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A writing desk.

A desk is a piece of furniture and a type of table often used in a school or office setting for reading or writing on or using a computer.^[1][2]

Desks often have one or more drawers, compartments or [pigeon holes to store office supplies and papers.^[3] Unlike a regular table, usually only one side of a desk is suitable to sit on (though there are some exceptions, such as a partners desk).^[4] Not all desks have the form of a table. For instance, an armoire desk^[5] is a desk built within a large wardrobe-like cabinet, and a portable desk^[6] is light enough to be placed on a person's lap. Since many people lean on a desk while using it, a desk must be sturdy. Desk were first made from wood, but are slowly being converted into harder materials that last longer.

A desk is also known as a counter, davenport, escritoire, lecturn, reading stand, rolltop desk, school desk, workspace or writing desk.^[7] In Spanish a desk is called el escritorio.^[8]

Etymology[link]

The word desk comes from the M.L. desca, “table to write on”, from the mid 14th century.^[9] It is a modification of the Old Italian desco table, from Latin discus dish, disc.^[10] The word desk has been used figuratively since 1797.^[11]

Early desks[link]

Chinese editing desk of the 12th century (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

Desk-style furniture appears not to have been used in classical antiquity or in other ancient centers of civilization in the Middle East or Far East, but there is no specific proof. Medieval illustrations show the first pieces of furniture which seem to have been designed and constructed for reading and writing.

Before the invention of the movable type printing press in the 15th century, any reader was potentially a writer or publisher or both, since any book or other document had to be copied by hand. The desks were designed with slots and hooks for bookmarks and for writing implements. Since manuscript volumes were sometimes large, and heavy, desks of the period usually had massive structures.^[12]

Desks of the Renaissance and later eras had relatively slimmer structures, and more and more drawers as woodworking became more precise and cabinet-making became a distinct trade.^[13] It is often possible to find out if a table or other piece of furniture of those times was designed to be used as a desk by looking for a drawer with three small separations (one each for the ink pot, the blotter and the powder tray) and room for the pens.

The desk forms we are familiar with in this beginning of the millennium were born mostly in the 17th and 18th centuries. The ergonomic desk^[14] of the last decades is the newest addition to a long list of desk forms, but in a way it is only a refinement of the mechanically complex drawing table^[15] or drafting table^[16] of the end of the 18th century.

Industrial era[link]

An untidy desk.

Refinements to those first desk forms were considerable through the 19th century, as steam-driven machinery made cheap wood-based paper possible in the last periods of the first phase of the industrial revolution. This produced a boom in the number of, or some might say the birth of, the white-collar worker. As these office workers grew in number, desks were mass-produced for them in large quantities, using newer, steam-driven woodworking machinery. This was the first sharp division in desk manufacturing. From then on, limited quantities of finely crafted desks have been constructed by master cabinetmakers for the homes and offices of the rich while the vast majority of desks were assembled rapidly by unskilled labor, from components turned out in batches by machine tools. Thus, age alone does not guarantee that an antique desk is a masterpiece, since this shift took place more than a hundred years ago.

More paper and more correspondence drove the need for more complex desks and more specialized desks, such as the rolltop desk^[17] which was a mass produced, slatted variant of the classical cylinder desk.^[18] It provided a relatively fast and cheap way to lock up the ever increasing flow of paper without having to file everything by the end of the day. Paper documents started leaving the desk as a "home," with the general introduction of filing cabinets. Correspondence and other documents were now too numerous to get enough attention to be rolled up or folded again, then summarized and tagged before being pigeonholed in a small compartment over or under the work surface of the desk. The famous Wooton desk and others were the last manifestations of the "pigeonhole" style. The newer desks could be transformed into many different shapes and angles and were ideal for artists.

Steel desks[link]

A small boom in office work and desk production occurred at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th with the introduction of smaller and less expensive electrical presses and efficient carbon papers coupled with the general acceptance of the typewriter. Steel desks were introduced to take heavier loads of paper and withstand the pounding meted out on the typewriters. The L-shaped desk became popular, with the "leg" being used as an annex for the typewriter.

Another big boom occurred after the Second World War with the spread of photocopying. Paperwork drove even higher the number of desk workers, whose work surface diminished in size as office rents rose, and the paper itself was moved more and more directly to filing cabinets or sent to records management centers, or transformed into microfilm, or both. Modular desks seating several co-workers close by became common. Even executive or management desks became mass-produced, built of cheap plywood or fiberboard covered with wood finish, as the number of people managing the white collar workers became even greater.

Student desks[link]

A student desk can be any desk form meant for use by a student. Anna Breadin designed and patented a school desk in the late 1880s that was built with a table section and attached in front of it was a wooden seat and back rest. Before this, most students sat either on chairs or long benches at long tables.^[19]

Usually the term designates a small pedestal desk^[20] or writing table^[21] constructed for use by a teenager or a pre-teen in their room at home. It often is a pedestal desk, with only one of the two pedestals and about two thirds of the desk surface. Such desks are sometimes called left-pedestal desks and right-pedestal desks, depending on the position of the single pedestal. These desks are not as tall as normal adult desks. In some cases, the desk is connected from the seat to the table.

