by The Machine That Created the Modern Office and Professionalized Secretarial Work
This nomination for Christopher Sholes, who invented the first practical typewriter in 1867, and the Remington company, which commercialized it. The typewriter revolutionized business correspondence, making documents legible, standardized, and faster to produce than handwriting. It created the modern office and professionalized clerical work, opening up a major new category of employment for women. The QWERTY keyboard layout (designed by Sholes to prevent mechanical jams) became the enduring standard. The typewriter proved that a machine could transform the nature of white-collar work, increase administrative efficiency, and change social dynamics in the workplace. It was a foundational information technology that accelerated the pace of business communication and record-keeping, paving the way for the computerized office.
