Keith Houston explains Thomas Jefferson’s ivory polyptych: a notebook with several ivory leaves. He kept notes about the weather and the seasons. His records included the heat and the direction of the wind. [1]
The Library of Congress exhibition also lists ivory note pages that Jefferson owned. That gives readers a record of the object beyond the essay. [2]
The essay places that object in a wider history of writing tools. Houston’s theme is the tradeoff between cost, quality, and use. A material that is good for one task may be poor for another. The way we take notes has to fit the work we need the notes to do. [1]
That makes the essay useful beyond its striking object. The important habit is to notice something and write it down while it is at hand. An unusual notebook makes a good story, but the habit does not depend on owning that kind of book. [1]
Read this as a short history of a tool and its use. It does not show that one medium is best for all note-taking. Nor does the example prove that using a famous person’s tools will give you their habits. The essay helps you ask how well a tool fits a task. [1]