The History Behind the Presidents Resolute Desk

The History Behind the Presidents Resolute Desk The Resolute desk is a massive oak desk closely associated with presidents of the United States due to its prominent placement in the Oval Office. The desk arrived at the White House in November 1880, as a gift from Britains Queen Victoria. It became one of the most recognizable pieces of American furniture during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, after his wife realized its historic significance and had it  placed in the Oval Office. Photographs of President Kennedy seated at the imposing desk, as his young son John played beneath it, peeking out from a door panel, captivated the nation. The story of the desk is steeped in naval lore, as it was crafted from oak timbers of a British research vessel, HMS Resolute. The Resolutes fate became wrapped up in the exploration of the Arctic, one of the great quests of the mid-1800s. The Resolute had to be abandoned by its crew in the Arctic in 1854 after becoming locked in ice. But, a year later, it was found drifting by an American whaling ship. After a meticulous refitting at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the Resolute was then sailed by an American naval crew to England. The ship, with great fanfare, was presented by the American government to Queen Victoria in December 1856. The return of the ship was celebrated in Britain, and the incident became a symbol of friendship between the two nations. The story of the Resolute faded into history. Yet at least one person, Queen Victoria, remembered. Decades later, when the Resolute was taken out of service, the British monarch had oak timbers from it saved and crafted into a desk for American presidents. The gift arrived, as a surprise, at the White House during the administration of President Rutherford B. Hayes. The Story  of H.M.S. Resolute The bark H.M.S. Resolute was built to withstand the brutal conditions of the Arctic, and the heavy oak timbers used in its construction made the ship uncommonly strong. In the spring of 1852 it was dispatched, as part of a small fleet, to the waters north of Canada, on a mission to search for any possible survivors of the lost  Franklin Expedition. The ships of the expedition became locked in ice and had to be abandoned in August 1854. The crews of the Resolute and four other ships set out on a dangerous journey over ice to meet up with other ships that could return them to England. Before abandoning the vessels, the sailors had secured hatches and left things in good order, though it was assumed the ships would be crushed by encroaching ice. The crew of the Resolute, and the other crews, made it safely back to England. And it was assumed the ship would never be  seen again. Yet, a year later, an American whaler, the George Henry, saw a vessel drifting on the open ocean. It was the Resolute. Thanks to its astoundingly sturdy construction, the bark had withstood the crushing ice. After breaking free during a summer thaw, it somehow drifted a thousand miles from where it had been abandoned. The crew of the whaling ship managed, with great difficulty, to sail the Resolute back to harbor in New London, Connecticut, arriving in December 1855. The New York Herald published an extensive front-page story describing the Resolutes arrival at New London  on December 27, 1855. The British government was informed of the find, and accepted that the ship was now, according to maritime law, the property of the whaling crew who had found her on the open ocean. Members of Congress became involved, and a bill was passed authorizing the federal government to purchase the Resolute from the private citizens who were its new owners. On August 28, 1856, the Congress authorized $40,000 to purchase the ship, refit it, and sail it back to England to present to Queen Victoria. The ship was quickly towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and crews began restoring it to seaworthy condition. While the ship was still quite sturdy, it needed new rigging and sails. The Resolute sailed from the Brooklyn Navy Yard on November 13, 1856, bound for England. The New York Times published an article the following day which described the extreme care the U.S. Navy had taken in repairing the ship: With such completeness and attention to detail has this work been performed, that not only has everything found on board been preserved, even to the books in the captains library, the pictures in his cabin, and a musical-box and organ belonging to other officers, but new British flags have been manufactured in the Navy Yard to take the place of those which had rotted during the long time she was without a living soul on board.From stem to stern she has been repainted; her sails and much of her rigging are entirely new, the muskets, swords, telescopes, nautical instruments, etc., which she contained have been cleaned and put in perfect order. Nothing has been overlooked or neglected that was necessary to her most complete and thorough renovation. Several thousand pounds of powder which were found on board will be taken back to England, somewhat deteriorated in quality, but still good enough for ordinary purposes, such as firing salutes. The Resolute had been built to withstand the Arctic, but was not very fast on the open ocean. It took nearly a month to reach England, and the American crew found itself in peril from an intense storm just as it neared Portsmouth harbor. But conditions suddenly changed and the Resolute arrived safely and was greeted with celebrations. The British extended a welcome to the officers and crew who had sailed the Resolute to England. And even Queen Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, came to visit the ship.   Queen Victorias Gift In the 1870s the Resolute was taken out of service and was going to be broken up. Queen Victoria, who apparently harbored fond memories of the ship and its return to England, directed that oak timbers from the Resolute be salvaged and made into a gift for the American president. The enormous desk with elaborate carvings was crafted and shipped to the United States. It arrived in a huge crate at the White House on November 23, 1880. The New York Times described it on the front page the following day: A large box was received and unpacked at the White House today, and was found to contain a massive desk or writing table, a present from Queen Victoria to the President of the United States. It is made of live oak, weighs 1,300 pounds, is elaborately carved, and altogether is a magnificent specimen of workmanship. The Resolute Desk and the Presidency The massive oak desk remained in the White House through many administrations, though it was often used in upstairs rooms, out of  public view. After the White House was gutted and restored during the Truman administration, the desk was placed in a ground floor room known as the broadcast room. The enormous desk had fallen out of fashion, and was essentially forgotten until 1961. After moving into the White House, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy began exploring the mansion, becoming familiar with the furniture and other fittings. She discovered the Resolute desk in the broadcast room, obscured under a protective cloth covering. The desk had been used as a table to hold a motion picture projector. Mrs. Kennedy read the plaque on the desk, realized its significance in naval history, and directed that it be placed in the Oval Office. A few weeks after President Kennedys inauguration, the New York Times published a story about the desk on the front page, under the headline Mrs. Kennedy Finds a Historical Desk for President.   During the administration of Franklin Roosevelt, a front panel, with a carving of the Great Seal of the United States, was installed on the desk. The panel had been requested by President Roosevelt to hide his leg braces. The desks front panel opened on hinges, and photographers would snap the Kennedy children playing under the desk and looking out through its unusual door. Photographs of President Kennedy working at the desk as his young son playing under it became iconic images of the Kennedy era. After President Kennedys assassination the Resolute desk was removed from the Oval Office, as President Johnson preferred a simpler and more modern desk. The Resolute desk, for a time, was on display in the Smithsonians American Museum of American History, as part of an exhibit on the presidency. In January 1977, incoming President Jimmy Carter requested that the desk be brought back to the Oval Office. All the presidents since have used the gift from Queen Victoria crafted of oak from H.M.S. Resolute.

