These simple mahogany “small chairs” were made for the first House Office Building (later the Cannon House Office Building), which opened in 1908. John Wanamaker of Philadelphia made 1,600 of the chairs, which were required to make functional the private offices the building provided Representatives for the first time. Although they were modest, the specifications for their construction took great care in outlining the parameters of their upholstery and stuffing. The chairs were to be stuffed with only “white hair,” and the seat springs “of the best quality” must be “firmly stitched . . . and tied down so as to give the proper shape to the seat top.” The seat also required a “square stitched seat edge.”
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