The desks are usually mass-produced in steel or wood and sold on the consumer market.^[22] There is a wide variety of plans available for woodworking enthusiasts. Modern student desks are often made with laminate table tops and molded plastic seats in a combined single unit, with storage found under the desktop or on a wire shelf beneath the seat.^[23]

There are many novel forms of student desks made to maximize the relatively restricted area available in a child's room. One of the most common is the bunk-bed desk,^[24] also called the loft bed.^[25]

Influence of computers[link]

Until the late 1980s, desks remained a place for paperwork and business negotiation, though at the end of this decade, the personal computer was taking hold in large and medium sized businesses. New office suites included a "knee hole" credenza which was a place for a terminal or personal computer and keyboard tray. Soon new office designs also included "U-shape" suites which added a bridge worksurface between the back credenza and front desk. During the North American recession of the early 1990s, many manager and executive workers had to do word processing and other functions previously completed by typing pools and secretaries. This necessitated a more central placement of the computer on these "U-shape" suite desk systems.

A desk in an office.

With computers abounding, "computer paper" became an office staple. The beginning of this paper boom gave birth to the dream of the "paperless office", in which all information would appear on computer monitors. However, the ease of printing personal documents and the lack of comfort with reading text on computer monitors led to a great deal of document printing. The need for paperwork space vied with the rising desk space taken up by computer monitors, CPUs, printers, scanners, and other peripherals. As well, the need for more space led some desk companies to attach some items to the modesty panel at the back of the desk, such as multi-outlets and cabling.

Through the "tech boom" of the 1990s, office worker numbers skyrocketed along with the cost of office space rent. The cubicle desk became widely accepted in North America as an economical way of putting more desk workers in the same space without actually shrinking the size of their working surfaces. The cubicle walls have become new place for workers to affix papers and other items once left on the horizontal desktop surface. Even computer monitor frames themselves are used to attach reminder notes and business cards.

Early in the 2000s, private office workers found that their side and back computer-placing furniture made it hard to show the contents of a computer screen to guests or co-workers. Manufacturers have responded to this issue by creating "Forward Facing" desks where computer monitors are placed on the front of the "U-shape" workstation. This forward computer monitor placement promotes a clearer sight-line to greet colleagues, increases computer screen privacy and allows for common viewing of information displayed on a screen.

Famous desk[link]

The Resolute desk in the Oval Office has been used by many presidents, including President Franklin D. Roosevelt, President Harry S.Truman and President John F. Kennedy. It is made from the timbers of the HMS Resolute, an abandoned British ship discovered by an American vessel and returned to the Queen of England as a token of friendship and goodwill. Queen Victoria commissioned the desk from William Evenden, Royal Naval Dockyard at Chatham, England, and presented to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880.^[26]

In literature[link]

American author Eleanor H. Porter^[27] referred to a desk in her novel, Pollyanna; “On the big, flat-topped desk in the middle of the room you'll find a telephone.”^[28]

American author Jack London^[29] referred to a desk in his novel, John Barleycom; “Soon I found myself, seated at my desk in the midst of my thousand words, looking forward to that eleven-thirty cocktail.”^[30]

See also[link]

• List of desk forms and types

References[link]

• Aronson, Joseph. The Encyclopedia of Furniture. 3rd edition. New York: Crown Publishers Inc., 1965.
• Bedel, Jean. Le grand guide des styles. Paris: Hachette, 1996.
• Boyce, Charles. Dictionary of Furniture. New York: Roundtable Press, 1985.
• Comstock, Helen. American Furniture: 17th, 18th and 19th century styles. Lancaster, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. 1997
• Duncan, Alastair. Mobilier art déco. Paris: Thames and Hudson, 2000
• Forrest, Tim. The Bulfinch Anatomy of Antique Furniture. London: Marshall editions, 1996.
• Hinckley, F. Lewis. A Directory of Antique Furniture: The Authentic Classification of European and American Designs. New York: Bonanza Books, 1988.
• Moser, Thomas. Measured Shop Drawings for American Furniture. New York: Sterling Publlishing Inc., 1985.
• Nutting, Wallace. Furniture Treasury. New York: Macmillan Publishers, 1963.
• Oglesby, Catherine. French provincial decorative art. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1951.
• Payne, Christopher, Ed. Sotheby's Concise Encyclopedia of Furniture. London: Conran Octopus, 1989.
• Pélegrin-Genel, Elisabeth. L'art de vivre au bureau. Paris: Flammarion, 1995.
• Reyniès, Nicole de. Le mobilier domestique: Vocabulaire Typologique. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1987.
• All authors, all works. Written on a desk, 100-present.

External links[link]

Look up Desk in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Desk

Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon, 2010
Birth name	James Thomas Fallon, Jr.
Born	(1974-09-19) September 19, 1974 (age 37) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Medium	Stand-up, music, television, film
Nationality	American
Years active	1990–present
Genres	Satire/political satire/news satire, observational comedy, musical comedy, surreal humor, awkward
Subject(s)	American culture, American politics, pop culture, current events, mass media/news media
Influences	Dana Carvey, Robin Williams
Spouse	Nancy Juvonen (2007–present)
Notable works and roles	Saturday Night Live Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (host, 2009–present)

James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. (born September 19, 1974) is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC. Prior to that he appeared in several films, and was best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1998–2004.

