This desk was made from the timbers of the H.M.S. Resolute, a British ship abandoned by its crew in 1854 after it became stuck in the Arctic ice. An American ship found it the next year and brought it to Connecticut. Congress spent $40,000 to rescue, repair, and completely refit the ship which was then given to the Queen of England as a token of friendship and goodwill. After the H.M.S. Resolute was decommissioned, Queen Victoria had a desk made from its timbers. She presented the richly carved "Resolute desk" to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880. The desk originally had a knee-hole, a space in the center, but President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested the knee-hole be fitted with a modesty panel with the Seal of the President carved on it. FDR did not live to see the new panel installed, but Harry Truman liked the eagle motif and had it installed when he became President in 1945. Every President since Hayes – except Johnson, Nixon, and Ford – has used the Resolute desk, although some chose to use it in their private study instead of the Oval Office.
at the Resolute desk while his son
John Jr. peeks out through
the open knee-hole panel
No comments:
Post a Comment