David GruberSTS 214

The pencil:A social, political, and material history

1560s-1660s

• Before pencils, people marked on papyrus with a stylus. Pencils were initially sticks of graphite wrapped in string.

- Why graphite?*Huge deposit discovered in England in 1564*Made darker black marks, better than a lead stylus

Q: Why were they wrapped in string?

1660s-1812

• England and Germany produced pencils, wrapping the graphite in wood casings.

• At the time, all pencils were imported to the US.Q: But what happened in 1812?

HINT

1812

• So William Monroe, living outside Boston, had an idea! Can you guess what it is?

1812

• Monroe experiments with graphite and clay mixtures and finds a way to make “lead” without having to harden it in a furnace.

Q: Why is this potentially good for Monroe?

1812-1814

• Manufacturers, like Monroe, crop up in the dozens. And they all need local graphite. Why?

• The local graphite is located in New York State. But, as it turns out, the best graphite is in England and China. And the best trees for pencil casings are located in Tennessee. Can you say Eastern Red Cedar?

1816-1900 (some effects)• American pencil makers import most graphite and move their

companies south and start cutting down trees.

• Ebenezer Wood (old “friend”) invents pencil cutter. Joseph Dixon invents a machine that can better plane wood to fit pencils. He mass produces pencils and makes a ton of cash. As a result, there’s more pencils than ever before!

• After the War of 1812, some import “lead” from England, China,

or Germany, while others use what exists in New York. Q: to remain competitive with the fancy (“better”) Chinese pencils, what do you think the companies do?

Fake it!

1860s

• Pencil demand goes up. Some reasons… Look at the pictures here below and take a guess!

1900-1940

• Whoops! More trees are needed! Tennessee sees irresponsible tree management; tall stands of the Eastern Red Cedar start disappearing. So what happens to the pencil?

Can you say Incense Cedar?

Okay, backup…

• Notice the pencil was “invented” in the 1560s. Why then?

• What happened in the 1440s? And then what did Aldus Manutius do in Venice in the early 1500s?

The rise of the pencil

• So what happened? Why did people want to make pencils? What happened between the 1560s and the early 1800s to cause people to desire pencils such that demand for them skyrocketed? (remember: writing tools existing for thousands of years)

• A long history goes into the “silent reading subjectivity.”

The point

• The pencil is an object of social, political, and material processes over a long period of time.– Personal relationships, business partnerships,

cultural symbols, gender, class, literacy rates– Wars, trade deals– Graphite, trees, hands and brains (influences on

thinking / ways of thinking)

sources• http://designhistory.org/books.html• http://www.pencils.com/pencil-history• http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Dixon-Ticonderoga-Company

-Company-History.html• http://www.officemuseum.com/pencil_history.htm• http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/Pencil.html