Martin Van Buren, eighth President, had been a widower for 18 years when he moved into the Executive Mansion in 1837. Signed and dated, vertically at left edge on balustrade: H. al., Art in the White House, New York: Abrams, 1992.īequest of Mrs. When President Grant chose another likeness by William Cogswell, Lincoln's son Robert Todd Lincoln purchased the Healy, later declaring that "1 have never seen a portrait of my father which is to be compared with it in any way." The portrait was painted in Paris and sent to Washington in response to an act of Congress (March 3, 1869) authorizing a Lincoln portrait for the White House. He made the decision, no less pondered, to remove the president from all human assembly while preserving the listening, absorbed pose.
In the 1869 portrait Healy had the artistic inspiration of his career. In The Peacemakers Lincoln leans forward, listening attentively to General Sherman's urgings, as he habitually did to the advice of his counselors before offering his own pondered decisions. The assassination, however, turned the artist's thoughts in another direction, and he conceived The Peacemakers, the small version of which was completed late in 1868. Healy had begun work on a portrait of Abraham Lincoln for which the President had sat in August 1864. His subject-was national reconciliation and the reconstruction of the South, and he concluded: "I am considering, and shall not fail to act, when satisfied that action will be proper." With his death just days later all action was ended, but in this portrait he is still considering, and he seems to attend to other voices. Lincoln's last public address was delivered on April 11, 1865, from a window above the north door of the White House, two days after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox Court House. This table was made from her timbers when she was broken up, and is presented by the Queen of Great Britain & Ireland, to the President of the United States, as a memorial of the courtesy and loving kindness which dictated the offer of the gift of the "Resolute'." The ship was purchased, fitted out and sent to England, as a gift to Her Majesty Queen Victoria by the President and People of the United States, as a token of goodwill & friendship. by Captain Buddington of the United States Whaler 'George Henry'. She was discovered and extricated in September 1855, in Latitude 67º N. 'Resolute', forming part of the expedition sent in search of Sir John Franklin in 1852, was abandoned in Latitude 74º 41' N. Bush has chosen to continue using it in the Oval Office.Ī brass plaque affixed to the desk records the history of its creation: It was returned to the Oval Office for use by President Bill Clinton, 1993-2001. President George Bush used it in the Oval Office for five months in 1989 before having it moved to his Residence Office in exchange for a partner's desk which he had used in his West Wing office as Vice President. Reagan also chose to use this desk in the Oval Office. In January 1977, President Jimmy Carter requested that this historic desk be returned to the White House for use again in the Oval Office. Johnson selected another desk for his office, it was lent to a Kennedy Library traveling exhibition, 1964-1965, and then to the Smithsonian Institution for exhibition, 1966-1977. It was first used in the Oval Office in 1961 at the request of President John F. Eisenhower during radio and television broadcasts.
Truman was the first to use this updated version.Īfter the Truman Renovation of the White House, 1948-1952, it was placed in the Broadcast Room on the Ground Floor where it was used by President Dwight D. In 1945, the desk’s rear kneehole was fitted with a panel carved with the Presidential Coat-of-Arms, and President Harry S.
This desk remained, however, on the Second Floor of the Residence in the President's Study. It was used in the President's Office on the Second Floor of the Residence from 1880 until 1902, at which time the office was moved to the newly constructed West Wing. It has been used by every president since Hayes, excepting Presidents Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, 1964-1977. Resolute as a gift to President Rutherford B.
This double pedestal partners' desk, usually called the "Resolute desk", was made from the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S.