Abraham Lincoln used a simple table for his white house meetings. It promoted round-table discussions before the Emancipation Proclamation.

Most recent US presidents have chosen to use a desk made from wood of the English ship Resolute as the focus of their oval office furniture (see my essay). I note that this is not the only desk to serve as the center of white house meetings, and that not every president used desks this way. Most presidents before 1900 used a table, and quite a few after used a different, less-historic, less-gaudy desk, but all presidents had an oval office or meeting room.

Lincoln’s writing desk in the White House is small with pigeon holes for letters, etc.

Washington, the first president, had the president’s residence in Philadelphia modified to have an oval shaped meeting room — perhaps he thought it looked elegant, perhaps inviting. Whatever the original motivation, every White House and every president since has had one. The current White house has three, the most famous of which is The Oval Office, located in the West wing — an attachment to the White house built by President T. Roosevelt. Despite 230 years of having an oval meeting room, the placement of a desk at the center-of-power seems to be a “new” innovation, only about 115 years old.

Washington’s New York residence had a meeting desk bought with government money, but it appears he did not use it in any central way. He did his writing on a separate writing desk (click to see) bought with his own money. Washington met visitors about an ordinary table as future presidents would. He took his writing desk to Philadelphia when the capital moved there, and then to Mount Vernon, his home. It is currently on display in the Philadelphia museum near the Liberty bell. The fancy meeting desk (click to see) is on display in New York. Subsequent presidents continued to meet about a table, e.g Lincoln (picture above, right) and Jefferson (picture below right). Meeting tables were covered with a cloth, or not, as occasion demanded. Each president kept a private writing desk too for ‘actual’ work. Lincoln’s writing desk (left) is too small for formal use, but it remains at the White House. Malia Obama, the 10 year old daughter of President Obama is supposed to have claimed use of this desk for herself and her homework, saying it would inspire big thoughts. It’s a presidential prerogative to use White house furniture as they see fit. Supposedly Mr. Lincoln kept a joke book in the (locked) desk drawer.

Jefferson meets with his cabinet around a simple table, here covered in a cloth.

Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, purchased a formal meeting table “for eight persons” from Pottier & Stymus Manufacturing of New York. By the time of president Grant all major meetings were held at this table — the treaty table. The photo below shows Hayes and his cabinet seated around it in 1879. McKinley used this for formal meetings and treaty signings e.g for signing the end of the Spanish American war, and Jimmy Carter brought it outside the Whitehouse for the ceremonial signing of the Camp David accords. Theodore Roosevelt didn’t like either the big table or the Resolute desk– nor did he like the layout of the White House. He found it all dreary, fussy, and old-fashioned.

From Andrew Johnson to McKinley, presidents used this treaty table for meetings and to sign treaties. Here shown with president Hayes and his cabinet.

The T. Roosevelt desk in the oval office. Note that it is reversed

Roosevelt had the white house renovated inside and out, removing walls, expanding rooms, and adding the East and West Wings. He hired an architect, Charles McKim who is responsible for his desk and the west wing oval office. McKim had a specialty meeting-desk made in the simple, Federalist style that Roosevelt requested. Simple and solid, it’s suited to someone who liked moose- riding, hunting, and the occasional war. Theodore loved the desk; his wife did not.

The thing that strikes me about Roosevelt’s office arrangement is that Roosevelt’s desk is reversed from that of later presidents: TR sits on the same side of the desk as his guests. The Roosevelt desk was used by Taft after him, and by presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. It was put into storage after 1929, replaced by the somewhat-fancier, Hoover desk, and brought out again for Truman and Eisenhower. It has been a vice-president’s desk too: used by Gore, Chaney, and Biden. Now, I guess, it sits in storage again. Truman signed the bottom of the top desk drawer, and every user after him has done the same.

Franklin Roosevelt at the Hoover desk in the oval office. There is a box in the middle that, I guess, is to cover FDR’s legs. Unlike T. Roosevelt, he sits across the desk from his visitors.

