Best American-Made Office & School Supplies

Musgrave Pencil Company has made pencils in Shelbyville, Tennessee since 1916, and the family-owned factory calls itself the place where American pencils are made. Its Harvest, 500 Series, Ceres, TOT, Unigraph and motivational school pencils are all finished there. The materials are mixed. After the US slat mills closed, Musgrave began buying its cedar slats from overseas, though the wood may have been shipped there from the US, and it uses components sourced both globally and domestically.

For school, a #2 (HB) pencil is the standard grade for everyday writing and for answer sheets. The Harvest 320 is the plain yellow classroom pencil. The Harvest Professional uses California incense-cedar, which sharpens more cleanly than cheaper woods. The TOT Big Dipper is a jumbo pencil for small hands.

Liqui-Mark makes highlighters, dry-erase and permanent markers and washable markers at its plant in Hauppauge, New York, and groups them under a Made in the USA category on its site. It also imports some lines, and its crayons are not on its US-made list, so check the package on anything outside those marker types.

Two familiar art brands are not US-made. Staedtler is a German company whose own pages say Made in Germany, and Pentel, from Japan, names no US factory; its Torrance, California office is a headquarters and distribution site.

Fisher Space Pen makes its pens and pressurized refills at its factory at 711 Yucca Street in Boulder City, Nevada. Paul C. Fisher's pressurized cartridge flew on Apollo 7 in 1968, and his family still runs the company. The Bullet is the pocket model and the AG7 is the original astronaut pen. Because the cartridge is pressurized, it writes upside down, in the cold and on damp paper, which makes it the pen to pair with an all-weather notebook.

Skilcraft is the brand of National Industries for the Blind. Its pens, markers, highlighters and notebooks are made by nonprofit agencies that employ people who are blind, including plants in Kansas City, Greensboro and Milwaukee. The US Government retractable ballpoint is the one most people know.

Karas Kustoms machines its pens, such as the bolt-action Bolt, from brass, copper and aluminum in its own shop in Mesa, Arizona. The refill inside is bought in (a Pilot G2, Schmidt or Monteverde cartridge), and Karas does not say where those are made.

Noodler's Ink, a small Massachusetts company, says its bottled fountain pen inks are made in the USA from cap to glass to ink. X-Feather, as the name says, is meant for absorbent paper where other inks spread. Noodler's gives no origin for its fountain pens.

Three mass-market pen makers are partly American. Paper Mate makes some pens at Newell Brands' plant in Maryville, Tennessee and brings others in from Mexico or China. Pilot Corporation of America, the US arm of Tokyo's Pilot Corporation, runs an assembly plant in Jacksonville, Florida but does not say which pens it assembles there. National Pen prints promotional pens in Shelbyville, Tennessee. For Paper Mate and Pilot, the package is the only reliable guide to a given pen.

Five Star spiral notebooks are made at ACCO Brands' 600,000 square foot plant in Alexandria, Pennsylvania, which also makes Mead and Cambridge notebooks. The notebooks are union-made by members of United Steelworkers Local 1442. Five Star's own website gives no country of origin, and its binders, folders, pencil pouches and planners are not covered by the plant statements. Buy the spiral and wirebound notebooks if you want the US-made Five Star.

Mead, the ACCO label that dates to 1846, makes composition books and loose-leaf filler paper; its wide-ruled filler paper is assembled in the US from US and foreign parts. Oxford, another ACCO label, sells legal pads and index cards that are labeled made in the USA, but some Oxford notebooks are imported, including one printed Made in Brazil.

Roaring Spring Paper Products makes composition books, spiral notebooks, filler paper and lab notebooks at 740 Spang Street in Roaring Spring, Pennsylvania, where it began in 1887. Each product page lists a country of origin, and not every line is US-made. Decomposition Book notebooks, from the family-owned Michael Roger, Inc., are made in the USA on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper with soy ink. Its pencils are US-made too. Its pens are made in Germany.

For legal pads, TOPS Products runs US paper plants in Covington, Tennessee, Union, Missouri and Osage, Iowa, and also has plants in Mexico and Canada. Its Ampad Gold Fibre and Evidence pads are labeled made in the USA, as are TOPS legal pads and its American Pride writing tablets. WritePads legal pads are made in Virginia, according to their listings.

Hammermill copy paper, colored paper and cardstock come from Sylvamo, which runs US mills in Eastover, South Carolina and Ticonderoga, New York. Sylvamo also has mills in Brazil, France and Sweden, so check the ream wrapper.

Some Elmer's school glue listings say made in USA, but Elmer's makes no blanket US claim and names no glue plant, so check the bottle.

Rite in the Rain all-weather paper and notebooks are made by JL Darling in Tacoma, Washington. Every product page carries a Manufactured line, and the spiral, stapled and hard cover notebooks, index cards and field books read U.S.A. The coated sheet sheds water, so write on it with a pencil or a pressurized pen. Rite in the Rain's own metal all-weather pens and No. 37 refills are made in the US by Fisher Space Pen. Its Monsoon bags, pouches and wallets are designed in Tacoma and made in China. The 4x6 top-spiral notebook fits a pocket.

Field Notes, a Chicago company at 401 North Racine Avenue, says all of its memo books are printed and manufactured in the USA and names the printer on each book. The Original Kraft line is printed by Service Graphics in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, and the Pitch Black books by eDOC Communications in Mount Prospect, Illinois, with covers from French Paper in Niles, Michigan. Its pens, pencils and pencil case pages state no origin.

Doane Paper sells notebooks and pads printed with its Grid + Lines pattern. It owns no factory and works with American partners, including Finch Paper in Glens Falls, New York, a Kansas City bindery and Roaring Spring for its composition book. The scissors it resells are imported from Japan.

