Adirondack chair

Adirondack chair

Classic chair with a flat back and angled, contoured seat
Designer	Thomas Lee and Harry C. Bunnell
Materials	Wood (original) wood, plastic, metal (contemporary)

The Adirondack chair is an outdoor lounge chair with wide armrests, a tall slatted back, and a seat that is higher in the front than the back.^[1] Its name references the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York.

The chair was invented by Thomas Lee between 1900 and 1903 in Westport, New York, but was patented by his friend Harry C. Bunnell, who added some minor adaptations to make it more suitable for convalescents.^[2] The chairs were popularized in nearby tuberculosis sanatoriums, where they were favored for the way the armrests helped open up the sitter's chest. The Lee-Bunnell chair, however, had a single plank for the chair back; it was not until 1938 that the fan-shaped back with slats was patented by Irving Wolpin.^[3][4]

Adirondack chairs are now often made by injection molding and can take any form. Since the 1980s, they have sometimes been marketed in Ontario, Canada as "Muskoka chairs", although the design did not originate in Muskoka.^[5][6]

At least one oversized chair has been built as tourist attraction for a gift shop.^[7]

Gallery

• 
  A modern curved back example in Tofino, British Columbia, Canada
• 
  Red chair with foot rest for increased leisure
• 
  Durable cedar and orange plastic chairs in 20 cm of snow, Boise, Idaho
• 
  At a picnic site
• 
  Ornate 15 feet (4.6 m) chair as tourist attraction, maintained with a 1 imperial gallon (4.5 L) of both primer and paint annually. North of Cloyne, Ontario, Canada

See also

Look up Adirondack chair in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.