Hoover apparently was less than enamored by the simple, masculine style of the Roosevelt desk. He switched to the more-modern, “art deco” style desk shown at right. Franklin Roosevelt also used this desk rather than his uncle’s. Perhaps the attraction of the Hoover desk was its elegance, Alternately (my theory) is that it was already in the room. Franklin Roosevelt changed virtually nothing of the decor from Herbert Hoover, nor did he make repairs.

When Harry Truman moved into the Whitehouse, the place was a wreck — 13 years without repairs will do that. Truman did a complete renovation and switched desks. He seems to have liked the simple solidity of the old Roosevelt desk. Eisenhower seems to have liked it too. Kennedy brought out the very fancy, Resolute desk, Perhaps at the urging of his wife, Jaqueline. He was the first president of the 20th century to do so. The desk shows up in a famous group of pictures with the JFK; in this case as a prop to show Kennedy was a family man. This was the only occasion the kids were allowed into the office. The Resolute desk would not be used again until Jimmy Carter 16 years later. It then became the virtual standard, used by Reagan, Clinton, Bush II, Obama, and Trump. Modern presidents kept the desk cleaner than Grover Cleveland, below suggesting it’s become a prop and not a work-desk.

Grover Cleveland sits at the Resolute desk, c 1896

Lyndon Johnson supposedly thought it was disrespectful to President Kennedy to sit behind “his” desk, and brought up a desk of his own choosing — the so-called Johnson desk. I sort-of doubt this official story. The desk Johnson chose was the one he’d used as vice president, and before that as a senator. I suspect the real reason LBJ chose this desk for the oval office was that he liked it and was comfortable behind it. The Johnson desk was made in the senate shop sometime in the early 1900s, and is covered with leather — something popular in those days for fancy offices. The leather is bright green, and some find it ugly. Johnson’s is the only leather-covered desk.

President Johnson at his desk, making a call after RFK’s assassination; Claudia (Lady Bird) is at his side.

Aside from the color, the most notable thing I can think of regarding this desk is that he had 3 buttons installed: one so he could order coffee, one for tea, and one for coca-cola. He also famously drank bourbon or scotch with guests at the white house. Perhaps he pushed two at a time to order, or perhaps he kept the bottles in his desk drawer. LBJ drank Black and White scotch, perhaps so he could talk about civil rights. As the Johnson desk was never quite Whitehouse property, LBJ had the original moved to his museum in Texas. Johnson himself sometimes sat behind the desk there — just to scare visitors.

President Ford at his Oval office desk with Kissinger and Rockefeller

Like Johnson before him, Richard Nixon used his old vice-president desk for his oval office. This is the so-called, Wilson desk. Woodrow Wilson didn’t buy it, or use it. It was bought in the late 1800s for use by the vice presidents. It was used by many, and originally by Henry Wilson, President Grant’s VP. Nixon apparently liked the look. He used it as the backdrop in his 1960 campaign ads, and used it again as the backdrop for his “silent majority” speech. In the White house, he had it installed with microphones — his undoing, it seems. Gerald Ford used this desk too, but it has not been used since. Perhaps because the impeachment proceedings hang over it.

Bush and his staff at the C&O desk in the white house

Carter and Reagan went back to the Resolute desk, as I’d mentioned, but George HW Bush followed the pattern of Nixon and Johnson. Instead of any particularly historical desk, he chose his old vice-president desk for the Oval Office. Why did he pick this desk? He liked it, and was comfortable at it, I guess. It’s from the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. You’d have thought that George W. Bush might have used this desk too, but he didn’t. His cabinet belonged to daddy, they said. But not all his office furniture, it seems. The one thing that strikes me about GHW Bush’s desk is the desk-pulls (faux, I guess). They give guests the illusion of being on the same side of the desk as the president — a semi-throwback to T. Roosevelt.

With so many old vice-prsident’s desks in retirement, I wondered about Mike Pence’s desk. As best I can tell, it’s his old governors’ desk from Indiana. Should Pence ever become president, my guess is this desk will be in the oval office.

Robert E. Buxbaum. March 9-14, 2017. For the rest of my blog click here. I’d started out by writing this post about the Resolute (ship) and desk as a way of talking about global warming, and then wrote this because I hardly say anything there about desks. Desk choice seems to represent a balance between comfort and power, and modern presidents seem to opt for the power — as best I can tell, using it as a prop.