WASHINGTON (AP) — During the bleakest stretches of World War II, Franklin D. Roosevelt worked through mountains of paperwork at it. George W. Bush sat behind it to speak to a shaken nation following the September 11 attacks. And in a moment that became one of the most enduring images in American history, a young John F. Kennedy Jr. crawled beneath it and peeked out through the front panel while his father worked above — a scene so iconic that President Joe Biden later recreated it with his own grandson.
The Resolute Desk is widely considered the most recognizable piece of furniture in the White House, and perhaps in the entire country. Serving as the president’s working desk, it has stood at the center of American history for close to 150 years.
That distinctive front panel carries its own historical debate. Many accounts suggest it was added during Roosevelt’s time in office to hide his wheelchair and leg braces from public view. However, some historians push back on that story, arguing that Roosevelt kept the desk in his private study rather than in public-facing spaces, and that the panel wasn’t actually installed until after his death.
Despite its place in American lore, the desk’s roots are entirely British. It was built from the wood of the HMS Resolute, a Royal Navy ship that departed for the Arctic in the early 1850s on a mission to locate Sir John Franklin, an explorer who vanished while searching for the Northwest Passage. The ship became locked in Arctic ice and was ultimately abandoned by its crew. An American whaling vessel later came across the ship adrift in those frozen waters.
The United States had the vessel repaired and returned it to Queen Victoria as a gesture of goodwill. The ship continued its service for a number of years before being taken out of commission.
After the HMS Resolute was retired, Queen Victoria chose to honor the American gesture by having the ship’s timbers fashioned into several pieces of furniture. Among them was a large, ornate desk that she presented as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.
For much of its early time at the White House, the desk remained largely out of the public eye. That changed in 1961, when First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy had it moved into the Oval Office.
Since then, every president beginning with Jimmy Carter has used the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office — with one exception. President George H.W. Bush opted to place it in the Treaty Room instead. In more recent decades, the desk has also taken on a new tradition: outgoing presidents leave a personal letter atop it for their successor to find on Inauguration Day.
More than just a place to work, the Resolute Desk stands as a lasting symbol of the American presidency and a testament to the long-standing bond between the United States and Great Britain.
This story is part of a recurring series called “American Objects,” produced in recognition of the 250th anniversary of the United States.
