Talk:Johnson desk

Did you know nomination

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Yoninah (talk) 23:21, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

(

• Comment or view
• Article history

)

Lyndon B. Johnson and Lady Bird Johnson at the Johnson desk

• ... that Lyndon B. Johnson used the same desk as Senator, Vice President, and President of the United States? Source: "...the desk he used beginning in his Senate days through the White House years..." [1]
• ALT1A ... that Lyndon B. Johnson used the same $80 dollar desk as Senator, Vice President, and President of the United States?

• Reviewed: Plaza Hotel

5x expanded by Found5dollar (talk). Self-nominated at 04:47, 2 December 2020 (UTC).

• Detailed and interesting article. Aside from the quotes, there appears to be no copyvio. Article has been expanded recently enough and is properly referenced. GreatLakesShips (talk) 03:23, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

• Hi, I came by to promote this, but I'm having trouble finding the fact about him using the desk as Senator and Vice President, with inline cites. Footnotes 11 and 12 don't even mention the desk. Could you point out the sentences to me please?
• It might also be cute to call it the same $80 desk in the hook, if that's how much it cost. Yoninah (talk) 22:27, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

Hi @Yoninah:, the fact is in line in the 3rd to last paragraph where it says "Johnson had the Resolute desk, the desk Kennedy used in the office, removed and replaced with the desk that he had used throughout his time in the Senate and as Vice President." this is referenced with cite #15 [2]. im totally down to adding the same $80 desk in the hook. I've added in a new alt1A above.Found5dollar (talk) 22:39, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

• Great, thanks. Restoring tick per GreatLakesShips' review. Yoninah (talk) 23:17, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

Questions I'm working on answering

Just as an FYI I have a few questions about the desk that I haven't been able to find answers too while researching the expansion of this page. I have reached out to the Johnson Library to find out if they know or can point me in the right direction. the questions are:

1. What material is the green covering for the desk? It appears to be the same green vinyl that covers the chair Johnson used but I am unable to find any documentation of that
2. When was the cane panel added to the inside of the desk's knee hole and for what purpose?
3. It appears at some point the desk was modified to have all the drawers on one side and the two cabinets on the other. When did this happen and under whose direction?
4. On the library's website it states that this desk was used by Johnson from the time he was senator through his time in the Oval Office. I have traced the rooms he used for offices but haven't been able to find any documentation that the desk was moved. Does this documentation exist?
5. Per my research it is one of the 125 desks built for the Russell Senate Office Building in two batches by different manufacturers. One of the manufacturers left a tag in the top right drawer of both sides of their desks saying "Geo. W. Cobb Jr./ Commercial Furniture/New York, N.Y." while the other did not. are the markings actually in the drawer proving which batch of desks this was part of?

That's it for now. I'll keep hunting for more info but until I hear back I think I'm at a stopping point.--Found5dollar (talk) 16:06, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Timeline

started working on a timeline to plop into the article but I need to figure out who used the desk in the 39 years between the Russell office building opened and Johnson was elected. I figure ill leave it here till I can dig up all that info.

Below is a table with the location of the desk from its construction to present day and each tenant of the desk.

Tenant	Location	Dates	Ref.
Other senators	room 231 Russell Senate Office Building	1909-1948
Lyndon Baines Johnson	room 231 Russell Senate Office Building	1948 - 1955
	room S-211 (Lyndon B. Johnson Room) United States Capitol	1955-1963
	Oval Office White House	1963 – 1969
None	Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum	1969 - present

--Found5dollar (talk) 23:52, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

References

The helicopter chair

I'd love to know more about the helicopter chair. Who made it and when? How long had he been using it? What kind of helicopter did it come from? It seems an interesting quirk from a president known for his quirks. I've read several LBJ biographies and while much has been written about his White House shower, I haven't seen anything about the chair. GA-RT-22 (talk) 19:13, 21 January 2021 (UTC)

Something doesn't add up...

I was digging a bit more today and found that the story behind this desk may not be true. I found that there is another Senate desk in LBJ's office at his former ranch, nowLyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. I then found The Historic Structure Report from 1986 and on Page 64 they discuss Ladybird saying, "The desk had been given to her husband by his staff when he left his position as majority leader of the Senate to be inaugurated as vice president on January 20, 1961." So is this actually the desk he used as a senator and not the one that was used in the White House that is now at the LBJ library? I'm going to dig some more.--Found5dollar (talk) 22:07, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

Timeline that I can figure out and reference so far about these two desks:

1963 - Johnson moves desk into Oval Office. The contemporaneous source does not say it was the desk he used as a senator. it just says "the elaborately carved oak desk... has been replaced by a larger and simpler one."[3]

This 1963 source from Life Magazine says the desk is "... his old senate desk". [4]

1967 - "The GSA refinished a desk and chair owned by President Johnson located in his office at the LBJ Ranch"[5]p.54 [6]p.419

1971 - LBJ library dedicated on May 22, 1971 with replica oval office holding his Oval Office desk.[7]

1973 - Congressional subcommittee hearing on "Expenditure of Federal Funds in Support of Presidential Properties" where Sid Hughes, from the GSA, testifies about expenditures on the LBJ ranch including the refinishing of the desk and chair. he tiptoes around where the desk came from. "it was his desk and he had it while in the Senate" "it was a gift" "I have no idea" if it was the desk he used as Majority leader of the Senate. [8]p.419

1976 - in the ranch office Ladybird says the desk there is from LBJ's senate years. "The desk had been given to her husband by his staff when he left his position as majority leader of the Senate to be inaugurated as vice president on January 20, 1961." [9]p.64

2008 - the ranch and office open as a museum with all the original furniture and furnishings.[10][11]

This is complete synthesizing but was it all a lie so that LBJ wouldn't get in trouble for basically stealing a desk from the Senate? Just say that the one in the Oval Office is the one you used and no one is any the wiser? Found5dollar (talk) 23:28, 18 February 2021 (UTC)

The two desks are identical, right? Both from the 1909 Karpen set of 125? I doubt that LBJ was sentimental about which desk was which, he probably just wanted a Karpen desk. So he had one at the ranch and one in the Oval Office. It's even possible that neither one was the exact desk he used in the Senate. GA-RT-22 (talk) 00:25, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

That may be the case. This reference I just dug up, a 2016 book outlining the Nixon redecoration of the White House claims "Johnson also removed the Resolute Desk and asked for the model he had used at the capitol to replace it."[12]p.28. Note that it does not call the desk the one he used, but just of the same model. It seems to me like the desk in the Oval Office was just some random Karpen desk while the one at the LBJ ranch was the one desk he used as Majority Leader. Ive sent an email to the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park to see if they know which desk is which.Found5dollar (talk) 14:21, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

Sex on the desk

Do we need a whole paragraph on this? We only have one source that says he had sex on the desk, and that source attributes the information to anonymous reports. GA-RT-22 (talk) 13:10, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson

I'm not sure this edit is appropriate: [13] considering that LBJ started using this desk in 1948 and took it with him when he left the White House. I'm also not sure the first sentence of the lead properly sums up the article. It's certainly true but leaves the impression LBJ only used the desk in the Oval Office. (Although I guess we never decided whether the Senate desk and the White House desk were the same.) GA-RT-22 (talk) 07:41, 5 July 2024 (UTC)