Hello, My Name is Resolute Trivia Quiz

Answer: trapped in ice

HMS Resolute was abandoned in 1854 off Dealy Island. The men marched overland to find the remainder of the expedition ships and a berth for the trip home. The fleet, under Sir Edward Belcher, abandoned three of the five vessels.

In 1855, HMS Resolute had drifted about 1,200 miles and was found by Captain James Buddington of the George Henry, a whaler. After freeing the ship from the remaining ice, it was sailed to his home port of New London, Connecticut.

Answer: Franklin Pierce

A bill was passed to spend $40,000 for refurbishment. HMS Resolute went to the Brooklyn Navy Yard for refitting. In 1856, she was sailed across the Atlantic, arriving at Spithead, but then towed to Cowes so that Queen Victoria and Prince Albert could board for a tour. Commander Henry Hartstene USN presented the ship to the Queen "on behalf of the people of the United States as a token of the friendly feelings by which our country is actuated." This gift helped to lessen tensions between the nations.

Answer: Rutherford B. Hayes

The commission to design and build the desks was granted to William Evenden at the Royal Naval Dockyard, Chatham, England. There were four on record. Of the remaining three, one was to be given to the widow of Henry Grinnel, and the other two were for the Queen, herself.

There is a plaque installed on the desk with an inscription which summarizes the history of how the desk came to be given to the President of the United States.

Answer: kneehole panel

President Roosevelt requested that the kneehole be blocked to keep his braces from view. However, he died before the part was completed. President Harry S. Truman liked the panel and had it installed in Roosevelt's memory.

The seal on the panel is rare, the design being only one of four in the White House. On the panel, the head of the eagle is turned toward the 13 arrows. The seal was carved before President Truman signed Executive Order 9646 in 1945, standardizing the design of the official Presidential Seal with the head of the eagle turned toward the olive branches.

Answer: Dwight D. Eisenhower

President Eisenhower used the desk in the broadcast room for his radio and television broadcasts to the nation. I watched a few of the broadcasts on youtube.com and you can't actually see much of the desk, but it was a large, solid structure for him to sit behind.

Answer: Alan Stanley Tretick

Jackie did not like the children being photographed for the media, but she was on vacation in Greece when Tretick was invited in. The picture was snapped for "Look" magazine and it and others were already on their way to the stands when President Kennedy was assassinated in November.

The desk was loaned out to the Kennedy Library for a traveling fund raising exhibition and then transferred to the Smithsonian Institution in 1964. President Carter brought it back to the Oval Office in 1977.

Answer: the desk was too small

President Johnson could not sit at the desk because of his height. So, the desk went off with the Kennedy Library exhibition and Johnson used one from when he was in the US Senate. This is now called the Johnson desk, and as of 2010, he has been the only President to use the desk in the Oval Office.

Answer: raise the desk two inches

A platform was built beneath the structures of the desk to raise the entire desk two inches. President Reagan's knees were knocking into the bottom of the desk when he sat in his favorite chair. When looking at pictures of the modification, it appears to have always been there.

Answer: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

The movie has spawned a lot of traffic, both yea and nay, about whether or not the President's Resolute desk has any hidden compartments. There's even a video on youtube.com that shows how to open the compartment.

Since the movie was released "The Oval Office, White House Museum" website claims that the Resolute Desk is the most popular item for folk visiting the White House Museum.

Answer: Ulysses S. Grant

I found this at snopes.com. A picture of President Obama was taken and he has his feet up on the desk, with bottoms pointed toward the other folk in the room. The claim is that he is disrespecting the office, the desk, and the people in the room. The snopes.com listing has pictures of the other presidents doing much the same, but without getting blamed for doing so.