Who Invented the Bed? Folding Cabinet Bed, Sarah Goode and Murphy Bed History (2026)
Short answer: no one person invented the bed. People were sleeping on prepared grass bedding at least 200,000 years ago, and raised beds show up in the archaeological record thousands of years before any written patent. Folding beds are also ancient: one was found in Tutankhamun's tomb. The best-known folding cabinet bed is Sarah E. Goode's, patented in the U.S. on July 14, 1885 (No. 322,177). The wall-mounted Murphy bed came later, from William L. Murphy, who received his patent in the 1910s.
Who invented the bed?
There is no inventor of the bed. Beds developed gradually in many places, long before patent records, and archaeologists can only tell us the oldest ones found so far.
- At least 200,000 years ago: the oldest known grass bedding, found in Border Cave, South Africa, and reported in the journal Science in 2020. People laid sheaves of grass on layers of ash near the back of the cave to make areas for sleeping and working.
- About 5,000 years ago: at Skara Brae in Orkney, Scotland, a Neolithic village of stone houses, each single-room house had two stone box-beds built into it.
- About 2960–2770 B.C.: the Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a wooden bed frame from Egypt's Early Dynastic Period, catalogued as a bed (bier).
Who invented the folding bed?
- Ancient Egypt: the Met has a wooden model of a folding bed from Egypt's 18th Dynasty (about 1550–1300 B.C.). A folding bedstead was found in the Annexe of the tomb of Tutankhamun, an 18th Dynasty pharaoh who ruled about 1332–1323 B.C. His tomb was discovered in 1922 by excavators led by Howard Carter.
- 1860s–1880s United States: folding beds hidden in furniture were a crowded patent category well before 1885. Sanford S. Burr of Massachusetts patented an "Improved Folding Bedstead" in 1868 that looked like an ornamental piece of furniture when closed, and Constant S. Trevitt of Washington, D.C. patented an "Improvement in Cabinet-Bedsteads" in 1874.
Even Sarah Goode's own patent calls the three-section folding frame she used a "well-known construction." What she patented was a new way to combine it with a working desk.
Sarah E. Goode and the 1885 folding cabinet bed
Sarah E. Goode ran a furniture store in Chicago with her husband, Archibald Goode. Sources differ on her early life: the National Archives says she was born into slavery in 1850 and moved to Chicago after the Civil War, while other biographies give her birth as about 1855 in Toledo, Ohio. She died in Chicago in 1905.
Many of the store's customers were working-class people living in small apartments. Goode's answer was a bed that folded into a desk. She filed her application on November 12, 1883, and was granted U.S. Patent No. 322,177 for a "Cabinet-Bed" on July 14, 1885.
The National Archives describes it as the first patent granted to an African American woman. Later research has identified earlier patents issued to Black women, such as Judy W. Reed's 1884 patent for a dough kneader and roller, so Goode is now usually described as one of the first African American women to receive a U.S. patent.
How Goode's cabinet bed worked
According to the patent text:
- The frame came in three sections. The middle section stayed still, and the two end sections were hinged to it and folded up over it, forming a box that held the bedding.
- Folded, the bed looked like "an ordinary office desk, and may be used as such." A desk compartment on top held pigeonholes and drawers behind a cylinder cover, with a sliding writing surface.
- Flat springs counterbalanced the folding sections so they were easier to raise and lower.
- A woven-wire spring held the bedding, and an automatic support rose under the middle of the bed when it was unfolded.
Who invented the Murphy bed?
The Murphy bed is named after William Lawrence Murphy (1876–1957). As the popular story goes, he lived in a one-room apartment in San Francisco and designed a bed that folded away into a closet so the room could double as a parlor. He received a patent for a "Disappearing Bed" on June 18, 1912 (the Smithsonian dates his first patent to 1911). In 1925 he incorporated the Murphy Door Bed Company in New York.
