The Resolute Desk
There’s more to this presidential piece of furniture than meets the eye.
By Cori Brosnahan, Illustrations by Tsering Yangzom
If desks could talk, the Resolute desk would have a lot to say…
It’s lived at the White House since 1879 and been the centerpiece of the Oval Office on and off since 1961.
You’ve no doubt seen pictures of many a president sitting behind it, and even a few presidents’ kids hiding under it.
But there’s a lot more to the Resolute desk than that; it’s also a symbol of the close relationship between the United States and Great Britain.
It all starts back in 1852, when a ship called the HMS Resolute set off from England with a crew given one objective: to find British explorer Sir John Franklin, who had disappeared trying to discover the fabled Northwest Passage some years before.
Unfortunately, the Resolute failed to discover Franklin — but it did discover a lot of ice, and got stuck in the arctic near the aptly named Disaster Bay.
The crew abandoned ship and headed home, while the Resolute moved slowly eastward with the icepack. It drifted and drifted for over a year as little by little, the ice started to melt.
The ship was just off the far northern coast of Canada in September of 1855 when it drifted into view of one James Buddington, an American Whaler from New London, Connecticut.
Buddington split his crew and sailed the Resolute back to New London, returning home on Christmas Eve.
Now at the time, the British and the Americans weren’t exactly getting along. Decades after the Revolutionary War, Great Britain and her former colony were still prone to nasty spats.
During the War of 1812, the British set fire to the White House and the U.S. Capitol. And even after the war ended, the two countries continued to clash, especially over the disputed Canadian border.
But the discovery of the Resolute offered an unexpected opportunity to extend the proverbial olive branch.
The U.S. government bought the Resolute and refitted the ship in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In 1856, President Franklin Pierce presented the refurbished Resolute to Queen Victoria of England as a token of goodwill and friendship from the American people.
A couple of decades later, Queen Victoria returned the favor in royal fashion. When the Resolute was retired, the Queen commissioned a desk made from the ship’s timbers.
And in 1880, President Rutherford B. Hayes received what must have been a very large package containing the very handsome desk — a gift that helped to cement the burgeoning friendship between the two nations.
The U.S. and Britain would become each other’s greatest allies in the 20th century, forming the “special relationship” that lasts to this day.
As for the Resolute desk, nearly every president since Hayes has used it.
FDR had a special “modesty panel” put in place to conceal his leg braces.
Which created a perfect hiding place for John F. Kennedy’s kids.
President Obama got into a bit of hot water for resting his feet on it.
But who doesn’t like to kick back after a hard day’s work?
So here’s to the Resolute — from Arctic ice to the Oval Office in one century. Not too shabby.