Early life[link]

James Thomas Fallon, Jr., was born in Brooklyn, New York. Jimmy is the son of Gloria and James Fallon, Sr.,^[1] who is a Vietnam War veteran.^[2] His family later settled in Saugerties, New York, while his father worked at IBM in nearby Kingston, New York. He is of Irish descent.^[3] As a child, he and his older sister, Gloria, would reenact the “clean parts” of Saturday Night Live that his parents had taped for him.^[4] Fallon was such a fan of Saturday Night Live that he made a weekly event of watching it in his dormitory during college. In his teens, he impressed his parents with different impersonations, the first being of James Cagney.^[5][6] He was also musically inclined, and started playing guitar at age 13. He would go on to mix comedy and music in contests and shows.^[6]

Education[link]

Fallon attended St. Mary of the Snow, a Roman Catholic parochial school, and Saugerties High School, from which he graduated in 1992. He attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York. He was a Computer Science major, but switched to Communications in his senior year, dropping out a semester shy of a degree.^[7][8] "I was a Computer Science major. I got out once it got really hard. I made it up to C++. Then I couldn't do the math – it got really confusing. I switched to Communications, which is a ridiculous major – let's be honest," he recalls.^[9] On May 9, 2009, Fallon received a B.A. in Communications and^[10] an honorary doctorate degree from The College of Saint Rose after presenting college officials with his portfolio, which satisfied all requisites for his degree.^[7] In addition to receiving a BA, Fallon spoke at the school's 86th commencement. That night, on Saturday Night Live, he held up his diploma during the closing of the show. Additionally, he showed excerpts from the ceremony on his late night show May 11, 2009.

Career[link]

Stand-up[link]

Fallon gives credit to troll dolls for his big break. He was given a troll doll with a graduation cap in his senior year of high school. His mother heard about an impression contest at Bananas Comedy Club in Poughkeepsie, NY. Fallon came up with a stand-up routine that was a commercial for troll dolls. He would impersonate various celebrities auditioning to be the spokesperson. He won the contest and after college he began to do stand-up tours across the country. When he was in Los Angeles, he took improv classes with The Groundlings.^[5]

Early work[link]

Fallon appeared in the feature film The Scheme (originally entitled The Entrepreneurs). His one line in Father's Day was cut but he can still be seen in the background. In 1998 Fallon appeared briefly on the show Spin City in the second season as a man selling photographs. By late 1998, Fallon was studying at the Groundlings Theater in Los Angeles, making $7.50 a set at The Improv Theater, when he was summoned to New York to audition for the long-running late night sketch comedy show, Saturday Night Live. Fallon did his impersonations of Jerry Seinfeld,^[11] French Stewart, Pat O'Brien, Chris Rock, Hilary Swank, Gilbert Gottfried, Enrique Iglesias, Adam Sandler, Jeff Foxworthy, Eddie Murphy, Larry the Cable Guy, many of which drew laughter from producer Lorne Michaels, which is generally unheard of. Fallon also did musical impersonations of Bono of U2, Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Alanis Morissette, and Robert Smith of The Cure.^[4]

[edit] Saturday Night Live

Fallon's impersonations helped land him on Saturday Night Live as a featured player in the 1998–1999 season,^[12] and he was promoted to full cast member in the summer of 1999.^[4] Among his signature bits were his song parodies, which he performed when Colin Quinn was doing Update and continued to showcase on special occasions after he had replaced him. He became co-anchor of Weekend Update with Tina Fey with the October 7, 2000 season premiere.^[13] Fallon left SNL in 2004 and began pursuing a film career.

Fallon returned to SNL, hosting the December 17, 2011 episode, having made several cameos in episodes in the years since his departure.^[14]

Recurring characters[link]

• Dave, a young man in the Will Ferrell/Rachel Dratch recurring sketch, "The Lovers", often used as a pawn in Roger and Virginia's matchmaking.
• Jarret (from Jarret's Room), a stoner who hosts his own Internet webcam show.
• Jeffrey's clerk, one of the clerks (the other being a male host for the show) of an upscale department store.
• Joey Mack, an obnoxious radio DJ who mocks his celebrity guests.
• Kip Bloder, brother to Chris Parnell's Wade Bloder.
• The Leather Man, an intense man who owns a shop filled with leather clothes.
• Nick Burns, a sarcastic tech support representative who helps office workers with computer problems (and is almost always exposed as not knowing as much as he should by one of the workers). He frequently used the catchphrase "Moooooove!" when ousting people from their desk so he could fix the problem.
• Pat Sullivan, nicknamed "Sully", one of the Boston Teens, boyfriend of Rachel Dratch's Denise character.
• Patrick Fitzwilliam, a surly Irishman who hosts a show called Top O' The Morning with his friend, William Fitzpatrick (played by Seth Meyers)
• Randy Goldman, from "Wake Up Wakefield", Megan's (Maya Rudolph) crush who does not know she exists.
• Rodney "The Zipper" Calzoun, the MC at the Rialto Grande
• Señor Guadalupe Ramirez, one of the guitar players on the recurring sketch, "The 'How Do You Say, Ah, Yes' Show"
• Wade, one of the members of the boy band 7 Degrees Celsius
• Barry Gibb, in the skit called "The Barry Gibb Talk Show", he hosts along with his brother Robin Gibb (played by Justin Timberlake).
• Carson Daly, whom he impersonated with the catch phrase "I am a massive tool."^[15]
• Pat O'Brien, who "doesn't breathe through his nose ever!"

[edit] Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

Fallon succeeded fellow Saturday Night Live alumnus Conan O'Brien as the host of NBC's Late Night after O'Brien left the show to prepare to take over The Tonight Show from Jay Leno in 2009.^[16] The deal for the long-expected succession was confirmed April 24, 2008, with an official announcement made on May 12, 2008 at NBC's upfront presentation.^[17][18] The official press conference was released on Hulu.com.^[19]

The show, titled Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, first aired on March 2, 2009 with guests Robert De Niro, Justin Timberlake, Nick Carter, and musical guest Van Morrison. Guests on the show's first week included Tina Fey, Jon Bon Jovi, Cameron Diaz, Donald Trump, and Drew Barrymore.

