The History of Lazy Susan

One of the most popular theories is that Thomas Jefferson invented the device for his daughter Susan. In this theory, the invention’s namesake often complained about how her food was cold because she was always served last at the dinner table. Unfortunately, Jefferson never had a daughter named Susan so this cannot be confirmed. Others believe that Thomas Edison’s turntable that he created for his phonograph eventually evolved into the Lazy Susan.

It’s possible that the name originates from “Susan” being a generic term popularized in the 18th century. Used by employers, the term “Lazy Susan” was in reference to their female servants and a “common complaint against servants at the time,” according to Markus Krajewski, a professor of media history at University Basel.

Some believe that tiered rolling carts (known as Etageres or Dumbwaiters) eventually evolved into tiered rounded tables that spun around to make drinks and snacks easily accessible to guests. Both of these inventions replaced a lot of the work that servants did. 

A woman out of Missouri named Elizabeth Howell filed a patent in 1891 for her “Self Waiting Table.” This is one of the first documented instances of a rotating table existing atop another surface. Later, in 1915, a Malaysian doctor named Wu Lien-Teh wrote about similar ideas, but specifically focused on providing a sanitary dining experience. He envisioned a rotating tray at a table where every dish had a special spoon to prevent contamination. It is unknown if this idea was picked up in China or Southeast Asia.

Fast forward to the 1950’s when Chinese restaurants were flourishing in the U.S.  George Hall, a friend of Johnny Kan who opened a cantonese style restaurant in 1953, had trained as an engineer and often tinkered around in the basement. He put together a revolving table top that became a pivotal element of Kan’s new banquet room. This table design absolutely blew up and became standard fare in the 1960’s. In the decades that followed, people would start to incorrectly proclaim that the Lazy Susan was traditional in Chinese culture stemming back to the 13th century. A revolving table did exist, but its purpose was to set out blocks of characters to be used in printing. 

It wasn’t until around the 1940’s that it occurred to kitchen cabinet makers to incorporate the Lazy Susan into corner cabinets. This new technique not only allowed that tricky dead space to be utilized, it also improved cabinet accessibility. Once the Lazy Susan was introduced to the world of cabinetry, there was no turning back. 

The Lazy Susan set a new precedent for utilizing cabinet space and paved the way for all of the innovative storage solutions we see today. Despite not much being changed in the overall construction of the Lazy Susan since its inception, it is still one of our most popular requested kitchen storage solutions.