Resolute desk

The Resolute desk is a large nineteenth century partners' desk that is frequently selected by U.S. presidents for use in the White House Oval Office. It was a present from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, and built from the timbers of the British barque-rigged ship HMS Resolute. Every president since Hayes, except Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, has used the desk. President George H.W. Bush had the desk moved to the Treaty Room in the Executive Residence, but President Bill Clinton returned the Resolute to the Oval Office.

History

A gift to the queen

HMS Resolute was part of a four-ship squadron under Edward Belcher sent in the early 1850s to search for famed English explorer, Sir John Franklin, who was searching for the Northwest Passage to Asia. The Resolute and one of her sister ships became lodged in the Arctic ice, and after two full seasons, remained stuck. Following the second summer, the commander of the expedition instructed the crews of the two ships to board the two ships that lay outside the ice and sailed back to England.

After their return, Belcher was court-martialed for abandoning a seaworthy vessel, as the Resolute broke loose of the ice the subsequent summer and was found by an American fishing vessel captained by James Buddington. The Resolute was towed into port and purchased by Congress for $40,000 and refitted. The Resolute was presented to Queen Victoria on December 17, 1856 as a token of peace. The Resolute served in the Royal Navy for 23 years following its return.

A gift in return

When the ship was decommissioned in 1879, the British government arranged for a desk to be made from its timbers. It was built by William Evenden, a skilled joiner employed at the Royal Naval Dockyard in Chatham. It was presented to President Hayes on 23 November 1880.

The desk was first commonly used by the president in his private study in the residence either in the present Yellow Oval Room or the Treaty Room. President John F. Kennedy first placed it in the Oval Office in 1961. Some presidents, such as George H. W. Bush, have used the desk in their private study rather than the Oval Office.

Modifications

The desk has been modified twice. President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered a front panel in order to hide his leg braces and wheelchair. The hinged panel was commissioned in 1944 but was not delivered until 1945, following Roosevelt's death. President Truman had the panel installed anyway. The panel features one of four presidential seals in the White House that have the eagle's head turned towards the 13 arrows in the eagle's left talon as opposed to the now official arrangement with the eagle turned towards the olive branch in the right talon with the 13 leaves. One of these seals is over the entrance to the Diplomatic Reception Room on the ground floor of the residence (originally installed in the floor of the Entrance Hall); the 1934 cast plaster ceiling medallion in the Oval Office; and the cornerstone of the East Wing.

The second modification to the desk was made under Ronald Reagan. President Reagan brought his chair from the capitol in California; it was tall enough that his knees bumped into the desk when he moved. As a result, the desk was raised two inches to accommodate Reagan and his chair; this was achieved by adding a separate, uniform base to the desk to make way for his chair.

Replicas

There are exact replicas of the Resolute desk on display in at least four presidential libraries. The desk at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library was recreated by Robert Whitley. The desk at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas was built by The Presidents Desk. The Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California and the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia^[1] also include replicas of the Resolute desk.

A few independent museums also display replicas, including The American Presidential Museum, a gallery and museum of American presidents in Branson, Missouri, and a full-scale replica of The Oval Office with desk are open to the public at The American Village in Montevallo, Alabama.

Popular culture

Replicas of the Resolute desk have appeared in many movies. The desk was a key plot device in National Treasure: Book of Secrets, in which the desk featured a secret compartment containing related pieces of a clue to the location of treasure. Once the two parts of the map are fitted together, the ancient pre-Columbian symbols show the way to the City of Gold. The film also features a counterpart desk situated in Buckingham Palace which was supposedly made for Queen Victoria; Queen Victoria did have a writing table constructed from the timbers of the HMS Resolute, which was kept for many years in Buckingham Palace, but it is not a twin to the desk which was presented to President Hayes.

References

Sources consulted and recommended 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 978-0755203963.
Monkman, Betty C. The White House: The Historic Furnishing & First Families. Abbeville Press: 2000. ISBN 0-7892-0624-2.
Sandler, Martin W. Resolute: The Epic Search for the Northwest Passage and John Franklin, and the Discovery of the Queen's Ghost Ship. Sterling: 2006. ISBN 978-1402740855.
Seale, William. The President's House. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 1986. ISBN 0-912308-28-1.
Seale, William, The White House: The History of an American Idea. White House Historical Association: 1992, 2001. ISBN 0-912308-85-0.
The White House: An Historic Guide. White House Historical Association and the National Geographic Society: 2001. ISBN 0-912308-79-6.

Endnotes

^ "The Symbol of the Presidency".

External links

[1] "The Symbol of the Presidency".

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