C. C. Shepherd's Combination No 8. Writing & School Slate Desk
date: label: date made
content: 1875-1877
notes: label: Description
content: This is the Combination No 8. Writing & School Slate Desk model designed by Charles C. Shepherd of Passaic, New Jersey and patented for use in school drawing and penmanship lessons, January 1877. It is a wooden lap desk with a slate top and 8 double sided interchangable patterns that fit across the top in wooden slots on either side. The advertisements claim there is also a receptacle for holding the pictures, slate-pencil, and slate-rubber, underneath the top that flips open and has a base with a wood divider, a main compartment to store the double sided pattern slats and a smaller section at the top for for 2 ink wells and a place for dip pens,slate pencils, and a ruler. These small lap desks were designed to be used in schools for penmanship and drawing lessons.
label: Description
content: Charles C. Shepherd was born circa 1835 in New York. He was drafted by the Union Army during the Civil, but by the 1870 census was making a comfortable living as a maufacturer of slates, living in Passaic, NJ married to Anna E. (1849) , and had a growing family. In 1880 he listed himself as a manufacturer of transparent cloth. by 1900 he was an agent of fertilizer. By 1910 his wife was listed as a widow.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: New York
label: invented; patented
content: United States: New Jersey, Passaic
topic: label: used
content: Education
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Education
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. Richard Lodish American School Collection
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2014.0244.325
label: accession number
content: 2014.0244
label: catalog number
content: 2014.0244.325
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lap desk
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: slate (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 21.3 cm x 28.8 cm x 9.1 cm; 8 3/8 in x 11 11/32 in x 3 19/32 in