Exchanges of gifts, or simply giving gifts is an old tradition between nations, dating back to the ancients. Emissaries between governments often arrived at their new station bearing gifts from their sovereign, indications of friendship. There are some who consider the famed legendary Trojan Horse to have been a gift, though The Aeneid makes clear it was a votive to the goddess Athena.
One of the earliest gifts to another nation given by the United States was the new ship of war, America, built in Portsmouth during the Revolutionary War. Congress gave the ship to France to replace another lost in a grounding, and besides, with the war ending, the United States no longer had a navy. But it offered a convenient means of expressing gratitude to the King of France for his aid during the war.
It is a tradition which continues, for a number of reasons. Here are ten notable examples of gifts between nations.
10. Morocco Made a Gift of Lions to the United States in the 1830s… Twice
Morocco was the first nation to recognize the Independence of the United States, and the treaty of amity between the two nations is the oldest American treaty still in effect. In the 1830s two different Sultans made gifts of lions to the United States, and in both instances, they were delivered to the American legation in Tangier. In both cases the American Consul in Tangier wrote to Washington for instructions. The first case concerned a lion and two Arabian horses intended as gifts for President Andrew Jackson.
The animals remained at the legation, at Consul James Leib’s expense, while Congress dithered. Returning the animals to the Sultan was unthinkable. Finally, Congress passed a resolution to have the animals sold, with the proceeds donated to Washington orphanages. When Leib’s successor to the post, Thomas Carr, presented his credentials to the Sultan he received notice of a gift of two matched lions, as well as more horses, intended for the President. Again, the consul waited for instructions from Congress, writing them of the inordinate expenses he suffered to feed the lions while he waited for Congressional action.
While he waited for Congress, Carr informed the Sultan that the President and Congress could not accept gifts. The Sultan responded that the lions were gifts to the American people, and insisted they be accepted, which Carr relayed to Washington. Congress finally passed a law instructing the President to house gifts from foreign dignitaries and rulers in the Department of State, or to “dispose in such time and manner as he shall see fit” of gifts which could not be accommodated. When the lions arrived in America they were quietly sold, the funds deposited in the Treasury, as per Congressional mandate.
9. France Gave the United States the Statue of Liberty in 1886
The plans for France to give the Statue of Liberty began in the 1860s, with the French intending to provide the statue as a gift celebrating America’s centennial in 1876. In 1865 Edouard Rene Laboulaye, a French jurist and author, proposed the statue as a gift from France to the United States. The statue presented considerable engineering problems with both its frame and its copper sheathing, and wasn’t erected in Paris until 1884, where it towered over the city for a short period before being disassembled and shipped to New York in over 300 pieces aboard the frigate Isère. There it was stored while the pedestal was completed.
France raised money for the statue via a lottery and charity entertainments. In the United States, money for the pedestal was less forthcoming. It took considerable efforts from Joseph Pulitzer, and his New York World to raise the money, supported by funds raised through prize fights, charity events, and private donations. Finally, in 1886, the statue began to rise on its pedestal overlooking New York Harbor. Frèdèric-Auguste Garibaldi’s final design included a broken shackle beneath Liberty’s foot, symbolizing the end of slavery in the United States. The Statue with its raised torch was built on a frame designed by Gustav Eiffel, builder of the eponymous tower in Paris.
In October, 1886, officials from France and the United States attended the dedication of the Statue of Liberty, already known as the New Colossus, with President Grover Cleveland presiding over the festivities. Numerous modifications and renovations have occurred to the statue over the years, including the replacement of most of Garibaldi’s torch with a replica during the 1980s. It is arguably the most famous of all gifts from one nation to another, and certainly the most recognizable.
8. Queen Victoria and Great Britain Presented the United States with the Resolute Desk in 1880
HMS Resolute was a Royal Navy barque which took part in the 1852-54 Belcher Expedition, an attempt by the Royal Navy to determine the fate of the ill-fated Franklin Expedition. Ice bound in 1854, Resolute was abandoned by its crew. An American whaler found the derelict ship and brought it back to New London. The US Congress purchased the ship as salvage, paid for its restoration, and then had the US Navy sail it to England as a gift of friendship between the United States and Great Britain. The ship served over 20 years in the Royal Navy before being sold to scrappers for breaking up.
Three desks were ordered to be built from the oak frames of Resolute. One of them, in a design known as a partner’s desk, was then given to the United States, in the person of President Rutherford B. Hayes, by Queen Victoria. Hayes took possession of the desk in 1880. Her Majesty kept another of the three desks which remains in the Royal Collection, and the third was given to the widow of Henry Grinnell, in appreciation of his efforts attempting to determine the fate of the Franklin Expedition. That desk is now in the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts.
Since President Hayes accepted the Resolute desk on behalf of the American people it has been used by every subsequent American president except Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. Johnson had it removed due to its many photographs of the Kennedy children playing near it while their father worked at the desk. He loaned the desk to the Kennedy library traveling expedition, after which it was displayed at the Smithsonian. Jimmy Carter brought it back to the White House. The Resolute desk thus represents two gifts between nations, and a plaque attached to the desk acknowledges the fact.
