This desk is important in its design as an example of the craftsmanship developing in Kentucky after the Revolution and in early Statehood. As settlement pushed over the Appalachians, many workers started moving into the Ohio River Valley, bringing with them crucial skills needed in the region. Kentucky’s first Senator, John Brown, owned this piece while working in Congress and wrote letters to major political figures both locally and nationally, such as James Madison, James Monroe, and Thomas Jefferson. Sen. Brown was the last member of the Continental Congress to pass away, in 1837. The secretary is cherry with a bookcase on top and a fall-front desk on the bottom. The top has a cornice of beveled molding with inlaid dot-and-dash band detail, indicative of locally made furniture in the Neoclassical taste. The desk remains at Brown’s residence, Liberty Hall, in Frankfort, KY where an impressive dwelling and garden were maintained by an enslaved household staff.