This replica Senate Chamber desk was created for the set of Frank Capra’s classic 1939 movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Although producers were careful to duplicate many of the characteristics of the historic desks originally made for the U.S. Senate in 1819, the absence of an inkwell and sand blotter, the imitation writing top, and the cast-iron grills are vital clues that these desks were created as movie props. The same stage set was later used for Otto Preminger’s 1962 film Advise and Consent.

In 2004, the U.S. Capitol Historical Society gave this replica desk to the Senate. The previous owner acquired the desk around 1975 as a wedding present from a Southern California motion picture property manager. A label inside the desk drawer identifies the manufacturer of the desk as Angelus Furniture Manufacturing, based in Los Angeles, California.