NO ONE KNOWS the exact origins of the rocking chair. But by the 17th century, wooden bends like those on cradles were being added to ladder-back and Windsor chairs on both sides of the Atlantic. Often the chairs were preferred by nursing mothers. Some experts have said Benjamin Franklin invented the rocking chair. At least, the one in his library became much admired by 1785.
Rockers were not produced in quantity until 1825, when a spindle-back version, the Boston rocker, appeared. As it became more popular, other styles were developed, including the lavishly tufted types with scrolled arms that made the rocker suitable for elaborate Victorian parlors.It was that type of Victorian rocker that Abraham Lincoln was sitting in when he was shot at Ford's Theater. It had been specially installed for him that night.
The most common stereotype surrounding rocking chairs is that people who sit in them are "over the hill." We're in the habit of putting people out to pasture by giving them a rocking chair.
When I officially retired as a professor from Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, my colleagues gave me a black Boston rocker with the college insignia emblazoned on it. It now sits in my office at home.
But the rocker doesn't have to symbolize retirement. It suggests informality, and those who suffer from back problems frequently find greater comfort.
John F. Kennedy, who suffered from back problems, began buying rocking chairs while he was serving as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts. After undergoing surgery on his lower back in 1954, he visited the office of Dr. Janet Travell, where he sat in a Carolina rocker, a bulky oak-frame chair with a woven rattan seat and back.
He found the Carolina rocker so comfortable that he decided to buy one, and it became his favorite in spite of his Boston origins. When he became president, in 1961, his rocker was moved from the Senate Office Building to the White House Oval Office. Of course, Jacqueline Kennedy changed its character. She had it upholstered in foam rubber and covered in naugahyde.
After the president aggravated his back at a tree-planting ceremony in Ottawa, Canada, he acquired more rockers.
Soon, there were rocking chairs anyplace Kennedy might spend some time - such as the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., and the Kennedy family homes in Palm Beach, Fla., and Hyannis Port, Mass. But he also had rockers installed at hotels he frequently visited as well as aboard Air Force One.
It was easier to acquire them in those days, because good rockers cost only $30-35.
At any rate, Kennedy became famous for appearing in rocking chairs while conferring with various dignitaries, as well as foreign leaders. Often, he gave rockers as gifts. And since anything owned by Kennedy has become a collector's item, his rocking chairs are now going for big money.
At last week's New York auction, Sotheby's offered a plethora of items from the Kennedy estate. Two rockers belonging to President Kennedy were expected to sell for $3,000-5,000 each. In actuality, the Oval Office rocker sold for $574,500.
No one has to spend that much, of course. A rocker like his can be obtained from L.L. Bean for about $275. Since I've had my own back problems now, I plan to use a rocker a lot more. But I'm content to use the less expensive one at home with the Bridgewater State insignia.
Dennis Lythgoe's column is published on Tuesdays and Thursdays.