What is the Resolute Desk, and where did it come from? The President's Desk. It's unusual and intriguing history. "The story of the desk goes back to 1855 when a whaler named George Henry found the ABANDONED SHIP the H.M.S. Resolute off Baffin Island in the Arctic. The ship was returned to England and served the British Navy for many more years. After England finally decommissioned the ship, its OAK TIMBERS were used to create a DESK weighing more than 1,000 pounds. Given by Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B Hayes in 1880, this desk has been used on the Second Floor of the White House, the Ground Floor, and, most notably, the OVAL OFFICE."  "President John F. Kennedy first placed the Resolute desk in the Oval Office in 1961. The desk left the White House from 1963 until President Carter brought it back to the Oval Office. Since then, presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump have used it in the Oval Office." The desk has twice been modified. Franklin Roosevelt requested that the kneehole be fitted with a modesty panel carved with the presidential seal (he preferred people not see his leg braces and often placed a waste basket in front of his desks), but he did not live to see it installed. However, President Truman liked the eagle motif and had it installed when he came into office in 1945. Since this was prior to Truman's decision to turn the head of the eagle in the presidential seal to face the olive branch of peace, the eagle in the Resolute's modesty panel faces the arrows of war.  Every president since Hayes—except Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford—has used the Resolute desk, although some chose to use it in their private study in the Residence."