Featured Article
American Wood Types Folio (1964)
In 1964, Rob Roy Kelly, noted design educator, collector and historian, published a limited edition folio of the wood types he had collected over the previous eight years. 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the publishing of this important work. The folio, hand printed by Rob Roy Kelly (1925–2004) in an edition of 45, was well received, and quickly sold to private collectors and notable archives. Ruari McLean, the respected […] Read more – ‘American Wood Types Folio (1964)’.
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.
Latest Articles
- A hand list of Kelly’s 1964 folio
- Kelly, Rob Roy. Wood type; specimens of nineteenth century American wood type with introductory notes. Kansas City, Mo: Rob Roy Kelly, 1964. Print. Issued in a tan buckram covered solander box with printed paper label on front cover, titled: Wood type; specimens of nineteenth century American wood type with introductory notes. Consists of introductory notes and index bound in printed paper wrappers with black plastic spiral spine titled: American Wood Types […] Read more – ‘A hand list of Kelly’s 1964 folio’.
- George Case Setchell
- George Case Setchell was born December 17, 1838 in Norwich, Connecticut to William Kelly Setchell and Maria E. Case. He was a skilled type cutter and a keen inventor, who perfected the die-cut method of wood border manufacture in the late 1870s, and, in collaboration with William H. Page, the die-cut method of wood type manufacture in the late 1880s. Setchell spent his childhood and most of his adult life in […] Read more – ‘George Case Setchell’.
- E. R. Webb
- Ebenezer Russell Webb was born October 10, 1811 in Onondaga, New York—just south of Syracuse—to Judson Webb & Jerusha Truesdell. E.R. Webb married Charlotte Castle (c1812—1899) on May 23, 1832 in Syracuse, New York. The couple had one child, a daughter, Mary E. Webb [Bunker] (c1833–1912). The family lived at 247 Bridge Street in Brooklyn for nearly twenty years starting in 1843. Webb worked as a printer in his […] Read more – ‘E. R. Webb’.