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A week at the library
Spending the week at libraries tracking down American wood type manufacturer’s specimen books. On the docket are Houghton Library at Harvard University in Boston, the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, and the Connecticut Historical Society Library in Hartford. All archives seem promising with previously unrecorded specimen materials. To-date there has been no comprehensive listing of all wood type designs manufactured — or a bibliography compiled of manufacturer’s catalogs — over the […] Read more – ‘A week at the library’.
Wood Type Research
Wood Type Research is a blog of current research in wood type design, manufacture and use during the 19th and 20th centuries by Professor David Shields, Chair of the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University.
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- A most curious process
- The following entry was originally published in the 1889 edition of Johnson’s (Revised) Univeral Cyclopædia: a scientific and popular treasury of useful knowledge‹1›. The last sentence of the entry is most curious in that it describes an apparently efficient—if utterly unique—process of wood type manufacture. The “sand-blast method” does not appear to be described in any other trade- or reference-publication. It is not attributed to any specific manufacturer, nor can it be found […] Read more – ‘A most curious process’.
- Catalog No 36
- American Wood Type Mfg Co published it’s Catalog No 36 in 1936. Their primary business address was listed as 270 Lafayette Street, New York and the secondary address listed as 608 Dearborn Street, Chicago. The specimen book interior is printed in black ink on off-white uncoated stock, with a 2-color cover that is slightly heavier than the interior stock. The catalog measures 10¼ × 13¾″ and is thirty-six saddle-stitched pages […] Read more – ‘Catalog No 36’.
- American Wood Type Mfg Co
- On page 62 of American Wood Type 1828–1900‹1› Rob Roy Kelly makes a passing reference to the existence of several wood type manufacturers using the name American Wood Type. Kelly’s text only detailed the one manufacturer working in the 19th century. The nineteenth century American Wood Type Co described by Kelly was founded by Charles Henry Tubbs. Tubbs left the employ of William H. Page to start his company in South Windham, […] Read more – ‘American Wood Type Mfg Co’.