The story begins with British barque-rigged ship H.M.S. Resolute, originally named Ptarmigan, commanded by Admiral Sir Edward Belcher.  The H.M.S. Resolute was designed and built for polar conditions, with especially strong timbers and an internal heating system.  The Resolute was part of a four-ship squadron sent in the early 1850s to search for the famed English explorer, Sir John Franklin, who was searching for the Northwest passage to Asia.  The Resolute and one of her sister ships become lodged in the Artic ice of Viscount Melville Sound, and after two full seasons, remained stuck.  Following the second summer, the commander of the expedition instructed the crews of the two ships to board the two ships that lay outside the ice and sail back to England.

After his return, the commander was court-martialed for abandoning a seaworthy vessel.  The empty ship was later found by an American Whaler on September 16, 1855, stuck in the ice of Davis Strait off Baffin Island, 1200 miles away from where she was abandoned.  The Resolute was freed from the ice and towed to New London, Connecticut and purchased by Congress for $40,000 and refitted.  The Resolute was presented to Queen Victoria on December 17, 1856 as a token of peace from the President and the American people.  The Resolute served in the Royal Navy for over 20 years following its return.

When the ship was decommissioned 1879, Queen Victoria had two desks elaborately carved from its timbers.  One sits in Buckingham Palace, and one was presented to President Hayes in 1880 as a heartfelt token of friendship and goodwill.  For more than a century, nearly every American President except Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford used the Resolute desk that, in another life, sailed the seas.

The desk was first commonly used by the president in his private study in the residence.  At the request of the President John f. Kennedy , the first lady Jacqueline Kennedy was searching for a desk with a naval association, and found the Resolute desk in the White House broadcast room.  It became lodged in the national memory when young John Kennedy Jr. was photographed peering from behind the kneehole panel as his father was working above.  By the time President Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 the desk was so well known it became a precious museum piece.  After being on exhibit for ten years at the Smithsonian Institute, the Resolute desk was once again put into use by President Jimmy Carter, and the treasured piece of history currently serves President George W. Bush in the oval office.

The desk has twice been modified from the original 1880 version.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested that a kneehole be fitted with a panel carved with the Presidential coat-of-arms to hide his braces and wheelchair, but he did not live to see it installed in 1945.  President Truman had the panel installed anyway.  The panel features one of three Presidential seals in the White House that has the eagle's head turned toward the 13 arrows in the eagles' right talon as opposed to the more common eagle turned towards the olive branch.  The second modification to the desk was made under President Reagan.  President Reagan  requested it be raised on a 2" base to accommodate his 6'2" frame.