NewYorkFirst.com: Harry Truman's Desk Sign

The Buck Stops Here.

This legendary desk sign was made at the United States Southwest Reformatory in El Reno, Oklahoma. While visiting the Reformatory in 1945, Fred M. Canfil, then United States Marshal for the Western District of Missouri and a friend of Harry Truman, admired a similar sign on the desk of Warden L. Clark Schilder. The warden promptly offered to have his staff make one for the man from Missouri who served as the thirty-third President of the United States.

The desk sign was designed by Buford E. Tressider, the head of the paint shop at the Reformatory, who apparently made and painted the upright glass portion himself while receiving assistance from the carpenter shop to fashion the walnut base.

By placing the sign "The Buck Stops Here" on his desk, President Truman was stating categorically that he was responsible for all decisions made in the Oval Office. No one else was to take the blame for the way the country was governed. Surprisingly, it had nothing to do with money. He was referring to a knife with a buckhorn handle. While playing cards, players would move the dagger around the table as a way of keeping track of whose turn it was to deal the cards. When the buck "stops here," it is time to pick up the cards, shuffle, deal and play.

On more than one occasion President Truman referred to the inscription in public statements. For example, in an address at the National War College on December 19, 1952 Mr. Truman said, "You know, it's easy for the Monday morning quarterback to say what the coach should have done, after the game is over. But when the decision is up before you - and on my desk I have a motto which says 'The Buck Stops Here' - the decision has to be made."

In his farewell address to the American people given in January 1953, President Truman referred to this concept very specifically in asserting that, "The President - whoever he is - has to decide. He can't pass the buck to anybody. No one else can do the deciding for him. That's his job.”

Approximately 2-1/2" x 13" in size and mounted on walnut base, the painted sign has the words "I'm From Missouri" on the reverse side. The replicas are commissioned by the Truman Library and hand-crafted by inmates of the Missouri State Penitentiary.

Words That Changed the World.
Great speeches shouldn't have to end. Hear the words that make 20th-century history appear to be happening right now. It really is a thrill to hear history in the making: John F. Kennedy taking the oath of office, Dr. King delivering the "I Have a Dream" speech with intense clarity and emotion, Franklin Roosevelt declaring war on Japan, Nixon resigning in shame, Ronald Reagan challenging the Soviets at the Berlin Wall, Bobby Kennedy addressing the Democratic Convention, and many other examples of how the power of the spoken word can shake societies to their core.