The desk in the Vice President's Room of the United States Capitol, colloquially known as the Wilson desk and previously called the McKinley-Barkley desk, is a large mahogany partners desk used by U.S. 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 in 1898 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. Upon Jimmy Carter's ascent to the presidency, he moved the Wilson desk back to the Vice President's Room, preferring to work at the Resolute desk.

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 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 Henry Wilson during President Ulysses S. Grant's administration. This is also untrue since the desk was purchased 23 years after the former's death.

The Wilson desk is a mahogany double-pedestal desk with ornate carving. The 31 in (79 cm) high desk has a workspace which is 80.75 in (205.1 cm) wide and 58.25 in (148.0 cm) deep. The knee-hole extends all the way through the desk and both pedestals contain drawers on both the front and back of the units. During its time in the White House the desk featured a glass top which was placed to protect its work surface.

The desk bears a property decal from the sergeant at arms of the United States Senate and is numbered S-4966. Within the kneehole area there is a small wooden box affixed to the desk where a button was installed that allowed Richard Nixon to turn on recording devices. The button no longer exists but its location is still apparent.

According to the book Presidential Anecdotes by Paul F. Boller, Nixon enjoyed working in the Oval Office with his feet propped up on the Wilson desk and, in spite of the glass cover, Nixon's "...heels began leaving scars on the top of it." Someone at the White House noticed the marring of the historic desk and, while Nixon was out of the United States, had it refinished. When Nixon returned and saw what had been done he supposedly stated, "Dammit. I didn't order that. I want to leave my mark on this place just like other Presidents!"

Garret Augustus Hobart, the 24th vice president of the United States, served from 1897 to 1899 under President William McKinley. While in office he purchased and ordered many lavish furnishings for the Vice President's Room of the United States Capitol (room S–214), then the official office for the vice president. The furnishings either purchased or ordered by Hobart included Persian rugs, mohair carpeting, Neapolitan silk curtains, "a silk velour slumber robe" to match the velour cushions on his office sofa, a $600 (equivalent to $23,220 in 2025) floor clock from Harris and Schafer jewelers, and a large mahogany desk, now known as the Wilson desk.

The desk was likely ordered in 1898 from W. B. Moses and Sons by Hobart. According to the United States Senate Curator's Office, W. B. Moses and Sons was, at the time, "the largest exclusively retail furniture, carpet, and drapery business in the nation." W. B. Moses and Sons also provided other furniture for the Senate around this time including eight benches for the United States Senate Reception Room.