President John F. Kennedy utilized a custom-designed rocking chair to help his chronic back pain, keeping one of the iconic chairs in nearly every room of the White House. Author Harper Lee plunked her characters down in rocking chairs in To Kill a Mockingbird. Enter any child’s nursery, and you’ll find some form of chair that rocks—glider, rocking arm chair, or traditional rocker. And your grandparents or parents likely had a pair of rocking chairs on their porch at some point—a place to sit, converse, read a newspaper, perhaps, and watch the goings-on in the neighborhood.
Photo credit: John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum
Rocking chairs offer a small nod to a nostalgic brand of Americana—a time before smartphones, laptops, and social media. When people could truly relax as they gently swayed back and forth with a cocktail, a cold glass of tea, or a cup of coffee.
While rocking chairs are prominent in both architecture and pop culture, they solidified their place in American history long ago.
Who Invented the Rocking Chair?
As much as the Trex Outdoor Furniture team would like to claim we invented the rocking chair, we can’t. But everyone wants responsibility for the chair’s creation, from the humble farmer to Ben Franklin (he discovered electricity after all; a rocking chair seems simple by comparison).
Regardless, rocking chairs originated in the early 18th century in North America. Rocking horses and cradles were already around, and so someone thought it just made good sense to attach skates or rockers to a regular chair’s legs. The term “rocking chair” appeared in the 1787 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The chair’s popularity took off, and quite a few amalgamations of the chair came about, depending on era, location, and need.
Historic Rocking Chair Styles
In 1860, a German craftsman named Michael Thonet created the first bentwood rocking chair by steaming pieces of wood to effectively shape the rocking chair’s rocker into its graceful swoop.
Photo credit: Brooklyn Museum
The high spindle-backed Windsor rocker originated in mid-1700s England, while the more popular American Windsor features a lower, rounded back. In the 1820s, the Shakers created a no-frills ladder-back chair, the Shaker rocker, with a woven tape seat.
Photo credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Eames rocker, with its curved fiberglass shell seat and thick wooden rockers, emerged from the midcentury movement of the 1950s.
Photo credit: Eames.com
Durable Outdoor Rocking Chairs
At Trex Outdoor Furniture, we don’t mess with perfection. Our outdoor rocking chairs are built with Genuine POLYWOOD™ lumber, a durable material that withstands tough weather, UV rays, spills, and stains, while requiring minimal maintenance.