Dell Corporation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dell Corporation - Essay Example However the company needs to take action fast. The main business is generated from PC sales. Most of Dell’s revenue stream is generated from sales of personal computers. The global economic downturn is having the greatest effect on PC sales as companies are reducing their spending on personal computers. Their spending may be going up in other product categories, but investments in PC are being reduced industry-wide. Because Dell’s main business is in PC sales, it is a strategic imperative for the company to craft a new strategic direction. The company does have diverse product offerings but the most important part of its resource base is dedicated to manufacturing personal computers such as desktops and laptops. Dell’s main competitors are HP, Acer and Apple. Dell faces rising competitive threat from these companies because they have invested in a wide variety of products and services. For example, Apple is generating profitability at the same level despite the e conomic downturn. This is because Apple maintains diverse product offerings based upon continuous innovation. HP is diversifying into service business. Because the western market is saturated, Dell has to focus on the fast growing markets of China and India. However in China Dell faces a major competitive threat from Lenovo. Therefore Dell Inc. ... Therefore the company has a skill in retaining large corporate accounts which will enable the company to face the competitive rivalry from HP. Dell also has core competencies in transferring knowledge across divisions in order to facilitate the highest level of quality in all the product categories. The company has shown great success in product diversification. These capabilities and resources form the core competencies of Dell Inc. The company’s strength is in the market leadership position that it holds in the industry with a loyal customer base of large commercial and institutional investors. The company has also been successful in diversifying into additional product categories. The company’s weakness may be its over-reliance upon PC sales which are being affected by the economic downturn. The opportunity is provided by the large corporate accounts which will enable the company to invest in additional product and service categories to strengthen the revenue base. T he threat is the rising level of competitive rivalry in the industry. Although Dell might reduce the competitive threat to some extent by expanding to growing markets these markets also have their share of competitors, two examples being Acer and Lenovo. Dell is customizing its products by providing value-added services in the enterprise market. This market has been growing steadily because corporate customers are looking for ways to cut IT costs. Therefore, by customizing its products for the enterprise market, Dell will be able to make up for the loss of revenue from decreasing PC sales. However the disadvantage is the possibility of over-diversification. In that case the company might lose money in areas which are not its

