The Story of Pencils Lesson Plan: Activity 1 - What are pencils used for?
From authors to presidents to foot soldiers alike, people making history have made their mark with cedar pencils.
Artist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci frequently sketched in pencil.
Benjamin Franklin advertised pencils for sale in his Pennsylvania Gazette in 1729.
Pencils have long been a useful tool for exploration. George Washington used a three-inch pencil when he surveyed the Ohio Territory in 1762. Meriwether Lewis's Packing list of mathematical instruments and other supplies for the Lewis & Clark Expedition to exlplore the Louisiana Purchase included "1 Set of Small Slates & pencils".
Before he wrote Walden, Henry David Thoreau manufactured pencils in his father's factory. Thoreau's pencils held the reputation of being the hardest, blackest pencils in the United States!
President Ulysses Grant, is said to have prefered to sketch out battle plans in pencil when he was a General for the Union Army during the Civil War. Pencils were standard issue for soldiers during the Civil War.
Thomas Edison's bright idea was to keep a 3-inch-long pencil in his vest pocket just to jot down notes!
John Steinbeck, who wrote "The Grapes of Wrath" and "Cannery Row", used as many as 60 cedar pencils every day!
Ernest Hemingway, author of "The Old Man and the Sea" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro", also favored cedar pencils for putting down his thoughts. He also used them as a news reporter in Spain when he reported on the Spanish Civil War.
Do you know of a famous person who made his or her mark on history with pencils? Send us the story here and we might include it in a future web page!