"Late Night with Jimmy Fallon" sometimes features parodies by Fallon impersonating various musicians, and he has been praised for his ability to pull off spot-on impressions. Fallon often changes the lyrics to honour a recent event in popular culture and videos of these performances tend to go viral. In one segment, on May 26, 2011, Fallon impersonated Neil Young, singing along with guests Graham Nash and David Crosby, of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Recent victims include Fallon making parodies of Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam performing "Jeremy (Lin)" in light of the hysteria surrounding New York Knicks shocking standout Jeremy Lin, the Doors singing the theme song to the PBS children's show "Reading Rainbow", Neil Young's version of the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme song, and David Bowie's "Space Oddity" with inspiration by Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. First appearing in January 2012, and dubbing himself as "Tebowie", Fallon's impersonation of the famously-religious quarterback went viral. Due to overwhelmingly positive acclaim from the public, Fallon revived the act on March 20, 2012 after the Denver Broncos acquired superstar and future hall of fame quarterback Peyton Manning, and revealed their intentions to trade Tebow. Fallon continues to do impersonations, in some of the show's comedy segments, especially impersonations of famous singers.

To celebrate the second anniversary on March 2, 2011, Ben & Jerry's launched a personalized "Late Night Snack" ice cream. This was immediately parodied on The Colbert Report the next day and the two show hosts engaged in a brief ice cream personality war. Colbert used numerous "fecal matter" jokes to describe the flavor of the ice cream named after Jimmy Fallon.^[20]

On November 21, 2011 U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann, who was active in the Republican Presidential Primaries at the time, appeared as a guest on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. As she walked onto the stage, the band played a funk song titled "Lyin' Ass Bitch," without any lyrics. Hours earlier, the band's drummer Questlove had sent a tweet about the song choice: “late night walkon song devotees: you love it when we snark: this next one takes the cake. ask around cause i aint tweeting title.” After a prominent Democratic Congress woman complained, Fallon made a general apology by tweet.^[21] Fallon began his tweet with the words: "I'm honored that @michelebachmann was on our show yesterday and I'm so sorry about the intro mess."^[22] Fallon also used his Twitter account to tease his Roots bandleader Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson that he was "grounded".^[22]

Fallon in April 2007

Fallon has appeared in Taxi, Anything Else, Almost Famous, Fever Pitch, Band of Brothers, Doogal, Factory Girl and Whip It. He occasionally does stand up comedy at the Comedy Club in New York City and has also performed at the House of Blues in Boston, Massachusetts on occasions.

In 2002, Fallon released the comedy album The Bathroom Wall. In a mixed review, Rolling Stone praised the album's songs, calling the album the "second-best Prince parody ever, after Beck's 'Debra'." However the magazine panned the album's comedy routines, ultimately giving it two-out-of-five stars.^[23] The album was nominated for a Grammy in 2003 for Best Spoken Comedy Album. Fallon co-hosted the 2001 MTV Movie Awards with Kirsten Dunst on June 7, 2001.^[24] Fallon has played Neo in Sex and the Matrix, a comedic two-in-one parody of Sex and the City and The Matrix.^[25] He hosted the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards alone that year.^[26] His opening number included parodies of videos by Eminem, Avril Lavigne, Nelly, The White Stripes, Dave Matthews and Enrique Iglesias.

Also in 2002, Fallon appeared in The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch as the son of Melvin Hall, and constantly pesters his father, often stealing his mike, claiming that the film is "his documentary."^[27]

Fallon also hosted the 2005 MTV Movie Awards and played Anakin Skywalker in comedic parody of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith's Mustafar scene, in which Anakin and Padme have their last conversation. Fallon was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People in 2002, an honor Fallon found embarrassing.^[28]

Following the Boston Red Sox's World Series clinching game over the St. Louis Cardinals in 2004, Fallon ran onto the field at Busch Stadium with Drew Barrymore to film a scene for their movie Fever Pitch.

In 2006, Fallon starred in "Spontaneous Combustion", a Traktor-directed Pepsi television commercial with actress Parker Posey. In the ad, Fallon and Posey can be seen dancing and jumping around to the song Streamline by Newton. In October of that year, Fallon appeared on stage in The Secret Policeman's Ball, a charity gig filmed to raise awareness of Amnesty International at the Royal Albert Hall. Fallon made three appearances during the show, the first in a sketch in which he performed impressions of people such as David Bowie, Jerry Seinfeld and David Blaine in order to get past a doorman (Shaun Williamson) who claims Fallon is not on the list. The doorman finally recognizes him for his role in Taxi, but still will not let him in. He later masqueraded as Russell Brand before being led off by Williamson, and made one final appearance in a cameo role as the front of a pantomime horse in the Al Murray "pub landlord" routine. He also provided the voice of Dylan in Doogal.

In 2007, Fallon wrote the song "Car Wash for Peace" and donated all proceeds to charity. He performed the song on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and The View and dedicated a MySpace page to the cause. Around the same time, a video circulated on various Internet sites called lonelyfallon32, in which Fallon parodied YouTube celebrity Jessica Rose (a.k.a. lonelygirl15) and later performed the song.

Fallon, along with his sister Gloria, wrote I Hate This Place: The Pessimist's Guide to Life for TV Books in 1999. A second book is anticipated but has not yet been released, to be titled "I Hate This Place 2: Tokyo Drift."^[4] Fallon has also written a children's book, illustrated by Adam Stower, entitled Snowball Fight.

