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Phillis Wheatley's writing desk

Phillis Wheatley`s writing desk Mahogany folding card table
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Mahogany folding card table

72.5 cm x 89 cm x 41.5 cm

Charlestown, Mass., circa 1760


[ This description is from the project: MHS 225th Anniversary ]

Phillis Wheatley's Chippendale-style mahogany writing desk dates to about 1760. Wheatley was enslaved by John Wheatley of Boston, who taught her to read English, Greek, and Latin. Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, the first book of poetry by a black American, was published in London in 1773.