Queen Victoria and Great Britain Presented the United States with the Resolute Desk in 1880

A Royal Navy barque named HMS Resolute participated in the 1852–1854 Belcher Expedition, which was an effort by the Royal Navy to learn what had become of the tragic Franklin Expedition. In 1854, the crew of the Resolute abandoned the ice-bound ship. The abandoned ship was discovered by an American whaler, who returned it to New London. As a gift of friendship between the United States and Great Britain, the US Congress paid for the ship's restoration after purchasing it as salvage and instructing the US Navy to sail it to England. Before being sold to scrappers for destruction, the ship served the Royal Navy for more than 20 years.

The oak frames from Resolute were to be used to construct three desks. The United States received one of them from Queen Victoria in the form of President Rutherford B. Hayes, in a style known as a partner's desk. In 1880, Hayes acquired ownership of the desk. The third desk was given to Henry Grinnell's widow in recognition of his attempts to ascertain the fate of the Franklin Expedition, while Her Majesty maintained the other desk that is still part of the Royal Collection. The Massachusetts New Bedford Whaling Museum presently houses that desk.

Due to the numerous pictures of the Kennedy children playing nearby while their father worked at the desk, Johnson ordered its removal. The Kennedy library traveling expedition borrowed the desk from him, and it was later on shown at the Smithsonian. It was returned to the White House by Jimmy Carter. The Resolute desk thus symbolizes two gifts given by different countries, and a plaque affixed to the desk notes this.