What is the history of the portable table?

A Lifetime brand TV tray or personal table

A TV tray table, TV dinner tray, TV table, or personal table is a type of collapsible furniture that functions as a small and easily portable, folding table. These small tables were originally designed to be a surface from which one could eat a meal while watching television. The phrase tray-table can also refer to a fold-away tray, such as those found in front of airline seats.

TV tray tables became popular in the 1950s as a way to hold food and beverage items while watching TV, the iconic item being a TV dinner. National advertising for TV tray tables first appeared in 1952, a full year before Swanson introduced the TV dinner in October 1953. A set of four TV tables were sometimes sold mounted on a small rack where they could be hung when not in use. This rack was popularly placed in a corner of the living room.[1]

The inventor of TV tray tables is unknown, but it may well be based on the Butler’s tray table. The original, popular models consisted of two pieces: a metal tray with grips mounted on its underside, and a set of tubular metal legs with rubberized tips at the bottom. The grips clipped on to the legs, which could be opened up to support the tray, or collapsed for stackable storage. The tray remained clipped to one leg support during storage.

Ronald and Nancy Reagan with TV trays (1985)

As times changed, so did construction techniques, and today TV tray tables are often manufactured using blow-molded plastic or wood. It is now common for TV dinner trays to be marketed as "retro" or kitsch items.

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Description:

In 1776 Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence on this portable desk of his own design. It features a hinged writing board and a locking drawer for papers, pens, and inkwell.

By the summer of 1776 members of the Second Continental Congress prepared to declare their independence from Great Britain. They assigned the task of drafting the declaration to Thomas Jefferson, a delegate from Virginia. Jefferson would later write that rather than aiming for originality, "it was intended to be an expression of the American mind." On July 4, 1776 the Continental Congress amended and adopted the declaration. Its words not only established the guiding principles for the new nation, it has served to inspire future generations in America and around the world.

The desk continued to be Jefferson's companion throughout his life as a revolutionary patriot, American diplomat, and president of the United States. While the drafts of the Declaration of Independence were among the first documents Jefferson penned on this desk, the note he attached under the writing board in 1825 was among the last: "Politics as well as Religion has its superstitions. These, gaining strength with time, may, one day, give imaginary value to this relic, for its great association with the birth of the Great Charter of our Independence."

On November 14, 1825, Thomas Jefferson wrote to his granddaughter Eleanora Randolph Coolidge to inform her that he was sending his "writing box" as a wedding present. Jefferson's original gift of an inlaid desk had been lost at sea and his portable writing desk was intended as a replacement. The desk remained in the Coolidge family until April 1880, when the family donated it to the U.S. government.

In his letter, Jefferson wrote: "Mr. Coolidge must do me the favor of accepting this [gift]. Its imaginary value will increase with years, and if he lives to my age, or another half-century, he may see it carried in the procession of our nation's birthday, as the relics of the Saints are in those of the Church."

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