Fallon also appeared on Diggnation's 185th show.^[29]

On May 4, 2010, NBC announced that Fallon would host the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards.^[30] With Fallon as host, viewership of the 2010 Emmy Awards increased by over 200,000 viewers from the year before.^[31]

On April 24, 2012, Jimmy Fallon filmed his live show in Chapel Hill, NC on the campus of the University of North Carolina. His guest was President Barack Obama, who spoke primarily about Congress potentially doubling the interest rates of student loans. His musical guest was Dave Matthews.

Personal life[link]

Fallon married Nancy Juvonen on December 22, 2007.^[32] Juvonen and Drew Barrymore own the production company Flower Films.

On February 22, 2011, Fallon was on The Dr. Oz Show. He had a mole removed from his left hand in front of a live studio audience by visiting cosmetic surgeon Arthur Perry.^[33][34]

Television[link]

• Saturday Night Live (1998–2004)
• Spin City (1998)
• Band of Brothers as 2nd Lt. George C. Rice in "Crossroads"(2001)
• 30 Rock (2009)
• Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (2009–present)
• The Electric Company (2009)
• Family Guy (2009)
• Saturday Night Live (December 17, 2011)
• Silent Library (2011)
• 30 Rock (2012) - Young Jack
• iCarly (2012) - As Himself

Filmography[link]

• Almost Famous (2000)
• The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2002)
• Anything Else (2003)
• The Entrepreneurs a.k.a. The $cheme (filmed in 1998, released in 2003)
• Taxi (2004)
• Fever Pitch (2005)
• The Magic Roundabout (2006) (voice)
• Arthur and the Invisibles (2006) (voice)
• Factory Girl (2006)
• The Year of Getting to Know Us (2008)
• Whip It (2009)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel

Discography[link]

Albums[link]

• The Bathroom Wall (2002)
• Blow Your Pants Off (2012)

Singles[link]

• "Idiot Boyfriend" (2002)
• "Car Wash for Peace" (2008)
• "Drunk On Christmas (feat. John Rich)" (2010)

Further reading[link]

• Baldwin, Kristen (2002-05-10), "Update with Destiny". Entertainment Weekly. (653):26
• Thank You Notes (Jan 2012)

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (May 2011)

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jimmy Fallon

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jimmy Fallon

• Jimmy Fallon at the Internet Movie Database
• Food Bank For New York City public service announcement
• Jimmy Fallon with Popular Radio Personality Rich Stevens
• JimmyFallon.net – Bathroom Wall
• NBC's Official Late Night with Jimmy Fallon Site
• Interview of Jimmy Fallon for New Beacon Theatre Documentary

Eli Lilly
Colonel Eli Lilly in 1885
Born	(1838-07-08)July 8, 1838 Baltimore, Maryland
Died	June 6, 1898(1898-06-06) (aged 59) Indianapolis, Indiana
Cause of death	Cancer
Resting place	Crown Hill Cemetery Indianapolis, Indiana
Nationality	American
Education	Pharmacology
Alma mater	Asbury College
Occupation	Pharmaceutical Chemist Soldier Industrialist
Known for	Eli Lilly & co. Philanthropy
Home town	Baltimore, Maryland
Title	Colonel
Political party	Republican
Religion	Methodist
Spouse	Emily Lemen (1860–1866) Maria Cynthia Sloan (1869–1898)
Partner	none
Children	[[Josiah K. Lilly, Sr.][Janiquia Lockett]]
Parents	Esther & Gustavus Lilly
Relatives	Eli Lilly (Grandson) Josiah K. Lilly, Jr. (Grandson)
Signature

Eli Lilly (July 8, 1838 – June 6, 1898) was an American soldier, pharmaceutical chemist, industrialist, entrepreneur, and founder of the Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical corporation. Lilly enlisted in the Union Army during the American Civil War; he recruited a company of men to serve with him in an artillery battery, was later promoted to colonel, and was given command of a cavalry unit. He was captured near the end of the war and held as a prisoner of war until its conclusion. After the war, he attempted to run a plantation in Mississippi, but failed and returned to his pharmacy profession after the death of his wife. Lilly remarried and worked in several pharmacies with partners before opening his own business in 1876 with plans to manufacture drugs and market them wholesale to pharmacies.

His company was successful and he soon became wealthy after making numerous advances in medicinal drug manufacturing. Two of the early advances he pioneered were creating gelatin capsules to hold medicine and fruit flavoring for liquid medicines. Eli Lilly & Company was one of the first pharmaceutical firms of its kind; it staffed a dedicated research department and put in place numerous quality-assurance measures.

Using his wealth, Lilly engaged in numerous philanthropic pursuits. He turned over the management of the company to his son in 1890 allowing himself to continue his engagement in charity and civic advancement in his primary focus. He helped found the organization that became the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, was the primary patron of Indiana's branch of the Charity Organization Society, and personally funded the creation of the city's children's hospital which was later expanded by the state to become the Riley Children's Hospital. He continued his active involvement with many organizations until his death from cancer in 1898.

Lilly was an advocate of federal regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, and many of his suggested reforms were enacted into law in 1906, resulting in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration. He was also among the pioneers of the concept of prescriptions, and helped form what became the common practice of giving addictive or dangerous medicines only to people who had first seen a physician. The company he founded has since grown into one of the largest and most influential pharmaceutical corporations in the world, and the largest corporation in Indiana. Using the wealth generated by the company, his son and grandsons created the Lilly Endowment to continue Lilly's legacy of philanthropy. The endowment remains one of the largest charitable benefactors in the world.

