President Kennedy at the Resolute Desk

In this photograph taken circa 1962, President John F. Kennedy sits at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The desk was made from the oak timbers of the British ship H.M.S. Resolute and sent as a gift to President Rutherford B. Hayes from Queen Victoria in 1880. For her first redecoration of the Oval Office in early 1961, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and interior designer Sister Parish had the desk relocated from the Ground Floor to a place of prominence in the Oval Office.