One of the finest writing tables of the 19th century, this desk epitomizes royal luxury with its magnificent craftsmanship, exquisite design, and ingenious secret compartments.
3. This is the simple green pine desk at which Henry David Thoreau wrote his influential work, Walden, while living in a small house he built himself at Walden Pond on land owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson.
4. This stunning desk was built for Louis Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) in the early 1800s
5. Ernest Hemingway’s desk in Key West still has the typewriter he used to write some of his best-known works.
6. Sigmund Freud's desk
Since the 1890s, Freud collected over two thousand artifacts, often displaying them on his writing table.
“I must always have an object to love,” he confessed to Carl Jung.
7. Jane Austen's writing desk at her family home in Hampshire, England
8. At this very desk, C.S. Lewis wrote much of his non-fiction, the Space Trilogy, and the Chronicles of Narnia.
9. Thomas Edison's laboratory desk
10. This is the working table used by Virginia Woolf at Monk’s House, East Sussex, photographed by Gisèle Freund in 1965:
11. Mark Twain’s desk in his home in Hartford, Connecticut
12. This writing table is one of Beethoven's few surviving pieces of furniture
13. In 1844, Abraham Lincoln began using this desk during his time as a lawyer.
After Mrs. Lincoln spilled ink on it, she threw it out, but he rescued and repaired it.
Years later, Lincoln wrote several speeches on it before becoming the 16th president of the United States.
14. Winston Churchill's desk at Chartwell
15. Charles Darwin’s 140-year-old desk
16. The writing table in author Jack London’s cottage near Glen Ellen, California
17. Desk and chair used by Charles Dickens in his study at Gad’s Hill Place, England
18. Nikola Tesla in his office at 8 West 40th Street, New York City in 1916
19. One of the United States' most precious historical relics is the lap desk Thomas Jefferson used to draft the Declaration of Independence in 1776.
20. This is the desk where J.R.R. Tolkien wrote and illustrated The Hobbit
Every year, from 1920 to 1943, the Tolkien children received letters from Father Christmas hilmself.
They came with tales and illustrations of Santa Claus and his helpers — each with a North Pole stamp designed by J.R.R. Tolkien.
Here’s the story behind them... (thread)📷
In 1920, Tolkien’s first Father Christmas letter arrived at the Oxford home of his three-year-old son, John.
It was hand-painted and carried a whimsical North Pole stamp priced at "2 kisses."
The card depicted a red-coated white-bearded figure walking through snow, alongside a snow-covered yurt tucked behind pine trees, captioned "Me" and "My House."
It was the start of a heartwarming family tradition that lasted 23 years.
Leo Tolstoy hand-wrote all 1,400 pages of War and Peace.
The handwriting of great authors 🧵
1. Fyodor Dostoevsky's manuscript draft of The Brothers Karamazov
2. J. R. R. Tolkien's letter from Aragorn to Sam Gamgee, in which the King of Gondor informs the hobbit of his future visit and expresses his desire to "greet all his friends."
Unpopular opinion: Christopher Columbus was a hero.
He singlehandedly carried the torch of Christianity and Western civilization across the ocean, lighting the dawn of a new world.
A thread on one of the most courageous explorers in history 🧵
"I should not proceed by land to the East, as is custom, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone."
Columbus wrote this on August 3, 1492.
Can you imagine the bravery it took to even consider such a journey?
It cannot be overstated: Columbus literally crossed the Atlantic and opened the Americas to Europe.
That single act set in motion a series of cultural, religious, and intellectual exchanges that have defined the modern world.
Gen Z is rediscovering sacred music. They are drawn to the otherworldliness of it. 🧵
1. Katie Marshall sings a cappella in the Cloisters of Gloucester Cathedral
2. Blind girl sings Amazing Grace a cappella in a church
3. Composed in 1638, Allegri’s Miserere was originally intended to only be sung during Holy Week, and to never leave the Sistine Chapel in order to preserve the mystery of the music.
Here it is performed by St Paul’s Cathedral Choir.
1. The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, begun in 1228, includes two churches (Upper and Lower) and a crypt with the saint’s remains.
Francis was buried on 25 May 1230 under the Lower Basilica, but its burial site remained a mystery until its rediscovery in 1818.
2. Assisi, in Umbria, is both the birthplace and resting place of Saint Francis, and its basilica dates back to 1228.
Designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it is an iconic Christian pilgrimage destination and serves as an important example of the Gothic style in Italy.