The Big Chief tablet was a popular writing notebook for several generations of young children in the United States. It featured widely spaced lines, easier to write in for those learning to write. Its prominence, though, was the cover's representation of a native American in full headdress, hence "Big Chief."
The copyright for the Big Chief tablet originally went to the Western Tablet Company of Saint Joseph, Missouri but was sold to the Mead Corp., a leading stationery manufacturer. In January 2001, Everett Pad and Paper purchased Springfield Tablet, the latest manufacturer of Big Chief. They closed operations of their plant, after 80 years of being open, and Big Chief is currently no longer being produced.
Hugo Award winning Science Fiction Author Connie Willis writes her books by hand on Big Chief Tablets which she buys in bulk.
In John Kennedy Toole's novel A Confederacy of Dunces, the protagonist Ignatius Reilly pens his philosophical ramblings on Big Chief tablets.
In the play by Tennessee Williams, 'Suddenly, Last Summer', the poet Sebastian Venable is said to write his annual 'Poem of Summer' in a Big Chief tablet.