Desk set

Back in 1852, some English explorers known as the Franklin Expedition were lost while exploring the Arctic. (It did not end well, let's just say that). Queen Victoria sent the HMS Resolute to see if the lost explorers could be found.

It gets very cold around the Arctic, and the Resolute became icebound. The crew got tired of waiting for help to arrive and abandoned ship. Along came an American ship skippered by Captain James Buddington, who saved the ship for the British as soon as the ice melted, and had it returned home. Buddington and his men had been on a whaling trip. I have long wished that Buddington's last name had been Jennings, because that way, we could call him "Whaling" Jennings, but anyway.

In 1880, Victoria scuttled the old boat and had its English oak timbers cut down to make wooden things, such as a desk to be given as a gift to the president of the United States. Buddington did not get a desk, but with all those whales he had, there was plenty to blubber about.

The desk wound up in the presidential study of President Rutherford B. Hayes. It's 2 feet 8" high, 6 feet wide, and 4 feet in depth.

It's in the style known as a "partner desk," and originally had clearance all the way through underneath. President Franklin Roosevelt had doors put on the front leghole to hide his leg braces. 

The desk remained in the study until First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, with her inerrant eye for style and grace, had it brought into the Oval Office for the use of her husband John F. Kennedy. One of the most popular images of his thousand-day presidency involved his kids, Caroline and JFK Jr, playing under the desk.

Following Kennedy's assassination in 1963, President Lyndon Johnson sent the desk on a nationwide tour of Kennedy artifacts, after which it was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution.

In 1977, fellow Navy man President Carter brought the desk back to the White House, and every president since, with the exception of George H.W. Bush, has used the Resolute secretaire.

President Barack Obama left the desk in good condition when he departed the White House in 2017. It is not known to history who has occupied the desk since then, but soon, the desk and the nation will be back in good hands, and the Resolute desk will be the work home of a fine new president, once the Coca-Cola stains and Big Mac wrappers are removed.