the supervisory curator of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.[23]Joe Biden, the next vice president to become president, did not follow this perceived tradition and continued using the Resolute desk.[24] Biden would have preferred to use the Hoover desk previously used by Franklin Roosevelt, but it could not be relocated from Roosevelt's presidential library in Hyde Park, New York.[25]
The desks
Below is a table noting each of the six desks ever used in the Oval Office, including the name they are most commonly known by, the presidents that used the desk, a description, and the desk's current location.[note 1]
This desk was created in 1903 for then President Theodore Roosevelt. It was first used in the Oval Office by William Howard Taft and remained there until the West Wing fire in 1929. It remained in storage until 1945 when Harry S. Truman placed it in the modern Oval Office. Richard Nixon used this desk in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building where Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution presumes, "the Watergate tapes were made by an apparatus concealed in its drawer".[3]
A December 24, 1929 fire severely damaged the West Wing, including the Oval Office. President Herbert Hoover accepted the donation of a new desk from a group of Grand Rapids, Michigan, furniture-makers and used it as his Oval Office desk after the new office was completed.[29][30]
This desk was created from wood salvaged from HMS Resolute and given to Rutherford B. Hayes by Queen Victoria in 1879.[31] It had a hinged front panel added to it by Franklin D. Roosevelt. The desk resided in the White House in various rooms, until Jacqueline Kennedy found it languishing in the "White House broadcast room". She had it restored and moved into the Oval Office.[31] After Kennedy's death, the desk was removed for a traveling exhibition, returning to the Oval Office under Jimmy Carter in 1977. It has been the Oval Office desk ever since with the exception of the George H.W. Bush presidential years.[31]
This desk was used by Johnson from the time he was in the United States Senate up through his tenure in the Oval Office.[34] It is one of only two desks to date, along with the C&O desk, to serve only one president.
Nixon used this desk both as vice president and president, because he believed that it had been used by President Woodrow Wilson. Actually, the desk had not been used by Woodrow Wilson or by Vice President Henry Wilson.[3][19]
George H. W. Bush used this desk during his tenure as both vice president and president of the United States. It was created for the owners of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway around 1920 and subsequently donated to the White House. Previously, Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Ronald Reagan had used it in the West Wing Study.[3]
The executive office of the President of the United States has moved multiple times before the Oval Office was created in 1909. George Washington first worked from Federal Hall, in New York City, following his inauguration in 1789.[36] In 1790 Washington moved, with the federal government, to Philadelphia where he worked out of a second floor office in President's House, the executive mansion at the time.[37] Washington called this room his "study", Abigail Adams called it the "President's Room," and John Adams called it his "cabinet".[37] John Adams continued using President's House in the same way through 1800 when he moved into the White House in Washington, D.C.[38] where he kept a small office next to his bedroom.[39] Early space usage in the White House is hazy, but Thomas Jefferson kept an office in what is now the State Dining Room, and an inventory of the White House shows that James Monroe had a room on the second floor with a desk, but it was not strictly used as an office. Every president from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley used a suite of rooms centering on what is now known as the Lincoln Bedroom as their office.[39]
Several notable desks were used by presidents in these executive offices. The following table lists these furniture pieces.
Used by Washington in Federal Hall. After Federal Hall was demolished in 1812, the desk found its way to Bellevue Almshouse. This “horrified” the City Council who had it moved to the Governor's Room in 1844 where it has remained since.[40]
Used by Washington in his office in President's House, the executive mansion at the time.[37] This desk is now in the collection of the Philadelphia History Museum which has been closed to the public since 2018.[41]
All of the White House's furniture was destroyed during the Burning of Washington. When Monroe moved into the rebuilt presidential mansion he brought many of his own personal furnishings to use in the building.[45] This fall front desk is one of several pieces of furniture purchased by Monroe when he was in France between 1794 and 1796. While there are no documents proving this, family legend holds that the president wrote the Monroe Doctrine sitting at this desk. A secret compartment within the desk containing correspondences was discovered in the early 20th century. First Lady Lou Henry Hoover saw the desk in the 1930s and was so taken with the desk she had a replica created and placed in the White House.[46]
John Quincy Adams had an inventory made of the White House after he became president. This inventory notes a desk in the room east of the upstairs oval room which is assumed to be where his office was.[48]
"A tall awkward desk"[54] with pigeonholes[49] was used by Andrew Jackson in the White House. During the rearrangement of the presidential office rooms in 1865, following the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, the desk was removed from the building and sent off to auction. Andrew Johnson ordered it be returned saying "What ever was Old Hickory's I revere".[55] The desk was still in use in the presidential office during Rutherford B. Hayes's term.[50] It was eventually auctioned off in 1882 with other White House furnishings, under Chester A. Arthur's watch, to make way for new design elements in the building.[56]
This intricately carved pedestal desk was given to Buchanan, upon winning the presidential nomination in 1856, from friends that lived in India he had met while he was Minister to Russia in the 1930's. Buchanan had the desk shipped to the White House so it would be there when he arrived on his first day as President.[57]
Lincoln's office was located in the southeastern upstairs corner of the White House. While a large "council table" was the centerpiece of the room, a second table was located at the southern end which Lincoln used as his desk.[52][59]
Julia Dent Grant, unhappy with the furnishings of the White House, received a $25,000 (equivalent to $572,250 in 2023) appropriation from congress to update the interiors. While redecorating the cabinet room she purchased a "Patent Revolving Secretary", from Pottier & Stymus.[60] This secretary was a patent Wooton desk with a carved eagle and shield on its cornice.[60][61] The secretary was later sold to Webb Hayes for $10 who had used it when he was the personal secretary to his father, Rutherford B. Hayes. By 1969 the secretary was back in the White House collection and was loaned to the Smithsonian.[60]
^President Richard Nixon, with Henry Kissinger and John Wayne, sitting at the unnamed mahogany desk in his office at La Casa Pacifica A seventh desk, not listed here, is also offered to presidents for use in the Oval Office but has never been used there. This unnamed, mahogany, pedestal desk, was built in 1952, measures 72 by 36 inches (183 by 91 cm), and was gifted to the White House by John McShain, the general contractor of the Truman reconstruction of the White House. Originally housed in the Second Floor Center Hall it was moved to La Casa Pacifica in 1969 where it remained through at least 1974.[4]
^ abcHerbert Hoover used the Theodore Roosevelt desk until the 1929 West Wing fire. After the reconstruction of the Oval Office he switched to the Hoover desk.[4][27]
^ Several additional presidents are noted to have used an old stand-up desk, but sources do not explicitly name these desks as the same one Andrew Jackson used. William Seale notes in The President's House that James Buchanan had in his office "a plain stand-up desk of the kind clerks used, with pigeonholes".[51] The White House Historical Association explains that Abraham Lincoln had a battered "upright mahogany desk" with pigeonholes placed in front of a doorway in his office.[52] According to Real Life at the White House by John and Claire Whitcomb, Andrew Johnson also had a high desk in his office.[53]
^ abThe Vice President's Room. Page 6. U.S. Senate Commission on Art by the Office of Senate Curator. Senate Publication 106–7. Retrieved October 12, 2011.
^ abPatton, Jay, ed. The Oval Office in the Bush Era, College Station, Texas, George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum, 2022. Artifact Collection
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