Hoover desk
Grand Rapids, Michigan | |
Materials | American lumber, faced with Michigan-grown maple |
---|---|
Style / tradition | block front desk |
Height | 30.75 in (78.1 cm) |
Width | 82.5 in (210 cm) |
Depth | 45.5 in (116 cm) |
Collection | Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum |
The Hoover desk, also known colloquially as FDR's Oval Office desk, is a large block front desk, used by Presidents
Design and markings
The Hoover desk is a 82.5-inch-wide (210 cm), 45.5-inch-deep (116 cm), and 30.75-inch-tall (78.1 cm) traditionally designed desk.[1] It was designed by J. Stuart Clingman and was created in the "Royal" plant of the Robert W. Irwin Company.[2] An article in the Grand Rapids Spectator published just after the desk was constructed describes it as taking design cues from both Queen Anne and Colonial New England furniture styles,[2] while the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum describes the desk as being Art Deco in style.[1]
The desk has a block front design motif with the drawers and back panels swelling outward with an overall intricate, tooled design.[2][3] The desk has three drawers, and a single flat top extender drawer, in each pedestal.[1][2] The two pedestals are spanned by a center section containing a single center drawer.[1][2] The center drawer has a lock numbered 76P25, but the FDR Library and Museum believes the key to this lock was lost before the desk was donated to them.[1] The pulls attached to the drawers, and the knobs on the flat extenders, are described as being hand-wrought bronze in a 1930 article about the desk from Good Furniture and Decoration,[3] but the FDR Library and Museum claims they are made of brass.[1] The desk is completely made of American lumber, faced with Michigan-grown maple burl wood veneer, and finished in a rich French Walnut tone.[2] The desk has an engraved plate attached to it which states: "This desk presented to the President of the United States by the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association. It is made entirely of American woods. All exterior parts are Michigan Maple. A.D. 1930."[2]
History
On
With the opening of the newly repaired and renovated Oval Office, the Grand Rapids Furniture Manufacturers Association gave Hoover a 17-piece office suite, made by furniture makers from
During Hoover's presidency a telephone was installed on the Hoover desk; the first to be installed in the Oval Office or on a president's desk.[7] Hoover requested the phone just after taking office. Historian Nathan Miller explained in an article in the Smithsonian magazine that the phone was, "a highly symbolic gesture," and that it "made it clear that the new president intended to take command and control of the government; the lackadaisical Coolidge years were over."[8]
When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 after defeating Hoover, he decided to keep the same furnishings and furniture in the Oval Office as his predecessor.[5] Roosevelt had the West Wing of the White House enlarged in 1934 under the direction of New York architect Eric Gugler. Part of this renovation included moving the Oval Office from its former location on axis with the front door of the building to a new addition on the southeastern corner of the wing. On December 4, 1934, Roosevelt began working from the new offices for the first time, but the full renovation lasted into the beginning months of 1935. The Hoover desk was returned to the Oval Office, being placed in front of gray-green painted walls and grand green curtains with eagle-adorned cornices.[9]
During Roosevelt's 1940 reelection campaign, where he ran for an unprecedented third term, FDR had a taping system installed in the Oval Office for the purpose of recording press conferences. This system included an RCA made "continuous film soundtrack recording machine" located in a basement room directly under the Oval Office, and a microphone concealed within a lamp on the Hoover desk. Wires ran up through the floor of the Oval Office between the recording machine and microphone. While used exclusively for recording press conferences, a few conversation which took place immediately after were inadvertently caught on tape as well. After Roosevelt's reelection in 1940 the recording system was retired.[10]
Over the course of Roosevelt's 12 years as president he signed many landmark bills on the Hoover desk including the act to create the Tennessee Valley Authority, the G.I. Bill, the declaration of war on Japan, and the declaration of war on Germany.[11] Over the course of his presidency he gathered a collection of objects that he displayed on the desk.[5]
Roosevelt died suddenly in 1945, leaving the role of president to his vice president,
Valerie Biden Owens, the sister of president Joe Biden and a member of the team tasked with redecorating the Oval Office for Biden's tenure, states in her memoir Growing Up Biden, that the Hoover desk almost moved back to the Oval Office for Biden's presidency.[14] She describes an attempt to remove every object Donald Trump "touched" from the Oval Office, even the Resolute desk, saying, "We tried to get FDR's Oval Office desk — I wanted everything Trump had touched out of there — but to this day, the desk resides at FDR's family home in Hyde Park. ... Thus, the desk Trump had sat behind remained."[15]
Timeline
Below is a table with the location of the desk from when it was built in 1930 to the present day. Each tenant of the desk is noted as well.
Tenant | Location | Dates | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|
Herbert Hoover | Oval Office, White House |
1930–1945 | |
Franklin D. Roosevelt | |||
Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum display | 1945–present |
References
- ^ a b c d e f g "Oval Office Desk Used by Franklin Roosevelt". Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j "President Hoover's Executive Office Suite". Grand Rapids Spectator. June 28, 1930. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ^ a b "Good Furniture and Decoration". Volume 35. p. 108. National Building Publications. 1930. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ Treese, Joel D.; Phifer, Evan. "The Christmas Eve West Wing Fire of 1929". White House Historical Association. February 9, 2016. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ^ a b c d FDR's Death: FDR's Oval Office Desk. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved January 17, 2017.
- ISBN 0-7892-0624-2.
- ^ "Years of Leadership 1928-1933". Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- Smithsonian Magazine. March 29, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2021.
- ISBN 0-912308-28-1. pp. 945–949.
- ^ Object Label. FDR's Oval Office Desk: Secret Audio Recordings. Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Hyde Park, New York. December, 2022.
- ^ a b "FDR's Oval Office Desk". National Park Service. August 21, 2020. Retrieved June 10, 2021.
- ^ a b c d e Eber, Herman. "Artifact Highlight: FDR's Oval Office Desk". Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. May 27, 2020. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
- ^ Leuchtenburg,William E. In the Shadow of FDR: From Harry Truman to Barack Obama. Cornell University Press. p. 13. 2015. Retrieved January 18, 2017.
- ^ McClure, Kelly. In new memoir, Biden's sister says she had essence of Trump "exorcised" from White House. Salon.com. April 14, 2022. Retrieved April 15, 2022.
- ^ Dorman, John L.; Gaudiano, Nicole. Biden's sister says she wanted everything Trump 'touched' out of the Oval Office after Biden took office: book. Business Insider. April 12, 2022. Retrieved April 15, 2022.