Early life[link]

Family and background[link]

Eli Lilly was born the son of Gustavus and Esther Lilly in Baltimore, Maryland on July 8, 1838. His family was of Swedish descent and had moved to the low country of France before his great-grandparents immigrated to Maryland in 1789.^[1] The Lilly family moved to Kentucky, where Lilly first enrolled in public school. His family moved again in 1852 to Indiana, where he apprenticed to become a printer. Lilly grew up in a Methodist household, and his family was prohibitionist and anti-slavery; their beliefs served as part of their motivation for moving to Indiana.^[2] He and his family were members of the Democratic party during his early life, but they became Republicans during the years leading up to the Civil War.^[3]

Lilly became interested in chemicals at an early age. While on a trip visiting his aunt and uncle, he was taken to visit an apothecary, where he first witnessed the creation of drugs.^[4] In 1854, he served an apprenticeship to become a chemist and pharmacist under Henry Lawrence at the Good Samaritan Drug Store in Lafayette. In addition to learning to mix chemicals, Lawrence taught Lilly how to manage funds and operate a business. His parents enrolled him in pharmacology studies at DePauw University, then known as Indiana Asbury University, and he graduated after two years.^[5] In 1859, he took a position at Perkin's and Coon's Pharmacy in Indianapolis. Lilly became acquainted with Emily Lemen, the daughter of a local merchant, and the couple married in 1860. The couple returned to Greencastle, where Lilly opened his own drug store in 1861.^[6][7]

American Civil War[link]

Lilly's war recruitment poster

Lilly enlisted in the Union Army at the start of the American Civil War, and his first child, Josiah, was born in 1861 while he was away. Lilly actively recruited among his classmates, friends, local merchants and farmers, asking them to join him in forming a unit. He had recruitment posters created and posted them around Indianapolis, promising to form the "crack battery of Indiana".^[5] His unit, the 18th Battery, Indiana Light Artillery, was known as the Lilly Battery and consisted of six 3" ordnance rifles (not parrott rifles as stated in Lilly's recruiting poster)and 150 men. He mustered in at Indianapolis and spent a brief time drilling. His unit was assigned to the Lightning Brigade commanded by Colonel John T. Wilder in 1862 and Lilly was elected to serve as the commanding officer of his battery from August until the winter of 1863, when his three-year enlistment expired. His only prior military experience had been in a Lafayette Indiana Legion unit, and several of his artillerymen considered him too young and intemperate to command. Despite his initial inexperience, he became a competent artillery officer and his battery was instrumental in several important battles. He first saw action in the 1863 Battle of Hoover's Gap, and he was later in the Second Battle of Chattanooga and the Battle of Chickamauga.^[6]

When Lilly's term of enlistment ended, he reenlisted and was promoted to become a Major of cavalry and given command of the 9th Indiana Cavalry. During a mission in Alabama in the December 1864, he was captured by Major General Nathan B. Forrest and held in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp until the end of the war in the spring of 1865, when he was paroled and returned home.^[2] He was granted the brevetted rank of Colonel before being mustered out of the army.^[5] In his later life he obtained a large atlas and marked the path of his movements in the war and the location of battles and skirmishes. He often used the atlas when telling war stories.^[8] His Colonel's title stayed with him for the rest of his life, and his friends and family used it as a nickname for him. Lilly served as chairman of the Grand Army of the Republic, a brotherhood of Civil War veterans, in 1893. During his term he helped organize an event that brought tens of thousands of war veterans, including Lilly's battery, together in Indianapolis for a reunion and a large parade.^[3][6]

Business ventures[link]

After the war, Lilly attempted a new business venture and purchased a 1,200-acre (490 ha) cotton plantation in Mississippi.^[9] Shortly after moving to their new home, the entire family was stricken with mosquito-borne malaria, a disease common in the region at that time. Although Lilly and his son recovered, his wife Emily died on August 20, 1866. She was eight months pregnant with the couple’s second child; their unborn son could not be saved and was stillborn. The death devastated Lilly; he wrote to his family, "I can hardly tell you how it glares at me ...it’s a bitter, bitter truth ... Emily is indeed dead."^[2] She was initially buried on the plantation, but later that year her body was disinterred and moved to Indiana to be reburied. Lilly’s return to Indiana following her death allowed the plantation to fall into disrepair and his crop to fail. His partner was unable to maintain the plantation because of a drought and then disappeared with the business's remaining money. Lilly was forced to file bankruptcy in 1868.^[7] Josiah was sent to live with Lilly's parents in Greencastle while he worked to resolve the situation on the plantation.^[10] He remarried in 1869, this time to Maria Cynthia Sloan, and began working for Pattison, Moore & Talbott, a medicinal wholesale company. The business was purchased by H. Daly and Company during his employment there.^[6]

In 1869, Lilly left Indiana and, with a partner, opened a successful drug store, Binford and Lilly, in Paris, Illinois. He soon sent for his son.^[10] The business was profitable and allowed Lilly to save money, but he was more interested in medicinal manufacturing than running a pharmacy. He formulated a plan to create a medicinal wholesale company of his own. In 1873, Lilly left the partnership and returned to Indianapolis, where he opened a drug store, Johnson and Lilly, with a new partner. Three years later, Lilly dissolved the partnership; his share of the assets amounted to several pieces of equipment, a few gallons of unmixed chemicals, and a small amount of money. He had previously approached a family friend, Augustus Keifer, to create a new partnership. Keifer and two associated drug stores agreed to purchase all their drugs from Lilly at a cost lower than they were currently paying.^[7] On May 10, 1876, Lilly opened a laboratory to manufacture drugs. The sign for the business said "Eli Lilly, Chemist".^[2][6][11]

Later life[link]

Eli Lilly & Company[link]

A photo of Lilly's first laboratory building. Lilly and son Josiah K. Lilly, Sr. are on the right side of the doorway.

