Artifact: Pencil Patent
Materials:
Dimensions:
Date: 1822
Origin: England
Collection: WikiMedia Commons
License: Public Domain
Ledger Entry: Pencil
Department: Literacy
Customer: Jeremiah Hutchinson
Ledger Page: 210
Imported From:
Product Description
Though many wrote with a quill and ink during the eighteenth century, pencils were also common devices. These were basically pieces of graphite encased in wood or other materials that could be pressed onto paper to leave a mark. Eighteenth-century advertisements indicate that there were black lead, slate, and red pencils, including some made of cedar. Other types of pencils featured these materials encased in brass or other metals.
Citation: E. Jennifer Monaghan, Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2007).;
Historical Price: 7 pence; Modern USD: $6.54
Product Variations
The databases record eight purchases of pencils. Qualifiers include slate and steel and ranged in quantity from one to a dozen pencils. Pencils ranged in price from four pence for two pencils to eight pence for one.
