In some parts of the US, students have already returned to the classroom, while others are frantically squeezing the last drops of freedom from summer break as they prepare to start a new school year. One school supply that unites most students is the classic, yellow-coated, No. 2 pencil. For centuries, the pencil was a tool so vital that many would use theirs until only a tiny stub remained. An entire market for various pencil accoutrements existed in the 18th and 19th centuries, including a pencil grip called an ‘extender’ that allowed you to use the last bit of a pencil so as not to waste what was, at the time, a precious commodity. Think of it in terms of all the things you buy to enhance your mobile phone or tablet, and then imagine that the pencil once held equal value as a communication device. (In our hearts, it still does.)
Class, please take out a No. 2 pencil…
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
Autumn in the Prosecco Hills
-
‘Fringe’ takes center stage as Edinburgh celebrates the arts
-
Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
-
The Guggenheim Bilbao turns 25
-
Landscape Architecture Month
-
The largest living organism on Earth
-
Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, East Java, Indonesia
-
International Day of Mangrove Conservation
-
Playa del Silencio, Spain
-
Can you see the family resemblance?
-
Celebrating Flag Day: ‘O long may it wave’
-
On a Healing Field for Veterans Day
-
Diwali
-
The call of the wild in Alaska
-
World Rhinoceros Day
-
International Day for Monuments and Sites
-
Ready, set, read
-
Where is this wintry road?
-
New Year s Day
-
Land ho in New Zealand 250 years ago
-
Gauchos showcase Argentina’s independent spirit
-
Seattle Central Library, Seattle, Washington
-
Vinh Hy Bay, Vietnam
-
The National Museum of the American Indian
-
Basking in the glow
-
Where the wildflowers grow
-
The migrating monarchs of Michoacán
-
Belted Galloway cows
-
Earthrise on Moon Day
-
The dog days of summer