Lilly's manufacturing venture began with three employees, including his 14-year-old son Josiah, who had quit school to work with his father. The elder Lilly had $1,400 ($29,575 in 2011 chained dollars) in working capital.^[10] His first innovation was gelatin-coating for pills and capsules. Other early innovations included fruit flavoring for medicines and sugarcoated pills, making the medicines easier to take.^[2] Following his experience with the low-quality medicines used in the Civil War, Lilly committed himself to producing only high-quality prescription drugs, in contrast to the common and often ineffective patent medicines of the day. One of the first medicines he began to produce was quinine, a drug used to treat malaria,^[12] which became his best-selling medicine.^[13] His products gained a reputation for quality and became popular in the city. In his first year of business, sales reached $4,470 ($90,057 in 2009 chained dollars), and by 1879 they had grown to $48,000 ($1,105,200 in 2009 chained dollars). Sales expanded rapidly and he began to acquire customers outside of Indiana. Lilly hired his brother, James, as his first full-time salesman in 1878. James, and the subsequent sales team that developed, marketed the company's drugs nationally. Other family members were also employed by the growing company; Lilly's cousin Evan Lilly was hired as a bookkeeper and his grandsons, Eli and Josiah, were hired to run errands and perform other odd jobs. In 1881, he formally incorporated the company, naming it Eli Lilly and Company. By the late 1880s, he was one of the Indianapolis area's leading businessmen with over one hundred employees and $200,000 ($4,775,556 in 2009 chained dollars) in annual sales.^[6][11]

An 1886 drawing of Lilly's plant on McCarty Street.

To accommodate his growing business, Lilly acquired additional facilities for research and production. He purchased a complex of buildings on McCarty Street in south Indianapolis; other businesses followed, and the area began to develop into a major business section of the city. Believing that it would be an advantage for his son to gain a greater technical knowledge, Lilly sent Josiah to attend Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1880. Upon returning to the business in 1882, Josiah was named superintendent of the laboratory.^[7][10] In 1890, Lilly turned over the management his business to Josiah, who ran the company for several decades.^[6] The company flourished despite the tumultuous economic conditions in the 1890s.^[3] In 1894, Lilly purchased a manufacturing plant to be used solely for creating capsules. Several technological advances were made by the company, and the capsule creation was automated. Over the next few years, they annually created tens of millions of capsules and pills.^[14]

Although there were many other small pharmaceutical companies in the United States, Eli Lilly and Company distinguished itself from the others by having a permanent research staff, inventing superior techniques for the mass production of medicinal drugs, and its strong focus on quality.^[15] At first, Lilly was the company’s only researcher, but as his business grew, he created a laboratory and employed a department dedicated to creating new drugs, hiring his first research scientist in 1886. The department's methods of research were based on Lilly’s. He insisted on quality assurance, and instituted mechanisms to ensure that the drugs being produced worked as advertised, had the correct combination of ingredients, and that only the correct dosages of medicines were contained in each pill. He was aware of the addictive and dangerous nature of some of his drugs, and pioneered the concept of giving such drugs only to people who had first seen a physician to determine if they needed the medicine.^[16][17]

Philanthropy[link]

By the time of his partial retirement from his business, Lilly was a millionaire. He had been involved in civic affairs for several years and became increasingly philanthropic, granting funds to charitable groups in the city.^[18] Working with a group of twenty-five other businessmen, he had begun sponsoring the Charity Organization Society in the late 1870s and soon became the primary patron of its Indiana chapter. The society was the forerunner of the United Way and worked to organize charitable groups under a central leadership. It allowed the many organizations to easily interact and better help people in need by coordinating their efforts and identifying areas with the greatest need.^[12]

Indiana Soldiers and Sailors Monument in Indianapolis. The Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum is inside it.

Lilly wished to encourage economic growth and general development in Indianapolis. He attempted to achieve those goals by supporting local commercial organizations financially and through his personal advocacy and promotion. He first became active in local civics in 1879. As a result of his proposal for a public water supply company to meet the needs of the city, the Indianapolis Water Company was created. In 1890, Lilly founded the Commercial Club and was elected as its first president.^[18] The club was the primary vehicle for his city development goals and was a precursor to the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.^[12] The group was instrumental in making numerous advances for the city, including city-wide paved streets, elevated railways to allow vehicles and people to pass beneath them, and a city sewage system. The companies were created through private and public investments and operated at low-cost; in practice they belonged to customers of the company who slowly bought each company back from its initial investors. The model was later followed in most parts of the state to provide water and electricity. The group also helped fund the creation of parks, monuments, and memorials, and successfully attracted investment from other businessmen and organizations to expand the city's growing industries.^[19]

After the Gas Boom began to sweep the state in the 1880s, Lilly and his Commercial Club advocated the creation of a public corporation to pump the natural gas from the ground, pipe it to the city from the Trenton Gas Field, and provide it at low cost to businesses and homes. The project led to the creation of the Consumer Gas Trust Company, which was named by Lilly.^[12] The company provided low-cost heating fuel that made urban living much more desirable. The gas was further used to create electricity to run the city’s first public transportation venture, a streetcar system.^[20]