Group Post Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Group Post - Research Paper Example s not just about English being the first or the second language of the employees of a company, customers associate stereotypes and underestimate the foreign employees’ ability to understand their culture, and thus only want service from their local employees. Customer build their perceptions of a company’s corporate social responsibility based upon â€Å"all the information about a company that a person holds† (Brown and Dacin, 1997, p. 69). Drop in the number of American students that study Information Technology is a shocking fact and a strong reason for companies to stop outsourcing. This shows how deleterious outsourcing is for our society in the long run. I seriously doubt that outsourcing plays a role in increasing the quality of work. With outsourcing, employers have least control over the products’ quality since everything is being made abroad. Especially, when we talk about quality control, it means much more than just meeting the specifications to include the level of creation and innovation, and uniqueness in every item. It is so hard to keep all employees on one platform in outsourcing that such aspects are often neglected. To say that the talent employers get through outsourcing is not available in the local market is underestimation of American local workers. Had foreign graduates been more capable, thousands of students would be going from America to those countries for studying every year rather than the other way round. Outsourcing is a fundamental reason for unemployment in America (Converse et al., n.d.). It cannot be said with utmost surety that the outsourcing company would always maintain competitive advantage . These days, when economy has become very volatile and the value of currency is rapidly changing in different countries, if the value of currency of the foreign country starts gaining weight, the opportunity of outsourcing might eventually turn out to be a risk. While that is the definition of outsourcing, this definition is not

Gender Based Conflict Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Gender Based Conflict Management - Essay Example In his research, Valentine identified and analyzed five conflict resolution strategies that were used by nurses at their workplace. The five strategies included avoiding, compromising, competing, collaborating and accommodating. From her analysis, she realized that gender may influence the extent by which nurses choose their conflict management strategies. From the perspective of gender, women are perceived to be more concerned about interpersonal aspects of the relationship than it is to men. In this effort, female nurses are seen to view conflict management as a way they use while seeking confirmation and support in their effort to maintaining harmony. The results found out that male nurses resorted to using competing method of conflict resolution. This conflict resolution strategy at workplace is associated with the application of power by the competing nurses. This is as a result of the perceived differences in power between male and female genders and lack of self-confidence in the male nurses. Male nurses, unlike female nurses, fail to realize that differences in opinions can be used as opportunities to learn and solve their differences. In another study carried out by Friedman, Shu-Cheng, and Liu on "An expectancy model of Chinese-American differences in conflict-avoiding," the authors put it clear that Chinese have higher tendencies to avoid conflicts than Americans (Friedman, et al., 2006). The results of this expectancy model found out that Chinese use avoiding strategy of conflict control due to various reasons alienated to them, which cannot be applied by the Americans. Chinese realize that direct conflicts are capable of hurting their relationships with the other party. They have greater concern for the other parties. Therefore, they tend to apply the avoiding strategy to uphold this fact. Chinese are also regarded as a people who show great respect and sensitivity to hierarchy. Because of this, any

How Sensationalism Affects Eve Essays -- essays research papers

How Sensationalism Affects Everyone Involved In today ¡Ã‚ ¦s society journalism is under close scrutiny and is losing its credibility. Sensationalism effects both those who receive it in addition to those who report it. This essay will review the history of sensationalism in the media, clearly demonstrate how sensationalism effects ours views on journalism, and confront the ethical dilemmas that journalists must face between reporting objectively and reporting what sells. This will be accomplished by investigating various sources, including articles published on the Internet as well as those published in newspapers and magazines. Throughout history sensationalism has been represented in all shapes and sizes. Celebrity journalism is amongst the oldest forms of sensationalism. For instance, America ¡Ã‚ ¦s first real newspaper, Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestic, reported a story on how the King of France was flirting with the prince ¡Ã‚ ¦s wife. Furthermore, in the 1830s, there was the creation of the penny press, which appealed to the then growing population of immigrants in our cities. These papers focused on the reporting of crime and celebrities. Sensationalism returned in the late 19th century in the form of  ¡Ã‚ §Yellow Journalism ¡Ã‚ ¨. Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst competed viciously for readers of their respected newspapers. They both sensationalized stories about alleged atrocities committed by the Spanish, calling for the United States to step in on behalf of the Cubans. Equally important, when the USS Maine mysteriously blew up, both papers immediately blamed the Sp aniards. Today, this incident remains a mystery. In addition many blame the act of  ¡Ã‚ §Yellow Journalism ¡Ã‚ ¨ as the cause for the Spanish/American war. Yet another form of sensationalism popped up in the 1920s, picture tabloids. Sensationalism still remains a strong force in the current media. May it be in the form of picture tabloid magazines, celebrity journalism, or the violence infested media known as television and movies, the fact is that it sells. As long as there is a market for this type of unethical journalism there will a supply. Over the years, the general public has depended on the media for its information on current events. On the other hand, the public is becoming less and less confident in the objectivity of the news that is reported. Just last year a reporter for... ...nalism has become deeply entrenched in the media, leaving the public paying a high price through their loss of credible sources of information. In turn, journalists are also paying a high price by sacrificing their ethical standards and succumbing to the temptations of sensationalism for the sake of profit. The mass media has particularly found an avenue for vivid sensationalism through the phenomenon of television, which allows the public to passively absorb fast-moving images, without receiving comprehensive information. It is unlikely that sensationalism can be eliminated, however, the public would be well advised to actively consider their sources of information, rejecting those that blatantly disregard standards of objectivity and credibility in exchange for shallow glitter. By clearly sending a message of dissatisfaction to the corporations that control the mass media, the public may influence the decisions that are made and work toward improvement. Likewise, despite being constrained by the mandates of their management, journalists must make a concerted effort to resist resorting to sensationalism to sell a story, and rather base their success on solid, objective reporting.

