About The Twentieth

Hi, I'm Emma. I am a trained art historian with a PhD living in Chicago. I am obsessed with all old things, including architecture, the archives and of course, historical objects. The Twentieth is a stationery brand that revives one hundred year-old designs through digital restoration to give historical images a new life as cards, notebooks, stickers and much more to come. I like to think I am helping to bring a second life to these designs, while meticulously repairing, restoring and updating them for the present. I started my business as a "pandemic pivot" after becoming a mother three weeks before the pandemic. Uncertain if colleges would even be open when it was time for me to return from maternity leave, I started selling antiques on instagram during my baby's nap time. Less than a year later, my business has turned into a full-time job that never stops surprising me. I have a physical location as part of a local artist collective in Chicago and I sell at antiques/artisan fairs and street festivals in the greater Chicagoland area. I also design custom cards based on my namesake card set, the Wallpaper Card Set, for a local Chicago museum.Read their story