Christopher Latham Sholes, the printer and Wisconsin state senator who designed the QWERTY keyboard, was appointed Milwaukee's postmaster…

Before he arranged the letters that still sit under nearly every keyboard, Christopher Latham Sholes ran the Milwaukee post office by day and tinkered with a small numbering machine in the back room. The typewriter grew out of that tinkering.

By Make Tech Easier Editorial Team · Sep 21, 2026