Moulthrop Movable Langslow Fowler Desk

Designed in 1905 by Samuel Parker Moulthrop, and manufactured by The Langslow Fowler Company, the Moulthrop Movable Chair Desk is an example of innovative school seating. Samuel P. Moulthrop (1848-1932) was a progressive educator who studied various learning environments as a teacher, principal, and superintendent in Rochester, New York. Fascinated with the work of Maria Montessori, he introduced educational innovations into the public schools like kindergarten classes, the use of manipulatives for lower grades, and mechanical drawing and choral clubs to older children. He worked with immigrant communities to promote English and Americanization through evening classes. He facilitated after-school youth clubs promoting ‘knife work,’ wood carving, designed and participated in nature walks to deter delinquency in young males, and arranged sewing and cooking classes for girls. Later he became involved with scouting and the Playground League. He was passionate about the need for exercise, encouraging calisthenics and swimming as a benefit for mental and physical health.

As a result, Mouthrop recognized the need for an easily movable chair desk combination that could be used in a variety of seating arrangements to accommodate classroom activities such as pageants, plays, and marching to promote patriotism. By the turn of the century, he submitted patents for other educational materials: a ventilated school wardrobe and an educational apparatus that was similar to an easel with a scroll similar those on Chatauqua desks. His most sucessful school design was a chair desk. It featured a scooped seat with a curved back support, a cut out handle on the back, a good sized drawer under the seat for school supplies and an attached moveable desk top that could be angled to take advantage of the light and positioned for better posture and penmanship. To produce the desk, Moulthrop worked with Langslow Fowler, a local Rochester furniture company founded by carpenters Purdy Fowler, Henry A. Langslow, and Stratton C. Langslow. With an immigrant workforce, the company specialized in the manufacturing of chairs, particularly rockers, until Moulthrop approached them with his design. Langslow Fowler began producing these chair desks using the Moulthrop name in 1905, when the school furnishing industry was flourishing due to the huge growth in schools.

Samuel Moulthrop does not appear to have applied for a patent for the desk. Langslow Fowler however promoted the desk at numerous fairs and expositions and produced several extensive catalogs featuring the chair desk. The 1909 catalog touted the soundless ease of moving these desks within the classroom due to glides on the back legs and rubber tips on the front. The chair desk won national and international design awards as the preferred desk for preventing vision problems and obviating defective discipline. Langslow Fowler developed modifications such as adding a side book rack. The improvements featured greater adjustability on the desktop, as well as an optional larger surface for drawing, so by 1912 when Langslow Fowler applied for the patent, they were promoting a couple of models of the “original Moulthrop style moveable chair desk.” By 1913, the chair desk became the preferred new desk form, particularly in urban schools because it was sturdy, self-contained, adjustable and easy to move about in the classroom, even though older combination desk models were also in large supply. Langslow Fowler was granted the patent in 1917, though by then there were numerous unauthorized versions of the desk being produced.

In the 1920s, the American Seating Company contracted with Langslow Fowler to sell the Moulthrop chair desk. Within 10 years, the desks were manufactured and sold under the American seating name. In 1950, American seating applied for their own patent of a modified chair desk, one that had an open shelf below the seat instead of a more costly drawer.