This portable writing desk belonged to Fanny Appleton when she was a teenager. It is made of wood with brass hinges and lock and has a split lid. When fully opened, the lower lid unfolds to form a writing service lined with maroon-colored velvet. The upper lid opens to reveal a separate segmented compartment for holding pens, an inkwell, sander, pen wipers and other writing supplies. On the inside lid of a storage compartment is written in ink "Frances E. Appleton. / Boston. 1832."
Portable writing desks or writing boxes were in use during the eighteenth century and even earlier, and were popular with politicians, such as Thomas Jefferson who drafted the Declaration of Independence on a portable writing box, military officers and sea captains, and authors like Jane Austen. They became widespread during the Victorian period due to increased rates of literacy and a growing middle class which had the financial means to afford such items.
Fanny would have used the desk on trips such as her journey to Niagara Falls, Canada and Vermont in 1833, and perhaps the Appleton family’s Grand Tour of Europe in 1835 -1837, as well as other, shorter excursions and outings. Writing letters to friends and family that chronicled the places visited, the sights, and the people she met was one of Fanny's common activities while traveling, and this desk would have been an important part of that activity. It was compact and easily transportable, and could be used while in a hotel room, aboard a ship, or even outdoors. The desk’s locking lid would have provided a measure of privacy for the thoughts she put down on paper, and helped protect the writing implements and supplies while traveling.
The desk became something of a family heirloom, as Fanny’s daughter Annie reportedly used it during the Longfellow family’s own European Grand Tour in 1868-1869. When the NPS acquired the desk it was packed with over 40 of Annie Longfellow's letters, as well as writing tools and artists' brushes. The wear, marks, and numerous ink stains on the velvet writing surface attest to the desk’s long use.