The Resolute Desk

 In 1848 the HMS Resolute set sail to find Sir John Franklin who got lost trying to find a northwest passage for the British government the resolute became trapped in ice and was abandoned in 1854 but was recovered by an American whaler in 1956 she was returned to Queen Victoria. The wood from the HMS Resolute was used by cabinet makers who were hired by the British government to make three desks the first a gift to the  American president Rutherford B Hayes from Queen Victoria. Seven presidents have used the desk either in the oval office or in their private study. The second desk is smaller called the queen victoria desk or the Grinnell desk gifted to the widow of Henry Grinnell in 1880 and is in the New Bedford whaling museum in Massachusetts. The third desk is a writing desk that was commissioned  by queen victoria and is part of the royal collection