Financing Polynomials Essay

The assignment that I will be discussing is financial polynomials. The use of financial polynomials is used in the real world all the time. Financial polynomials are really important because it is an easy way for you to figure out how much you need to be able to plan a trip, retirement, or a college fund. Using the formula p (1+r/2) ^ (2) we could compound the interest semiannually. In this assignment I’m going to solve and demonstrate my knowledge of each problem, how and why it is applicable to my everyday life, state if there is another way division could be carried and worked out and incorporate each of the five vocabulary words into my discussion. Before I start my problem using the formula p (1+r/2) ^ (2) I’m going to have to rewrite the formula without the parenthesis. P (1+r/2) ^ (2) Formula (1+ r/2) (1+r/2) Since it is squared you have to write it 2 times 1+r/2+r/2+r^ (2) /4 Using the foil process (1+2r/2 +r2/4)Combining like terms P (1+2r/2+r2/4) Bring the p down it is still in parenthesis P +2/2 pr + r2p/4 Next I’m going to multiply p by each term P+2/2Pr +r2P/4 is rewritten without parenthesis is not in descending order P=200 and r=10%/100 =. 1 200+2(. 1) (200)/2 + (. 1) ^ (2) (200)/4 I plugged in 200 for P and . 1 for r. I solved the equation and got = $220. 50 Dividend Next I’m going to do the same thing for P=5670 and r=3. 5% 5670+2 (. 035) (5670)/2 + (. 035) ^ (2) (5670)/4 I plugged in 5670 for P and . 035 for r and I solved the equation. = $5870. 18 Dividend Using this formula could be very important in my everyday life If I wanted to put money to the side to plan a trip or a college fund. I would know exactly how much money I would need to put to the side to do so. (-9x^3 +3x^2-15x) / (-3x) Next I’m going to divide -3x by each term -9x^3/-3x 3x^2/-3x -15x/-3x -3 is the Divisor -9x^3/-3x =3x^2 3x^2/-3x = cancels out and becomes a –1 or –x -15x/-3x=5x 3x^2-x+5x I do not know of another way that division could be approached and worked out. In conclusion, I stated why financial polynomials are very important in my everyday life. I demonstrated my knowledge and solved each problem. I stated that I did not know of another way that division could be approached and worked out. I incorporated each of the five vocabulary words into the discussion.

A Study On The Life Cycle Study Of A Small Business Essay

INTRODUCTION By examining a range of published journal articles on the life cycle study of a small business this report shows that different researchers have different views as to the growth of a small business. The article will be looking at the definition of a small business and how it relates to Private Fly. Also, it will be describing the different lifecycle models with reference to the article ‘HOW I MADE IT’, how they relate to Private Fly and a critical analysis of these models. It also looks at entrepreneurial traits as a tool that affect the growth of a small business and critical analysis of these traits. There is no single definition for small business an earlier attempt was given by Bolton Report (1971). Which suggests two definitions of small business. Firstly, he says a business is small if it meets three criteria’s: †¢ Independent †¢ Manged in a personalised manner †¢ Relatively small share of the market Secondly, he described it using a quantitative approach using assets, turnover, profitability and employment. However, Katz and Green (2007) describes a small business as when it involves 1 to 50 people and has its owner managing the business on a day to day basis. Various researchers have come up with different models to analysis the lifecycle of a small business. LIFE CYCLE MODELS USING SCOTT AND BRUCE (19987) AND CHURCHILL AND LEWIS (1983) TO ANALYSE PRIVATE FLY Researchers have broken down the various stages or cycle that a small business goes through.Show MoreRelatedForecasting Management Philosophy Life Cycles1371 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"Forecasting Management Philosophy Life Cycles: A Comparative Study of Six Sigma and TQM,† the author emphasizes on the â€Å"Management fads their life cycles†. 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