Thomas Jefferson's Desk, 1776

Crafted in Philadelphia, PA

National Museum of American History (Smithsonian), Washington, DC.

This portable writing box was designed by Jefferson and built for him in May 1776 by Philadelphia cabinetmaker Benjamin Randolph. Among it's first uses was the writing of the Declaration of Independence, which he composed in June, while serving in Continental Congress.

Jefferson used this laptop desk throughout his life. It has a locking drawer on the side for paper, pens, and inkwell. The adjustable bookrest is double-hinged; it folds out to provide an extended surface for writing.

By the mid 1770s, Champlain’s Quebec had grown into a huge province stretching to the Mississippi River and including modern-day Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. It was home to eighty thousand inhabitants, though only 2 percent of them spoke English. Despite its official status as a North American colony under British rule, Quebec never became a part of the coalition of colonies that eventually declared their independence in 1776. Language and religious differences set the Québécois well apart from their neighbors to the south, and when representatives of the lower thirteen colonies met at the First Continental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774, no delegate from Quebec answered the roll.

— Thomas A. Desjardin

Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold’s March to Quebec, 1775 (2006)