Early History of the Easel

The ancient Egyptian hieroglyph artists used their skirts1 pulled taut around their knees as a sturdy place to write on their tablets.

Because much of their writing and art had religious connotations, their finished tablets were displayed on elevated platforms2 now known as the bookstand.

1) Hieroglyph Man Image - Artist unknown. Scribe from Tomb of Saqqara. The Louvre, Paris. Everyday Life in Bible Times. Melville Bell Grosvenor, Ed. (Washington D.C.: National Geographic Society, 1967) 112.

2) Bookstand Art Image - Grosvenor 326.