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Think about how many times in your life you’ve used a No. 2 pencil. It’s a trusty standby for filling out tests, graphing data, or taking notes in class. But it’s likely that you’ve never thought much about how pencils are made. I hadn’t either, until I visited America’s oldest pencil factory last year.
Founded in 1889, General Pencil Company has been manufacturing pencils for more than 100 years at its factory in Jersey City, New Jersey. It’s one of the last remaining pencil factories in the U.S. Nearly all other pencil manufacturers have either gone out of business or relocated their factories to other countries.