Reginald was nearly all day at his office, and half the night at his stand-up desk in his room. – Henry Kingsley, “Reginald Hetherege,” 1874

After they had dined, Mrs. Teachum told them she thought it proper that they should use some exercise in the cooler part of the day, lest, by sitting too much, they should injure their health. – Sarah Fielding (1710–1768), “The Governess, or The Little Female Academy,”

Desidiousness. Lat. sitting too much; slothfulness, idleness, carelessness. – A New Dictionary of the English Language by Charles Richardson, 1836

To those who visited the old Library of Congress at the Capitol he will always be associated with it — a long, lean figure, in scrupulous frock, erect at a standing desk, and intent upon its littered burden, while the masses of material surged incoherently about him. – Herbert Putnam, of librarian Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825–1908), 1908, wo