A look at the Resolute Desk, an icon of the American presidency In art and in news media, there hasn?t been a president, real or pretend, who hasn?t been seen sitting behind the Resolute Desk?an 1880 gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes?looking stern or pensive or accomplished, depending, of course, on the moment. But the idea that the president has a desk and that desk is the president?s desk, though, is a relatively new one: Plenty of nineteenth-century Commanders in Chief brought furniture from elsewhere, while others oversaw White House redecorations that included custom furniture, which itself would be modified by later administrations.
The Resolute, too, was altered by a president, but it has become so ingrained in the national consciousness as the Place Where the President Sits that it is virtually impossible to imagine a future U.S. head of state making changes to its structure or appearance?and equally impossible to imagine one choosing to sit anywhere else.
In 1852, the HMS (Her Majesty?s Ship) Resolute, sailing at the behest of Queen Victoria, set out for the Arctic on a rescue mission but soon ran into trouble of its own. It was rescued by an American ship captained by James Buddington, a Connecticut whaler, that happened upon the Resolute, bringing both crew and ship back to the United States.
This all happened at an especially tense moment in U.S.?U.K. relations: President Franklin Pierce was ready, if necessary, to go to what wou...