A: No. The Resolute was an arctic exploration ship. The ship became trapped in ice and was abandoned. Recovered by an American whaler who found it floating around among ice, purchased by U.S. congress, fixed up and returned to England as a gift. Previously a merchant sailing ship named Ptarmigan, one of six merchant ships England bought to outfit for arctic exploration to search for the earlier expedition of John Franklin whose fate was unknown. The second expedition in search of the first expedition was a total cockup. The members of the first expedition all died.
Much more at Wikipedia.
The desk is a 19th century partners desk. Partners desks were designed for banking partners who liked to work together facing each other. It's based on the idea of a double pedestal desk. That is two pedestals with drawers connected by another slim drawer. So a partners desk would be two of those facing each other.
Except the Resolute desk is designed for one person, not two people facing each other so it doesn't have drawers front and back. And President Roosevelt had a panel with the presidential seal installed where a second partner's legs would go, to hid his leg braces.
Lies! All lies and subterfuge. Roosevelt didn't want anyone to see his handicap, his weakness, his shame.
Since Hayes many presidents have used the desk at various spots in the White House.
Lyndon Johnson had the desk removed after the Kennedy assassination allowing it to go on a traveling exhibition with the Kennedy Library. Then it was put into the Smithsonian Institution.
Now, there's a clear-thinking American statesman. No need to have the lingering memory of Kennedy ghosting him and no need for British antiques seen centrally in every photograph of every important American executive action. (Thanks for the desk, now put this old thing in America's attic.)
Carter brought it back to the Oval Office.
George Bush I used the C&O desk in the Oval Office but kept the Resolute desk in the White House.
The C&O desk was built for the owners of Chesapeake and Ohio Railway.
The C&O desk is an actual partners desk with drawers in the pedestals left and right, front and back.
Old pictures make me sad and somewhat disgusted at the same time. It always happens. Knowing where we went from then. That being a point on a timeline to where we are now. There's always something a bit gut-wrenching about them. There is more to this picture I cropped out and every detail is sad including plants and carpet color choice and model boat and art, even the weather seen through the windows. Even the windows. And curtains. Only to mention the people. And the desk. Who's even going to use those outward drawers on your stupid desk?
Why do we keep a British desk in our American Oval Office? Keep your stupid ship planks to yourselves. Do they keep an American desk in their Prime Minister's office? Of course not. That would be ridiculous.
Although they might keep an American footstool. As the Ayatollahs might keep and American rug to wipe their feet on.
This tells us, Trump keeps the desk because he sees no point in making an unnecessary fuss. He might even like it. Go on, carve in your initials.
The way I see things, the desk was bigger than Obama. Something to put his shoes on like a rap gansta video.
And to Bush II, it was just another of those old things one sees around the house.
4 comments:
Trump's office appears warm and inviting in the overall yet distinctive, with the Resolute desk conveying an air of authority.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/spot-the-difference-oval-office-edition/538008/
As a memorial of "the courtesy and loving kindness which dictated the offer of the gift of the RESOLUTE", the desk speaks to intention and regard. It sits where it does as an unspoken acknowledgment of where resolution can take a ship, a leader, a country: to explore, become locked up, be found adrift, restored, returned, remade or offered to another.
I don't quite get what's so terrible about the room those four members of the ruling class are sitting in. Is ice blue such a terrible color for a carpet, or for the matching upholstery on the chairs? The model ship? That's bad? The darkish landscape painting? It looks like a handsome room with handsome dimensions to me.
And ruling class is not a putdown. It's a reality. The people who get there are, with rare exceptions, those who have dedicated themselves to getting there. That's just the way it is. You want to have a say you pretty much have to dedicate your life to getting into position to have a say.
Without this post, I wouldn't have paid attention to or learned more about the Resolute desk, or been intrigued with the concept of one country gifting another with a "memorial to courtesy and kindness", which seems highly unusual to me, outside of and beyond the usual formalities and protocol of gift giving, like there was warmth and regard involved.
I'm thankful for the post, but unclear as to what prompted it or what the sadness about the Bush photo/room involved. I did not like the way the Obama office was decorated, preferring the Reagan look, or the Trump re-do with additional flags present. The desk however looks great in all three presentations.
And I've no problem with it coming as a gift from the nation that used to rule the high seas, to rest in the office of the President of the US, and serve as his work surface. In fact, that seems appropriately and beautifully fitting to me, testifying to history, change, regard and the reach, power and humility involved in being Resolute.
It is a beautiful desk and a fine piece of cabinet making. Some suggest that the "timbers" (stinkin' Brits can't even use the correct woodworking terms) used to build the ship and later the desk are English oak. If so, that is even more impressive - that is some tough wood to resaw and carve. And you know how much I like giving a second life to trees and reclaimed wood - that's good stuff.
My earliest memory of that desk was the highly circulated picture of John John Kennedy peeking out of the knee hole door - I probably saw it in Life magazine back in the day.
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