McMartin & Beggins

Wye Oak Desk

Maker: McMartin & Beggins Furniture Makers
Object: Wye Oak Desk
Date: 2004
Medium: White oak (Wye Oak); secondary wood: white oak from Talbot County, Maryland. Sheepskin leather surface
Dimensions: Height, 31 x Length, 74 x Depth, 42"
Accession number: MSA SC 1545-3268

This desk is made from the wood from Maryland’s celebrated Wye Oak tree, which fell during a thunderstorm on June 6, 2002. When the Wye Oak fell , it was mourned throughout Maryland and the nation. It had stood for some 460 years on the Eastern Shore, witness to all of Maryland’s colonial and post-colonial history. The tree was owned by a succession of private owners over the centuries and was purchased by the state in 1939. In 1941, the white oak was declared the Maryland State Tree, and the Wye Oak was long recognized as the largest white oak in the United States.

As part of the process of preserving the remains of the tree, the Department of Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of General Services worked together to make sure that the wood was secured and thoroughly inventoried, including tagging and numbering each piece. Among the many suggestions made for how the wood should be used, one of the most frequently mentioned was that a significant piece of furniture should be created for the State House, including a legacy desk for all of Maryland’s governors.

In the spring of 2003, two cabinetmakers from Saint Michaels, Jim McMartin and Jim Beggins were selected to design and construct the desk. After drying for a year, construction of the desk began in 2004, designed in a classic pedestal style and using traditional joinery techniques, including hand-cut dovetails and mortise-and-tenon joints. Finishing details include inset sheepskin leather writing surfaces, embossed with the Great Seal of Maryland, and a pull-out writing surface featuring the obverse of the Great Seal.

Wye Oak Lectern

Maker: McMartin & Beggins Furniture Makers
Object: Wye Oak Lectern
Date: 2008
Medium: White oak (Wye Oak)
Dimensions: Height, 45 7/8 x Width, 27 1/16 x Depth, 21 1/4"
Accession number: MSA SC 1545-3346

This lectern is made from the wood from Maryland’s celebrated Wye Oak tree, which fell during a thunderstorm on June 6, 2002. 

The firm of McMartin & Beggins designed and built the lectern from the same wood that they used in 2003-2004 when they built the Wye Oak Desk for the governors of Maryland. The obverse of the Great Seal of Maryland inlaid on the front of the lectern is based on the seal that is inlaid on the wall of the “Governor’s” Elevator in the State House.  The seal in the elevator dates to its original construction and installation in 1913.

Wye Oak Center Table

Maker: McMartin & Beggins Furniture Makers
Object: Wye Oak Center Table
Date: 2017
Medium: White oak (Wye Oak)
Dimensions: Height, 30 x Depth, 66"
Accession number: MSA SC 1545-3491

The center table on a turned pedestal base with saber legs, has a beautiful and dramatic top with pie-wedge, crotch veneers cut from wood from the historic Wye Oak, a white oak that was believed to be over 460 years old at the time it fell during a sever thunderstorm on June 6, 2002 in Wye Mills, Talbot County. The fancy figure of the veneers is the result of cutting them from a “crotch,” the juncture of a limb with the main trunk.

Additional details of the table include ebony stringing and black-eyed Susan inlays made of English boxwood. Such elements, materials, and craftsmanship make this a true Maryland table and an important addition to the state’s collections.

Sideboard Tables

Maker: McMartin & Beggins Furniture Makers
Object: Sideboard Tables
Date: 2017
Medium: Walnut
Dimensions: 80 W x 39 H x 26" D
Accession number: MSA SC 1545-3492, 3493

These sideboards or console tables each have a serpentine front, canted front corners, and tapered legs. Made from Maryland walnut, these tables also employ the use of dramatic veneers and beautiful conch shell inlays, stringing, bellflowers, and ebonized cuffs on the feet. Though designed and made specifically for Government House, the lines and proportions of these tables are taken directly from important Maryland examples including one associated with Charles Carroll of Carrollton, one of Maryland’s four signers of the Declaration of independence, from the collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art.

These sideboards were commissioned by the Foundation for the Preservation of Government House of Maryland, Inc. in 2016, (completed in 2017) for use and display in Government House for the administration of Governor Lawrence J. Hogan and future administrations.

© Copyright January 17, 2023 Maryland State Archives