Introduction

It’s perhaps the most overlooked invention of all time. Consigned to a forgotten corner in the basement of history. The Filing Cabinet.

Yet the humble Filing Cabinet was at the centre of an information revolution and became critical to the infrastructure of 20th century nation states and businesses. One sign of the deep mark it has left on us are the names we give things on our computers - Files, Folders, Tabs.

To help us restore the filing cabinet to its rightful place is Craig Robertson, author of The Filing Cabinet: A Vertical History of Information.

Produced and edited by Freddy Chick, Senior Producer is Charlotte Long