Wilson desk

The Wilson desk is a large mahogany desk used by Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the Oval Office as their Oval Office desk. One of only six desks used by a President in the Oval office, it was purchased between 1897 and 1899 by Garret Augustus Hobart, the 24th Vice President of the United States, for the Vice President's Room in the United States Capitol.

Nixon chose this desk for the Oval Office because of his mistaken belief that former President Woodrow Wilson had used it there. In 1971 Nixon had five recording devices secretly installed in the Wilson desk by the United States Secret Service. These recordings constitute some of the Watergate tapes.

Nixon referred to the desk in 1969 in his "Silent majority" speech, stating "Fifty years ago, in this room and at this very desk, President Woodrow Wilson spoke words which caught the imagination of a war-weary world." In actuality, the desk was never used by Woodrow Wilson in the Oval office. Nixon was informed by one of his speech writers, William Safire, that the desk was actually used by Vice President of the United States Henry Wilson during President Ulysses S. Grant's administration. This also appears to be untrue, since the desk wasn't ordered until 1897 or later, more than 22 years after Henry Wilson's death. The "Wilson Desk" appears to be a misnomer, as it has never been continuously used by anyone with the last name of "Wilson."

...
Wikipedia