A History of Stationery
Four thousand years ago, the Egyptians developed a paper-like substance called "papyrus" which was made from a reed of the same name that grows along the Nile River. The inner stems were shaved off with a knife and then two shavings were pressed together and set out in the sun to dry. The result was a sheet that was smooth enough to write on and became the ancestor of our modern day paper. The art of modern paper making has it's roots in China and was created in the first century A.D. Materials such as silk, linen and old fishing nets were beaten to a pulp, saturated with water and then molded and dried in the sun. The finished product was a strong and durable sheet of paper. Before the secrets of paper making became known to the Middle Eastern countries, Arabs used parchment as a writing material. Animal skins were specially tanned to give them a smooth surface to write on. The terms "kid finish" and "vellum", still used today, are derived from the parchment made from young animals. These were more desirable due to their soft, rich feel and were the parchment of choice for social invitations and correspondence. Europeans gained their knowledge of papermaking through the Arab colonies of Spain and Sicily, and then later spread throughout Europe and on to the New World. The advantages of paper over papyrus and parchment were that it could be bound, and that paper made from cotton fiber can last for hundreds of years.