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George Washington Sat Here

elizabeth healy, senior copy editor

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George Washington's Rising Sun chair, Independence Hall, Philadelphia. I took a photo, but it was too dark. So I borrowed this from the web.

Photo: ushistory.org

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I just got back from a three-day trip to Philadelphia where we were immersed in history from beginning to end. As is typical when you return from a vacation, everybody has questions:

1.  Did you have a good time?

2.  Did you eat a cheesesteak?

3.  How was the hotel?

Here at Fine Woodworking, though, the "usual" questions are never enough. So I wasn't surprised when I got this one:

"Did you see George Washington's chair?"

Happily, we did. The "rising sun" chair that our first president sat in during the Constitutional Convention was right there, center stage, in Independence Hall. It's gorgeous. (For more info, go here.)

And I have to admit, working among furniture fanatics has rubbed off on me. Walking out of the place where the founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence and hashed out the details of the amazing Constitution that sets us apart from the rest of the world, my first question to my significant other, Joe, was this:

"Did you SEE that amazing chair? Wow."

 "Chair? What chair?"

 "That CHAIR. How could you have missed it?"

Fortunately, he's gotten used to me by now. I can't go into a furniture shop without checking all the drawers for dovetails, looking underneath tables to see how they are made, etc. That's what happens when you spend every day with furniture makers.

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