BookFactory designs, prints and binds lab notebooks, engineering notebooks, log books and journals at one plant in Dayton, Ohio, and is a veteran-owned small business. A bound lab notebook with numbered pages is what most chemistry courses ask for.

Appointed, founded in 2015 in Washington, D.C., now makes its notebooks, planners and journals at its own facility in New York State with American-made cotton bookcloth covers. Graphic Image makes leather desk diaries, notebooks and photo albums at its factory on Long Island, New York, from leather it imports from tanneries in Italy, France, Brazil, Turkey and India.

For letters and cards, Crane makes its cotton stationery in the Mohawk Valley of New York. Zenas Crane founded the company in Dalton, Massachusetts in 1801. The Best Card Company prints note cards on demand in New Jersey on recycled stock. Canopy Street labels its boxed holiday, graduation and baby shower cards made in the USA but does not say where they are printed. American Greetings runs four US plants in Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee but makes no Made in USA statement for its products, so check each package. Rifle Paper Co.'s own store tags its boxed card sets as imported.

House of Doolittle makes its wall calendars, desk pads, planners and appointment books in an 80,000 square foot plant in Arlington Heights, Illinois. It says the whole line is made in the USA, on recycled paper with soy inks. John Doolittle started the business in 1919. We found no imported line.

Erin Condren's LifePlanners and coiled notebooks are hand-coiled in the USA, and the company runs order processing from Austin, Texas. Some accessories are imported, including a canvas tote.

Quo Vadis is a French planner brand. Its US-format planners, such as the Business, Minister and University, are bound at a US bindery on French Clairefontaine paper, while its notebooks and other planners are made in France. AT-A-GLANCE, an ACCO Brands division, does not say where its planners and appointment books are printed, so check each package.

Rand McNally says its Road Atlas, Large Scale Road Atlas and Motor Carriers' Road Atlas are printed in the United States.

Samsill says every one of its ring binders is still made in Fort Worth, Texas, where the family company started in 1953, including its plant-based binders made with sugarcane plastic and recycled chipboard. Samsill set up import partnerships in China and Mexico in 1998 and 1999, and its padfolios, journals and organizers carry no origin on its site, so the Fort Worth statement covers binders only. Wilson Jones, an ACCO binder line, makes many of its binders at ACCO's plant in Booneville, Mississippi, but not every product in the range.

Pick a D-ring binder over a round ring for anything over an inch and a half. The pages lie flat against the back, so a 2-inch D-ring holds about as much as a 2.5-inch round ring and the pages turn without tearing at the holes.

Smead makes manila and colored file folders, hanging files, pressboard classification folders and TUFF expanding files, and its paper and pressboard product pages say made in the USA. Its poly folders give no origin. Pendaflex, a TOPS Products brand, is mixed: distributor data lists its standard green and reinforced box-bottom hanging folders as made in the US and most of its colored folders as made in Mexico. Globe-Weis expanding files come from the same TOPS group, which runs plants in the US, Canada and Mexico, and we found no source tying them to a US plant.

Saunders, of Readfield, Maine, assembles its aluminum, hardboard and recycled plastic clipboards in America from domestic and globally sourced components. Its recycled plastic clipboards are listed as made in the USA. Its US-Works line is assembled at facilities that employ people with disabilities. Dexas makes its Clipcase storage clipboards at its Texas facility. Dexas says many, not all, of its products are US-made. Naked Binder's recycled 3-ring binders are listed as manufactured in the USA from FSC-certified, 100 percent post-consumer board, but the brand names no factory.

ACCO Brands itself still runs a few US plants, but its Sidney, New York facility closed in 2024 and much of its range comes from Asia. Its GBC laminator line makes no US-manufacturing claim we could confirm.

Officemate desk organizers, 2200 Series letter trays and Grande Central filing systems come from Victor Technology, which makes its US line in New Jersey. The bamboo trays and Achieva hole punch give no origin. Buddy Products, a family-owned Chicago maker of steel desk organizers and file racks, labels some listings Made in USA and at least one China, so read the item.

IRIS USA molds its clear plastic storage bins, weathertight boxes, file boxes and drawers at its own plants in Surprise, Arizona, Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, Mesquite, Texas and Hazleton, Pennsylvania. It is a subsidiary of Japan's IRIS Ohyama, and its fans, appliances and furniture are not part of the US-made line.

Penco Products makes steel lockers and Clipper shelving at a 375,624 square foot plant in Hamilton, North Carolina, with design and specialty manufacturing in Salt Lake City, Utah. HON, of Muscatine, Iowa, builds furniture in the US and Mexico and sources some from Europe and Asia, so origin varies by model.

Quartet whiteboards and glass dry-erase boards come from ACCO's plant in Booneville, Mississippi, where whiteboard manufacturing moved in 2019. Glass boards do not stain or ghost the way painted and melamine boards can. Post-it Notes are made by 3M in Cynthiana, Kentucky, and 3M's listings for the classic 3x3 and Super Sticky pads say made in the USA with globally sourced materials.

For teachers, Nasco sells teaching aids and art supplies under a name that began in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin in 1941, but only some of its items state US origin. Tassel Depot, the trade name of Hofmann & Leavy, makes graduation tassels and cords at its plant in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Rediform's carbonless sales order book and money receipt book are made in Elyria, Ohio.

Several desk brands are not US-made. Swingline staplers have not been made in Queens since the plant moved to Mexico in 1999. Distributor data lists the Rolodex rotary card file as made in China. Brady has US plants but runs most of its factories abroad and does not publish origin by product. Eldon and Baumgartens give no evidence of US manufacture.