Thomas Jefferson accomplished a nifty many highly important thing in his career as a found Father , statesman , diplomatist , and politician — but he might have missed his calling as a piece of furniture designer . Our nation ’s third president basicallyinvented the swivel chair , as well as a walking stick that fold into a small chair , a revolving bookstand that allowed bibliophiles to read five book on a caprice , and a portable lap desk on which he drafted a little text file called the Declaration of Independence .
As the delegate from Virginia to the Continental Congress in 1776 , Jefferson had the “ writing boxwood , ” as he call it , built by a Philadelphia furniture maker named Benjamin Randolph . It ’s made of mahogany tree and is about 10 inches farseeing by 14 inch wide by 3 inch cryptic , but it does a lot with the limited space . The desk includes a fold up board attached to the top to increase the writing surface , as well as alockable drawerwith space for paper , pen and a chalk inkwell .
Jefferson used it for almost 50 years , ultimately giving it to his grandson - in - jurisprudence , Joseph Coolidge Jr. When Jefferson ’s granddaughter Ellen Randolph married in 1825 , Jefferson need to give his novel in - jurisprudence a handmade , inlaid desk . Unfortunately , the ship carrying the desk from Richmond to Boston sank , so Jefferson pass down the trustworthy penning desk instead .
On November 14 , 1825 , just over seven months before he died , Jefferson save to Ellen :
If not patent already , the note that Jefferson attached under the penning card solidifies a sense that the man knew his property in history : " Politics as well as Religion has its superstitions . These , advance strength with meter , may , one day , give imaginary economic value to this relic , for its great association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence . "
In aFebruary 27 , 1826letter thanking his grandfather - in - jurisprudence for the gift , Coolidge wrote , “ — I would fain regard it as no longer inanimate , and tongueless , but as something to be interrogated and caressed . "
The desk abide in the Coolidge family for the next half a C until April 1880 , when the family donated it to the government . It was first displayed in the Department of State and then transferred to the Smithsonian in 1921 , where it remains to this sidereal day .
