August 15, 2025 – Humans have been writing for over 5,000 years – but furniture designated for this activity was not created until the Middle Ages when desks evolved from tables. Thomas Jefferson is one of the first Americans known to have used a standing desk (or “tall desk”) at his home in Monticello. Ernest Hemingway claimed to be more creative in the standing position. History indicates Charles Dickens, Winston Churchill and Leonardo da Vinci also stood while working.
Evolving from pin-height adjustment (a manual, labor-intensive process that moved pins on each leg) to cranks, then pneumatic and gas-assist lift, standing desks have come a long way since Jefferson. Today, standing desks dominate the market, making it easier for everyone to adjust and customize worksurfaces.
Read more about the evolution of the standing desk, including how standing encourages physical movement and positively affects the cognitive process, through decades of design in Haworth’s Great Spaces Magazine here (page12).