Goode's bed folded up into a desk. Murphy's swings up on a pivot and stores upright against or inside the wall. In 1989 a federal appeals court ruled that "Murphy bed" had become a generic name for this type of bed. For more on the name and how wall-mounted and free-standing beds differ, see wall bed vs Murphy bed.
Bed history timeline at a glance
| When | What |
|---|---|
| At least 200,000 years ago | Oldest known grass bedding, Border Cave, South Africa |
| About 5,000 years ago | Stone box-beds in the houses at Skara Brae, Orkney |
| About 2960–2770 B.C. | Wooden bed (bier) from Early Dynastic Egypt, now at the Met |
| About 1550–1300 B.C. | Egyptian model of a folding bed (Met); folding bedstead in Tutankhamun's tomb |
| 1868 and 1874 | U.S. patents for a folding bedstead (Burr) and cabinet-bedsteads (Trevitt) |
| July 14, 1885 | Sarah E. Goode's cabinet-bed patent, No. 322,177 |
| 1912 | William L. Murphy's "Disappearing Bed" patent |
| 1989 | U.S. appeals court rules "Murphy bed" is a generic term |
What is a folding cabinet bed today?
A folding cabinet bed is a bed that folds out of a free-standing chest or credenza. Like Goode's design, it looks like ordinary furniture when closed. Unlike a wall-mounted Murphy bed, it does not attach to the wall. The mattress folds up and stores inside the cabinet. Cabinet beds are still being patented: Arason lists U.S. Patent No. 7,574,758 on its Creden-ZzZ Key West, a "folding cabinet bed" design granted in 2009.
Two queen examples we carry:
- Night and Day Murphy Cube: 64.1" W x 26.4" D x 36.6" H closed, opens to 80.3" long. It stands on its own with no wall or floor mounting and assembles in about 15 minutes with no tools. Every mattress option folds away inside the cabinet (the Cabinet Only option ships without a mattress).
- Arason Creden-ZzZ Key West: a chest, 64" W x 42" H x 23" D, that opens to 81 inches. It is free-standing with no need to bolt it to the floor or wall, and it comes with a tri-fold 6-inch mattress.
To compare the main models side by side, see the cabinet Murphy bed comparison chart. For closed and open dimensions by size, see the twin, full and queen size guide. Most of these models are in our cabinet Murphy bed collection.
Frequently asked questions
Who invented the bed?
No single person. The oldest known grass bedding, from Border Cave in South Africa, is at least 200,000 years old, and raised beds appear thousands of years ago at sites such as Skara Brae and in early Egypt.
Who invented the folding bed?
No one person. Folding beds existed in ancient Egypt, including one found in Tutankhamun's tomb, and U.S. inventors patented many folding and cabinet beds in the 1860s–1880s. Sarah E. Goode's 1885 cabinet-bed is the best-known of these patents.
Who invented the fold-away cabinet bed?
Sarah E. Goode of Chicago patented her "Cabinet-Bed," a bed that folded into a working desk, on July 14, 1885 (U.S. Patent No. 322,177). Earlier cabinet-bed patents existed, such as Trevitt's in 1874.
Who invented the Murphy bed?
William Lawrence Murphy. He received a "Disappearing Bed" patent in 1912 (the Smithsonian dates his first patent to 1911), and, per a federal court record, began selling his wall bed as the "Murphy bed" after incorporating in 1925.
Was Sarah Goode the first Black woman to get a patent?
The National Archives describes her patent as the first granted to an African American woman. Earlier patents by Black women have since been identified, including Judy W. Reed's in 1884, so she is best described as one of the first.
Is a folding cabinet bed the same as a Murphy bed?
Not quite. A wall-mounted Murphy bed pivots up against the wall and is secured to it. A cabinet bed folds out of a free-standing chest and does not attach to the wall, though sellers often call both "Murphy beds."
Questions? Call or text (916) 262-7257 or email support@archicfurniture.com.
