High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Wilson desk was used by Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the Oval Office as their Oval Office desk. Purchased between 1897 and 1899 by Garret Augustus Hobart, 24th Vice President of the United States, for the Vice President`s Room of the United States Capitol, it is one of only five desks ever used by a President in the Oval office. When Nixon was elected President, he chose this desk because of his belief it was used by former President Woodrow Wilson in the Oval Office. In 1971 Nixon had five recording devices secretly installed by the United States Secret Service in the Wilson Desk. These recordings constitute some of the Watergate tapes.