The Swivel Chair

Ritva in her office chair

The Swivel Chair

Using an English-style Windsor chair president Thomas Jefferson invented the first swivel chair. Jefferson heavily modified the Windsor chair and incorporated top and bottom parts connected by a central iron spindle, enabling the top half known as the seat, to swivel on casters of the type used in rope-hung windows. When the Second Continental Congress met in Philadelphia, Jefferson's swivel chair is purported to be where he drafted the United States Declaration of Independence in 1776.

Windsor Chair

Carin sitting in the Winsor chair

Windsor Chair

The Windsor chair originated in England, where at the beginning of the 1700s it was found in peasant homes and in village pubs. According to tradition the name origin from George III, who during a walk in Windsor's surrounding areas saw the chair in a cabin and become so fond of it that he ordered a set for the Windsor Castle.

The chair was well liked both by kings and presidents. George Washington had at Mount Vernon a large number of Windsor chairs and Thomas Jefferson sat in a Windsor chair in 1776 when he signed the U.S. Declaration of Independence.

It was above all in the U.S. that the Windsor chair made a break through. It was so widespread in USA that it is often regarded as an American type of chair.