Interior Decorating Ideas

Although there is some debate over the origin of the rocking chair, the modern indoor rocking chair is a part of most households in the US today.

Some speculate that Benjamin Franklin designed the first rocking chair on the American continent using the concept of a cradle, adding the curved wooden rocker pieces or skates to the bottom of a chair in much the same fashion rockers were attached to the legs of a cradle. In England, a similar chair appeared for outdoor use. This chair was called the Windsor rocker after Windsor castle were it is first recorded to have been used. In the late 1800”s a German craftsman named Michael Thonet came up with a lightweight bentwood rocker that became very popular in England and Europe. Mr. Franklin, Mr. Thonet, and the person who made the first Windsor Rocker all had one goal in mind, to sit more comfortably. Certainly, Benjamin Franklin watched while mothers rocked cradles to sooth their babies to sleep. He may well have seen men leaning the back two legs of straight back chairs against the wall with their feet propped on a porch rail or another chair to achieve a greater degree of comfort. Maybe he liked the motion of a swing in the garden and wanted to recreate that same feel where it was not practical to have a swing.

Whatever the motivation, the rocking chair began to be a part of modern furniture in the 1700”s. However, the concept of the human form rocking began much earlier. The word “rocker” began to appear in the 15th century. It was a term used for the person who was in charge of rocking the cradle. Later it came to mean speakers or orators who put others to sleep with their monotone speech patterns.

There are examples of women or “rockers” setting beside cradles in Renaissance art but no evidence of a rocking chair until the 1750’s. Why it took man so long to transfer the idea of children being soothed by the rocking motion to adults wanting to rock, I cannot say. Adult sized cradles were made and used by the Shakers in New England in the early 1800”s. The adult cradles were used to help care for the elderly and very sick.

Today, rockers are big business. They can be found in any store that carries a line or type of living room furniture. You find them in home and garden centers and the most avant-garde furniture boutiques. They are throwaway cheap and thousands of dollars. They are metal, wood, wicker, plastic and combinations of materials. You can find them inside and outside; anywhere someone wants to rest for a few minutes or a few hours.