During the Panic of 1893, Lilly created a commission to help provide food and shelter to the poor people who were adversely affected.^[18] His work with the commission led him to personally donate enough funds to create a children's hospital in Indianapolis to care for the many children of families who had no money to pay for routine medical care.^[21]

Lilly's friends often urged him to seek public office, and they attempted to nominate him to run for Governor of Indiana as a Republican in 1896, but he refused. He shunned public office and instead wanted to focus his attention on his philanthropic organizations. He did regularly endorse candidates, and made substantial donations to politicians who advanced his causes.^[3] Lilly became friends with former Governor Oliver P. Morton, who suggested that Lilly use his Commercial Club to advocate for the creation of a memorial to Indiana’s many veterans of the Civil War. Accepting the suggestion, Lilly began raising funds to build the Indiana Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Construction began in 1888, but the monument was not completed until 1901. The interior of the monument houses a civil war museum that was later named in honor of Lilly.^[2]

Lilly was an avid fisherman and built a family cottage on Lake Wawasee in 1887, where he had enjoyed regular vacations and recreation since 1880. In 1892, he built the Wawasee Inn on the lake. The site became a haven for the family, and his grandson later expanded the estate. He also owned a large home on Tennessee Street in Indianapolis, where he spent most of his time.^[18] Lilly developed cancer in 1897 and died in his Indianapolis home on June 6, 1898. His bier was held on June 9 and attended by thousands before he was moved to his burial site, a large sepulcher in Indianapolis's Crown Hill Cemetery.^[19]

Legacy[link]

Colonel Eli Lilly (right) with son Josiah K. Lilly Sr. (left) and grandson Eli Lilly (center)

By 1898, Lilly's namesake company had a product line of 2,005 items and annual sales over $300,000 ($7,736,400 in 2009 chained dollars).^[19] Josiah Lilly inherited the company following his father's death,^[10] and continued to build the company before passing it on to his own sons, Eli Lilly and Josiah K. Lilly Jr. Josiah and his two sons continued the philanthropy practiced by Lilly and later established the Lilly Endowment that in 1998 became the largest philanthropic endowment in the world in terms of assets and charitable giving; it has since been surpassed but still remains in the top ten.^[13][22] The company played an important role in delivering medicine to the victims of the devastating 1906 San Francisco Earthquake.^[21] Lilly's company has since grown into one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, and under Lilly’s grandson's leadership developed many new innovations, including the pioneering and development of insulin during the 1920s, the mass production of penicillin during the 1940s, and the promotion of advancements in the mass production of medicines. Innovation continued at the company after it was made a publicly traded corporation in 1952, and it developed Humulin, Merthiolate, Prozac, and many other medicines.^[3][21] According to Forbes, Eli Lilly & Co. was the 229th largest company in the world and 152nd in the United States in 2007, with a worth of $17 billion (USD).^[23] It is the largest corporation and the largest charitable benefactor in Indiana.^[1]

Lilly's greatest contributions were his standardized and methodical creation of drugs, his dedication to research and development, and the actual value of the drugs he created. He pioneered the modern pharmaceutical industry, and many of his innovations later became standard practice. His ethical reforms, in a trade that was marked by outlandish claims of miracle medicines, began a period of rapid advancement in the development of medicinal drugs.^[24] During his lifetime, Lilly had advocated for federal regulation on medicines, and his son continued that advocacy after his father's death.^[21][25]

The Colonel Eli Lilly Civil War Museum, located below the Sailors' and Soldiers' Monument in Indianapolis, is named in Lilly's honor. It opened in October 1999 and features exhibits about Indiana during the war period and the war in general.^[26]

See also[link]

	Biography portal
	American Civil War portal
	Indiana portal

• Eli Lilly & co.
• History of Indiana
• Indiana in the American Civil War
• Lilly Endowment

Notes[link]

References[link]

• Bodenhamer, David J. (1994). The Encyclopedia of Indianapolis. Indiana University Press. ISBN 0-253-31222-1. 
• Glass, James A. & Kohrman, David (2005). The Gas Boom of East Central Indiana. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3963-5. 
• Hallett, Anthony & Dianne (1997). Entrepreneur Magazine Encyclopedia of Entrepreneurs. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0-471-17536-6. 
• Loderhose, Gary (2001). Legendary Hoosiers: Famous Folks from the State of Indiana. Emmis Books. ISBN 1-57860-097-9. 
• Madison, James H (1989). Eli Lilly: A Life, 1885-1977. Indiana Historical Society. ISBN 0-87195-047-2. 
• Podczeck, Fridrun & Jones, Brian E (2004). Pharmaceutical capsules. Pharmaceutical Press. ISBN 0-85369-568-7. 
• Price, Nelson (1997). Indiana Legends. Emmis Books. ISBN 1-57860-006-5. 

External links[link]

• "On-line biography". Archived from the original on 2004-08-15. http://web.archive.org/web/20040815040557/http://www.ccs.k12.in.us/mte/mt/HoosierWeb/HoosiersI-Q/page6.html. Retrieved 2009-04-14. 
• "Eli Lilly & co. website". http://www.lilly.com/. Retrieved 2009-04-14. 
• Ivcevich, Kelly A. "Lilly Endowment". Community League. http://learningtogive.org/papers/paper153.html. Retrieved 2009-04-10. 

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