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Library of Congress Research Guides

History of the Office and Office Equipment: A Resource Guide

This guide offers resources for researching the history of office furniture and equipment like typewriters, computers, telephones, copiers, and other inventions that contributed to the development of the modern office and how we work.

Introduction

How people work has evolved. Offices with desks have become open space plans, collaborative space, standing desks. Technology made possible alternate arrangements like hotelling, telework, and shared workspaces. This guide is an attempt to present sources related to the history and development the office, its equipment, and how we work. We hope that it can help those who are researching the machines themselves, as well as those researching the impact those machines had and will have on the development of the modern office and how we work. While the guide does not include every available resource, it should provide a good place to start for anyone interested in the topic.

For the equipment that has been included, we have mostly focused on the more obvious machines like typewriters, computers, telephones, and copiers, though we have also included a few that while not typically "office," are closely work-related. We have chosen not to include those inventions that are larger in scope like the light bulb, the elevator, and even air conditioning even though these had a major impact on the modern working environment.

this is a wood cut print shows someone seated at a table positioned below the window wearing long robes and writing

Seated figure writing at desk, 1496. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

three women are in a small office with a single door on the right and a single window on the back wall with filing cabinets along the wall; two women stand with their backs to the camera along the back wall one woman sits on the right and is looking at the camea

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Unidentified Office.. [between 1905 and 1945]. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

man stands in front of a window behind what looks to be a mechanical copying or mimeographing machines

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Office Machine. 1932 or 1933. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

eight men and women work in an office three women on the right sit at desks one man in the back sits at a desk next to two women standing a file cabinet with the top drawer open a man sit at desk on the left looking up at a woman who has her back to the camera

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Office. 1935-1936. Prints and Photograph Division Library of Congress.

view looks down on an office behind a series of file cabinets covered with papers; five men are sitting behnd what looks to be typewriters; the windows are open and there is a ceiling fan

Harris & Ewing, photographer. Office workers. 1936. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

the view is of cubicles

Carol Highsmith, photographer. Office interior. Between 1980 and 1990. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

looking down the hall at several empty wooden cubicles with computers sitting on desks

Carol Highsmith, photographer. Office workstation. Between 1980 and 1990. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

view of a business cubicle with a single computer siing on the desk with two overhead bins and one set of small desk drawers

Carol Highsmith, photographer. Office interior. Between 1980 and 2006. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

About the Business Section

Part of the Science & Business Reading Room at the Library of Congress, the Business Section is the starting point for conducting research at the Library of Congress in the subject areas of business and economics. Here, reference specialists in specific subject areas of business assist patrons in formulating search strategies and gaining access to the information and materials contained in the Library's rich collections of business and economics materials.

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