Writing Desk

Pull up a chair to this elegant writing desk and imagine the stories it has to tell. Unlike the flat expanses of machined particle board that we type away on today, this little desk was made by an expert carpenter. The wood was milled into planks, then planed and carved by a skilled craftsperson to create a decorative yet functional piece of office furniture.

Whose hands cut, assembled, sanded and oiled this object? Exactly when and where was it made? These are just two of the many unanswered questions about this desk. Perhaps it was sent to Ottawa from England sometime in the late 1800s. Made to support heavy ledgers and with a soft surface for putting pen to paper, this desk may have been used by the clerk of a Senate committee. The inlaid leather surface saw the everyday work of the Senate of Canada at a time when all records were meticulously kept by hand. 

By the early 1900s, the Senate of Canada occupied chambers in the newly constructed Parliament Building. In 1916, a fire broke out and spread quickly through the timber-lined building. Although most people were able to escape before it collapsed, seven people died. Senators and staff scrambled to save anything they could, including paintings, personal items, records and furniture. Senator William Sharpe with help, carried this desk from the building, saving it from becoming fuel. This desk is one of the few objects of material culture remaining from the earliest days of Canada’s Parliament.

After this near escape, the desk disappeared for many years. While it is not known how the desk was used in the interim, it is possible that it found space in private homes where it was used to organize household finances and support the writing of letters to family and friends, announcing the joys and sufferings of everyday life. It wasn’t until 1981 that it was reacquired by the Senate and moved back to Parliament Hill. With the original desk now protected from the harms of inks and hands, a replica is used as the surface on which senators sign their Declaration of Qualification.

Much has changed since this little desk was used in the original Parliament Building. The first woman to get a seat in the Senate Chamber, the Honourable Cairine Wilson, was appointed in 1930 after the Famous Five won the Persons Case to allow women to serve in the Senate. The first Black senator, the Honourable Anne C. Cools, wasn’t appointed until 1984.

More than 100 years after it was made, this desk still remembers the hands of the person who made it, the story of the tragic fire and early political record keeping — even the lives of the regular people who used it to tell their stories. Now, it is telling a different story, one of admittance and ceremony, and of all those who have a seat at the table.

Diana Savage is the Director of Exhibits at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.