The resolute desk

A desk that has seen ups and downs of various American govts and of America as a nation. The desk has been used by seven presidents of the United States in the White House Oval Office as the Oval Office desk. It was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880 as a token of friendship and goodwil as American vessel discovered an abandoned British ship and returned to the Queen of England. The desk was made from the timber of same ship when the ship was retired. Indeed not every president that used it, used it for office purpose some of them used it as a study table as well. How it looks today is an outcome of various modifications made to it over the time by various Amarican presidents. Roosevelt requested to fit a panel with the presidential seal in front of it so that people could not see his leg braces. However, President Truman liked the eagle motif to be installed when he came into office in 1945.