List of Oval Office desks

The current oval-shaped Oval Office is the second iteration of this room and is the official office of the President of the United States. It is located in the West Wing of the White House complex. The Oval Office desk sits in front of the south wall which is composed of three large windows.

President William Howard Taft constructed the first permanent West Wing to the White House, intending it to be the hub of his administration.[1] Designed by Nathan C. Wyeth and completed in 1909, this wing included the first official Oval Office.[2] Taft elected to use the Theodore Roosevelt desk first used by his predecessor in the new office. The desk remained in use by subsequent presidents until, on December 24, 1929, a fire severely damaged the West Wing during President Herbert Hoover's administration. Hoover reconstructed the part of the White House affected, including the Oval Office, reopening them later in his presidency. With the repair, Hoover was gifted a new desk as part of a 17-piece office suite.

Dissatisfied with the size and layout of the West Wing, President Franklin D. Roosevelt engaged New York architect Eric Gugler to redesign it in 1933. Gugler's most visible addition was the expansion of the building eastward for a new Cabinet Room and Oval Office.[3] The modern Oval Office was built at the West Wing's southeast corner, offering Roosevelt, who was physically disabled and used a wheelchair, more privacy and easier access to the residence. Roosevelt and Gugler devised a room architecturally grander than the previous room's two designs, with more robust Georgian details.[4] Construction of the modern Oval Office was completed in 1934 and the Hoover desk carried over into the new room at Roosevelt's direction. After Roosevelt's death, his successor Harry Truman elected to send the Hoover desk to what is now the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum. Truman had the Theodore Roosevelt desk brought into the new Oval Office for the first time where it was used by him and his successor Dwight D. Eisenhower.

When John F. Kennedy took office in 1961, he brought the Resolute desk, which had been used elsewhere in the White House since it was gifted in 1880, to the Oval Office for the first time. Upon Kennedy's assassination in 1963, the Resolute desk was sent on a national tour, and his successor Lyndon B. Johnson elected to use the desk he'd used as a senator and as Vice President. After his tenure, the desk left the White House and ultimately wound up in Johnson's presidential library, to that point, the shortest-served desk. Richard Nixon brought the Wilson desk, which he had used as Vice President, into the Oval Office when he commenced his administration, and it remained when Gerald Ford took over.

Jimmy Carter decided to return to the Resolute desk, and the desk has since been used by every president other than George H. W. Bush who elected to go with the C&O desk he had used as vice president for his four-year term, making that desk the shortest-served to date. As of Joe Biden, the Resolute desk has served eight presidents in the Oval Office over ten full terms (forty years) plus the nearly-three years of Kennedy's administration.