7. The Mayor of Tokyo Sent the United States Approximately 3,000 Yoshino Cherry Trees in 1912
Washington’s famed cherry trees did not originate with a gift from Japan, as is so often related. In the early 1900s several efforts to plant cherry trees in the capital were underway, including experiments with various Japanese varieties to determine their hardiness in the climate. During this period, a Japanese scientist, Dr. Jokichi Takemine (the man who discovered adrenaline) visited Washington in company of the Japanese Consul to New York. Takemine suggested a Japanese donation of several thousand trees, the Consul agreed, and the Mayor of Tokyo, Yukio Ozaki, was persuaded to donate the trees to the United States.
The first shipment of 2,000 trees arrived in 1910 in Washington, where it was determined they were infested with pestilence potentially harmful as an invasive species. The trees were gathered together and burned, on orders from President William Howard Taft. When American regrets were expressed to Japan, the decision was made to send a second shipment of carefully cultivated and pre-screened trees. That shipment, over 3,000 trees, arrived in 1912. The first two trees were ceremonially planted in March 1912, and over the ensuing eight years the rest were given root in locations around Washington.
President Taft expressed his gratitude to the Japanese with a gift of flowering dogwoods in 1915. Following World War II, grafts from the trees in Washington were sent to Japan to help restore the groves from which they had originated, severely damaged during the war. In 1965 an additional gift of 3,800 trees arrived from Japan, in support of Lady Bird Johnson’s drive to beautify the American capital. The Japanese cherry trees in Washington signify not one, but a series of gifts between the two nations which continue to this day.
6. Great Britain Gave the Soviet Union the Sword of Stalingrad, Inscribed by King George VI, and Delivered by Churchill at the Tehran Conference
The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the largest and most decisive in human history. An entire German army was destroyed, with 750,000 casualties sustained, while the victorious Red Army suffered nearly half a million dead. It ended German offensive actions on the Eastern Front and was a turning point in the war. In 1943, as Winston Churchill prepared to attend the Tehran Conference with President Roosevelt and Soviet Premier Stalin, he suggested the British prepare a gift to the Soviet people to acknowledge their victory and their enormous sufferings to that point of the conflict.
King George VI commissioned the Wilkinson Sword Company to produce a unique commemorative sword, known as the Sword of Stalingrad. The sword used 18 kt gold to bind the hilt. Its crossguard was made of silver, and a crystal was used for the pommel. Its blade was of the finest Sheffield steel and along each side was etched the words, “To the steel-hearted citizen of Stalingrad – the Gift of King George VI – in token of homage of the British people”. The two-handed sword was carried to Tehran by Churchill’s entourage in November 1943.
Churchill presented the Sword of Stalingrad to Stalin during a break in the conference, in the presence of Roosevelt, who endorsed its message and significance. As a gift between wartime allies it was appreciated by Stalin, though he used the conference to push for greater Lend-Lease aid and a second front in Europe immediately. By the 21st century the sword, a gift from Britain to the Soviet Union, sat ignored in a Volgograd museum. In the post-war years it returned to Britain on three separate occasions for tours, only to be returned to the Soviet Union and relative anonymity.
5. Since World War II Ended, the People of Netherlands Have Given Canada 20,000 Tulip Bulbs Every Year
During the Second World War Dutch Princess Juliana and her two children fled from her native Netherlands when the Germans invaded and overran the country in 1940. She went to Canada, settled in Ottawa, and there her third child was born. She remained in Canada for the rest of the war. Several other prominent Dutch citizens and members of the nobility sheltered in exile in Canada during the war years, where they received warm greetings and treatment from the government and from Canadian citizens.
At war’s end most went home, but their gratitude for the haven offered by the Canadians has lived on to the present day. Since 1945, the Dutch have sent thousands of tulip bulbs to Canada as a gesture of friendship and gratitude. It is difficult to determine the exact number of bulbs which arrive in Canada each year, but the Dutch Royal Family and the people of Netherlands send thousands, as many as 20,000 to Canada, where they are planted in beds around Ottawa.
The tulips are more than just an annual nod of thanks for Canadian hospitality. They also signify the sacrifices made by Canadian troops during the liberation of Netherlands and Belgium during the drive across Europe in 1944 and 1945. The tulips are a symbol from the Dutch expressing the longstanding comity between Netherlands and Canada, and are enjoyed by Canadian citizens and their visitors every spring.
4. China Made the United States a Gift of Two Giant Pandas in 1972
President Nixon’s visit to China in 1972 was a stunning event of the 20th century. It was, in essence, a new opening of China to the west. During his visit numerous cultural exchanges were made, or announced for the future. Personal gifts were exchanged between Mr. and Mrs. Nixon and Chairman Mao and his wife. One gift, which was on a national level, was China’s gift to the United States of two Giant Pandas, the first ever to appear in America. The gift was housed in the National Zoo, an operation of the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington.
