Christopher Sholes
Liberty Township, Montour County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
Typewriter inventor, was born near here Feb. 14, 1819. Went to school and worked as a printer at Danville. Migrated to Wisconsin at the age of 20. His first writing machine patent was issued June 23, 1868.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
Christopher Latham Sholes was born near here in 1819 and learned the printing trade as a young man in Danville before heading west to Wisconsin at twenty. There he tinkered his way to a machine that would reshape communication and the workplace: the typewriter, for which he received his first patent in 1868. His invention put the printed word within reach of every office and eventually opened new employment to a generation of workers.
Why it matters
The typewriter transformed business, journalism, and clerical work across America, and its inventor's story began in this small Pennsylvania river town.
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Related people
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Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Christopher Sholes
Danville, PA · est. 1948
Born in the Susquehanna Valley in 1819, Christopher Latham Sholes learned the printer's trade in Danville before heading west to Wisconsin as a young man. There, tinkering with type and machinery, he devised the first practical typewriter, receiving his initial patent in 1868. His invention put the familiar keyboard into offices across the world and helped open clerical work to a new generation of workers.
Montour County
Danville, PA · est. 1982
Carved from Columbia County in 1850, Montour County took its name from Madame Montour, the influential Native interpreter and diplomat who moved between Indigenous nations and colonial officials. In the industrial age its seat, Danville, became a cradle of American iron, where the first iron T-rails for the nation's booming railroads were manufactured. The county also claims Christopher Sholes, born here, whose later work produced the typewriter that transformed the modern office.
First Three-Wire Electric Lighting
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On July 4, 1883, Sunbury became a proving ground for the electric age when Thomas Edison directed the first successful use of his three-wire distribution system in the City Hotel. The three-wire design cut the amount of costly copper needed to carry power over distance, a practical breakthrough that made central-station electric lighting far more economical to build out.
Peter Herdic
Williamsport, PA · est. 1996
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