The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

1 2 4 • s m i t h s o n i a n c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o h i s t o ry a n d t e c h n o l o g yFigure 2. Postal ephemera. From the collection of Catherine J. Golden.Cohen, “practical, sensible, and tongue- in- cheek.” 15 Carrolladvises the writer to reread a letter before answeringit; to affix the stamp and address the envelope before writingthe letter to avoid the “wildly- scrawled signature—thehastily- fastened envelope, which comes open in the post—the address, a mere hieroglyphic”; to write legibly; toavoid extensive apologies for not writing sooner; to use asecond sheet of paper rather than to “cross”—“Rememberthe old proverb ‘Cross- writing makes cross reading’”; andso on. Carroll even suggests where to store the postagestamp case: “this is meant to haunt your envelope- case, orwherever you keep your writing- materials.” 16 “Curiouserand curiouser,” why didn’t Carroll designate “writingdesk” as the logical depository for his postage stamp casegiven his riddle and the writing desk’s popularity amongthe Victorians?Beginning in the 1830s, writing desks came withineconomic reach of members of an increasingly literatemiddle class. Moreover, the grand display of writingproducts at the Great Exhibition of 1851 increasedmiddle- class demand for affordable desks. The Victoriansfound their writing desks indispensable for storing writingmaterials; valuables, including money and jewelry; vitaldocuments, such as passports and wills; and private correspondence,such as billets- doux. The writing desk—alsocalled a writing box, lap desk, writing slope, dispatch boxor case, portable or traveling writing desk, or simply a boxor a desk—likely grew out of the medieval lectern 17 andpaved the way for subsequent innovations in writing thathave replaced it: the brief case, the laptop, the Palm Pilot,the BlackBerry, and the iPhone.There were four types of writing desks—the mostbasic being a box with a sloping lid, hinged at either topor bottom. 18 The desk has a writing slope; a place for stationery,blotting paper, envelopes, sealing wax, and smallwriting manuals; a pen rest for quill pens or steel nib pens(as the century progressed); a stamp compartment (usedfor wafers before the invention of stamps); one or twoink bottles (one likely for pounce, a chalky substance toblot ink, commonly used before the invention of blottingpaper); and a key lock. Elaborate desks contain multiplestorage compartments, 19 and some fancy boxes are combinationdesks—writing desk/work boxes and writing desk/dressing cases.Writing desks—which we might aptly call Victorianlaptops—tell us about privacy, security, and portability at