The Chinese received a gift of animals in return, two native American musk oxen, though it is doubtful they generated the same excitement in China as the Pandas did in America. They quickly became the most popular exhibit at the National Zoo. The Pandas, Ling-Ling and Hsing-Hsing were expected to breed. When they were slow about it President Nixon expressed doubts whether they knew what to do. They did, because together they produced five cubs, though none survived more than a few days.
Ling-Ling died in 1992, Hsing-Hsing in 1999. Replacement Pandas arrived from China over a year later. The gift of the two Giant Pandas, which was in response to a remark from Pat Nixon to Chou En-Lai that she liked the species, created a now five decades-long cooperation between Chinese researchers and scientists and those of the Smithsonian and its affiliates, in animal research and conservation of many species indigenous to both nations.
3. President Nixon Presented the Soviet Union with a Custom-Made Porcelain Chess Set from the People of the United States in 1972
Chess was a national game of the Soviet Union, and remains so in many of its now independent republics. Prior to his visit to the Soviet Union in 1972, Richard Nixon commissioned a custom chess set, to be presented to Soviet Premier Brezhnev as a gift from the people of the United States to the people of the Soviet Union. The set’s playing pieces were based on 14th century tapestries The Nine Heroes, which depicted characters of Arthurian legend.
The board for the special set was three feet by three feet. The light squares were made from North American curly maple, the dark from black walnut, both from trees from Buck County, Pennsylvania. The pieces were of porcelain, gilded with precious metals, and about 7 inches in height. The Cybis Porcelain studio of Trenton, New Jersey produced the design of the pieces and the parts from which they were made. The set bore an inscription on the case, dedicating it “To the People of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics From President and Mrs Richard Nixon and the People of the United States of America, May 1972”.
Later, during a Brezhnev visit to the United States, Nixon met with the Soviet Premier at Camp David and gave him a far more personal gift, a new Lincoln Continental, donated by the Ford Motor Company. The exuberant Brezhnev, with Nixon in the passenger seat, promptly drove off in the car, hitting speeds of up to 60 mph on the winding Catoctin Mountain roads. “That was something”, commented a shaken Nixon when the impromptu tour came to an end.
2. The Netherlands Carillon was a Gift from the People of the Netherlands to the People of the United States
In Arlington Virginia, just off the George Washington Parkway and in sight of Arlington National Cemetery and the Marine Corps War Memorial rises a 127-foot steel tower. Every fifteen minutes, bells in the tower chime. Drawn to it by the sound, which includes concerts by guest artists during the summer months, visitors discover the Netherlands Carillon, a grand carillon with 53 bells, all manufactured in Holland. The hand cast and crafted bells were inscribed with poetry and etched symbols before being delivered for installation. The etchings reflect Dutch culture and art.
The Netherlands Carillon is a gift from the people of Netherlands to the United States, in gratitude for America’s efforts to free the Dutch people from the Nazis during World War II. Surrounded by flower gardens, which of course include tulips in the spring, the gift is more than a bell tower. It is a musical instrument, available for concerts and private events. As an instrument, it requires periodic refurbishment of its working parts, including the bells and keyboard through which they are played.
Originally dedicated on May 5, 1960, with 49 bells, the carillon has been expanded, first to 50 bells in 1995, and to 53 in 2021. During a renovation in the 21st century all the bells were removed and returned to the Netherlands for refurbishment, while the steel tower was renovated. The renovation was and is being funded by the Netherland-America Foundation. A gift which is visited, seen, and heard, the Netherlands Carillon stands as a symbol of Dutch gratitude and as one of friendship between the people of Netherlands and the people of the United States.
1. China Paid for and Built the Estadio Nacional, a Soccer and Multi-use Stadium, as a Gift to Costa Rica in 2011
China didn’t just pay for the $100 million Estadio Nacional in Costa Rica. It sent the workers to build it, as well as most of the steel and other materials used in the construction of the ultra-modern 35,000 seat soccer stadium, which opened in 2011. Though ostensibly a gift from China to Costa Rica, there was more than a hint of a quid pro quo regarding its construction and financing.
The agreement to finance and build the stadium was part of several agreements reached by President Òscar Arias of Costa Rica and Hu Jintao of China during a visit by Arias to Asia in October, 2007. The agreements specified Chinese labor would be used, exempt from labor laws of Costa Rica. It also included Costa Rica canceling its diplomatic relations with Taiwan. In return, Costa Rica received a brand new state of the art football facility, as a gift from the Chinese.
Once the stadium opened, in March 2011, China and Costa Rica entered into a free trade agreement, another arrangement agreed to in 2007. So, though the stadium is called a gift from one nation to another, others take a more cynical view. Whichever, Costa Rica received a facility which has since housed football matches, other sports events, and concerts, including the opening concert of the British band Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres World Tour in March, 2022.