Description
Donalds Desk
- The history of The Presidents Desk (or as it is sometimes called The Resolute Desk) began in 1852 with the British Man of War ship, H.M.S. Resolute. which disappeared in the Arctic while trying to discover the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately, Resolute had to be abandoned in thick ice and its crew returned to England aboard another ship.
- H.M.S. Resolute was discovered drifting in pack ice near Baffin Island by Capt. James Buddington of the US whaler George Henry in September of 1855. When the thaw set in , he took her to his home port of New London, Connecticut, where the American Government bought her from the fortunate whalers for $40,000. She was refitted at the American Government`s expense in the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the intention of presenting her to Queen Victoria and the British people “on behalf of the people of the United States as a token of the friendly feelings by which our country is actuated.”
- In 1879, when RESOLUTE was finally broken up, a desk was made from her timbers which was presented by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes. Apart from short spells, the desk has been in daily use in the White House by almost every President of the United States since then.
- The desk was located in the President’s office on the second floor of the White House from 1880 until 1902 at which time the office was moved to the newly constructed West Wing. The desk, however, remained on the second floor in the President’s Study.
- On January 20th, 1993, the Resolute Desk was returned to the Oval Office for use by President Clinton and is still in use today in The White House.
- Our Presidents Desk is a hand made reproduction of the famous Resolute Desk and is made to order by The Island Furniture.
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