When Jefferson was a member of the Second Continental Congress, he lodged in Philadelphia with his relative, the skilled cabinetmaker, Benjamin Randolph. When he returned there in May of 1776 he commissioned him to fabricate this travel desk to his specifications.

After seeing the authentic relic at the Smithsonian Institution, and being long inspired by Thomas Jefferson, I recreated his famous desk. My reproduction, like the original, is made of solid mahogany with brass hinges and handle. The brass lock is made in England. Satinwood inlay borders the drawer front and back. A baize-like fabric covers the writing surface. True to his genius, Jefferson’s design combined style and functionality, by featuring a hinged writing surface, a locking drawer for papers quills, nibs, and a glass inkwell. A slanted book rest allowed for easier reading on his two hundred mile trips between Philadelphia and Virginia.
Appointed to the committee to draft the declaration to explain to King George of England the reasons for the separation from the mother country, the thirty-three-year-old Jefferson secluded himself near Independence Hall in a room on the second floor of a new brick house on the southwest corner of Seventh and Market Streets. He set up his portable writing box and went to work. His skills and flair for writing are evident and it has been established that Thomas Jefferson turned to neither book nor pamphlet while writing his draft of the Declaration of Independence. The contents of the document had been in his mind. Jefferson noted that he was determined “to place before mankind the common sense of the subject, in terms so firm and plain” as to justify the actions of Congress.

The original desk was used throughout his career as a Revolutionary patriot, American diplomat, ambassador, and two terms as president of the United States. It remained at his home Monticello for the next forty-nine years.