A few weeks ago, I was writing from the Mezzanine at the Pfister, browsing the curio cases of antique hotel ephemera, mostly old ledgers used to keep track of things. I found myself wondering what kinds of pens and pencils staff and visitors might have used when the hotel first opened in 1893 and into the early 1900s. I collect a lot of writing instruments and accessories: pens, pencils, inkwells, stationery, writing folios, traveling writing desk slopes. So naturally, I went looking for answers.
Here’s what I learned.
Fountain pens existed well before 1893. Waterman’s is often credited as one of the first, with a design dating back to 1884. But they weren’t the default writing tool for most people yet. Sources on pen history place true mass adoption around World War I, and more firmly in the 1920s. Before that, fountain pens were expensive, often unreliable, and associated more with businessmen and the well-to-do.
Dip pens and pencils remained the everyday tools for most guests and staff well into the 1920s. Knowing this, I went through my own collection and pulled three writing instruments that were likely in use when the Pfister first opened in 1893 and through the 1910s.
No. 1: The dip pen and pencil combo, unsigned but possibly attributed to Mabie Todd, c. 1860s. Push a small ring and the nib pops forward, retracting again when you’re done, a small bit of engineering meant to protect the nib in a pocket or travel case. Twist the opposite end and a pencil lead extends the same way. Combination pieces like this were popular gifts in the Victorian era, often silver, sometimes engraved with initials or a small floral motif. Someone checking into the Pfister in 1893 could plausibly have carried something just like it to sign the register.
No. 2: The mechanical dip pen, unsigned, c. 1860s. Where the combo piece does two jobs, this one does one job well. It’s a nib holder built to telescope or retract, protecting the point when not in use, usually finished in silver or gold plate. These were common travel and desk pieces of the era, sold alongside the combination versions I mentioned above, and would have been just as at home in a hotel writing room as in a traveler’s coat pocket.
No.3: The gold mechanical pencil, late 1910s to early 1920s. This one is a regular pencil shape, likely a gold-filled case, and the lead simply extends from the tip when you twist the top. What makes it unique is a small ring at the end, meant for a chain, chatelaine, or necklace, so it could be retrieved quickly. Best suited, I’d guess, for an avid writer who wanted a pencil always within reach.
These utensils are a reminder that the guests writing letters in this lobby in 1893 were working with tools that were still finding their footing, not so different from figuring out which pen actually works before you sit down to write.
— Megan