The second one is called the Grinnell Desk or the Queen Victoria Desk, and it was presented to the widow of Henry Grinnell in 1880, as a gratitude gift for her husband’s contribution to the search for Sir John Franklin. Presented as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes, the first desk has graced the Oval Office since 1880 and was used by President Obama. The oak timber partner desk was kept at the President’s office on the second floor of the White House until 1902 when it was moved to the President’s study in the newly built West Wing.Model of the Resolute desk in the recreated Oval Office at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum.President Roosevelt was the first to order a modification of the desk, asking for a front panel at the kneehole so that he could hide his ill legs. Resolute was built to withstand the brutal conditions of the Arctic, and the heavy oak timbers used in its construction made the ship uncommonly strong. Queen Victoria, who apparently harbored fond memories of the ship and its return to England, directed that oak timbers from the Resolute be salvaged and made into a gift for the American president.The enormous desk with elaborate carvings was crafted and shipped to the United States. The ship was sent in search of Sir John Franklin and his party who had disappeared in the Arctic while trying to discover the Northwest Passage. The world famous and legendary Resolute Desk. The desk, however, remained on the second floor in the President’s Study.President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that the rear kneehole be fitted with a panel carved with the presidential coat of arms but he did not live to see it installed in 1945.Following the Truman renovation of the White House (1948 – 1952), the desk was placed in the broadcast room on the ground floor where it was used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower during radio and television broadcasts.It was first used in The Oval Office in 1961 at the request of President John F. Kennedy after his wife, Jackie, found the historic desk covered in a green cloth.President Lyndon B. Johnson selected another desk for his office and the Resolute Desk was loaned to the Kennedy Library for a traveling exhibition from 1964 – 1965 and then was taken to the Smithsonian Institution for exhibit during 1966 and 1967.In January, 1977, President Jimmy Carter requested that the historic desk be returned to the White House for use, once again, in the Oval Office. It was the Resolute. Er wurde von William Evenden, einem Schreiner der königlichen Schiffswerft von Chatham gebaut. And Queen Victoria and her husband, In the 1870s the Resolute was taken out of service and was going to be broken up. Sir John Franklin, an experienced explorer, and a Royal Navy officer left Britain in 1845 with a mission to explore the Arctic coastline and never returned.Queen Victoria visits HMS Resolute, December 16, 1856, the day before the ship was granted to her as a good will gesture.With his two ships, the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror stuck in ice, ill fate found both the captain and his men.
After his assassination, President Lyndon B. Johnson chose another presidential desk and gave the Resolute desk to the Kennedy Library traveling exhibition, where it remained from 1964 to 1965.
It arrived in a huge crate at the White House on November 23, 1880. The crews of the Resolute and four other ships set out on a dangerous journey across stretches of ice to meet up with other ships that could return them to England.
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. It took nearly a month to reach England, and the American crew found itself in peril from an intense storm just as it neared Portsmouth harbor. The ship was purchased, fitted out and sent to England as a gift to HER MAJESTY QUEEN VICTORIA by the PRESIDENT AND PEOPLE of the UNITED STATES as a token of goodwill & friendship.
The desk has twice been modified. In the spring of 1852 it was dispatched, as part of a small fleet, to the waters north of Canada, on a mission to search for any possible survivors of the lost Franklin Expedition.The ships of the expedition became locked in ice and had to be abandoned in August 1854. She discovered the Resolute Desk in the broadcast room, obscured under a protective cloth covering. While the ship was still quite sturdy, it needed new rigging and sails.The Resolute sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on November 13, 1856, bound for England. Truman’s successor, President Dwight D. Eisenhower used the desk during television broadcasts.Jules Cambon, the French Ambassador to the United States, signing the memorandum of ratification on behalf of Spain in 1899.The first time the Resolute desk was placed in the Oval Office was in 1961, as per the request of President John F. Kennedy. In this time, the Resolute desk was placed in the Broadcast Room on the first floor. And it was assumed the ship would never be seen again.