Does each president get his (her?) own chair?

[question everything]

Among the "pairs" of the year published by TIME magazine, there is the pair of the chair addressed by Clint Eastwood, and Obama's chair tweeted by the White House: "this seat's taken"



There is a brass label affixed to the back of the chair. It says "THE PRESIDENT," but I cannot read below it, except that I think it is a date. Is it?

[Angry Dragon]

1. Janruary 20, 2009

[question everything]

2. Thanks. Inauguration Day

Wonder whether he gets to keep it once he leaves office.

[former9thward]

3. Yes, if you go to Presidential libraries you will often see their chairs.

[alphafemale]

9. I guess many of the desks and chairs and desks in Presidential libraries

are replicas then. I thought the chairs went to the library. I knew the desk stayed in the oval office.

[former9thward]

10. It depends.

Lyndon Johnson took the desk he used in the Senate to the White House. He then had it transferred to his Library. He sometimes would sit at the desk and surprise visitors to the Library in Austin, TX.

[alphafemale]

12. My boyfriend and I passed through Little Rock last year. By the time I got to Pres Clinton's library

It was about 30 minutes to closing time. They let me dash about and see the important bits without an admission fee.

[NYC Liberal]

6. Yep, I believe he does.

Cabinet members can purchase their chair when the leave office -- sometimes the staff will pay for it as a gift.

I don't believe the president has to pay for his.

[TeamPooka]

4. and desk too. Dems go for FDR or Kennedys and the GOP like Reagans

[Drunken Irishman]

5. Obama uses the same desk as Reagan, who used the same desk as Kennedy.

It's the Resolute desk and was removed from the Oval Office after Kennedy's assassination. Carter brought it back in '77 and it's been used by every president since except H.W. Bush, who brought in the desk he used as vice president.

[question everything]

7. Fascinating. Why is it called the Resolute Desk?

Wonder what happened to Truman's "The Buck Stops Here" desk..

[Spider Jerusalem]

8. It was a gift to Rutherford B Hayes from Queen Victoria

made of the timbers of HMS Resolute (British Arctic exploration ship from the ill-fated Franklin expedition in search of the Northwest Passage):http://www.whitehousemuseum.org/furnishings/resolute-desk.htm

[former9thward]

11. Truman used the 'Teddy Roosevelt' desk.

The desk was made for Teddy Roosevelt and used by every president until Kennedy. Nixon used the Roosevelt desk over in the Executive office building in his 'working office'. He had the tape machine used in the Watergate tapes installed in it. I believe the Smithsonian has it now.

[question everything]

13. Who would have thought that Presidential desks

would carry so much history?

Someone should write a book about them.

[Beacool]

14. Clinton also used the Resolute desk.

[MuttLikeMe]

15. Hehehehe