@19cwt-obscura.bsky.social
Designer & typographer & archivist & professor & (accidentally?) historian. I’m author & designer of the monograph The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection: A History and Catalog published by UT Press. Text missives at @19cwt.bsky.social
E.
Laurent et Deberny fonderie (mid 19th).
Letterform face-off across West O’Reilly Street in Presidio, Texas. #letterforms #SignPainting
25.07.2025 20:23 — 👍 7 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #letterforms #typography
23.07.2025 23:28 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Some noodling on the RISO w/ all variants of Wm H Page & Co’s Gothic Paneled — 1st shown in its 1874 _Specimen of Chromatic Wood Type…_ and patented on 3 March 1874 as US Design Patent 7,230.
http://www.woodtyperesearch.com/chromatic-gothic-paneled/
“Billy Morgans—the boss typo of the County…” http://www.woodtyperesearch.com/william-morgans
#WoodType #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #TypeHistory #letterpress #type #design #history #NineteethCentury #19thCentury
Green paper cover with title of 1881 Morgans & Wilcox specimen catalog printed in black ink, held in Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
Green paper cover with title of 1881 Morgans & Wilcox specimen catalog printed in black ink, held in Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University.
Cream color paper title page of 1882 Morgans & Wilcox specimen catalog printed in black ink, held in Cary Collection, RIT.
Happy Birthday, William Thomas Morgans, born July 2, 1844. He was one of the dominant producers & innovators of wood type in the US in the late 1870s, serving as the founding partner of the wood type companies Young & Morgans (1876) and later Morgans & Wilcox Mfg Co (1880).
02.07.2025 18:16 — 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
🥁 Welcome INDIA STREET LETTERING, the book! 🥁
I’m working with @blaft.bsky.social to bring together my documentation of letterforms from India’s cities into a 200-page hardcover full-colour book.
Support the project on Kickstarter ➡️ www.kickstarter.com/projects/bla... I promise it’ll be amazing!
I’ve updated the list of Rob Roy Kelly’s 1964 folio w/ newly located copies http://www.woodtyperesearch.com No 5, in a private collection, was Kelly’s personal copy, recently consigned by his daughter.
#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #type #typography #LetterForms #NineteenthCentury #Archives #Bibliography
Darius Wells born 26 April 1800 Kingsboro, NY. Invented the router (lateral revolving cutting tool) to make the 1st machine cut #WoodType in 1828. An active abolitionist he ran a station on the underground railroad in Patterson, NJ helping enslaved humans move north to Canada to live as free humans.
26.04.2025 17:45 — 👍 12 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Overlapping typographic forms from 1844 L. Johnson specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with low contrast tonal value letterforms.
Overlapping typographic forms from 1854 Wells & Webb wood type specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with low contrast tonal value letterforms.
Overlapping typographic forms from 1827 George Bruce specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with high contrast tonal value letterforms.
Overlapping typographic forms from 1854 Wells & Webb wood type specimen catalog. Cream colored stock with low contrast tonal value letterforms.
Accidental typographic palimpsest, encountered in Special Collections at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
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#WoodType #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #collections #bibliography #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #TypeHistory #letterpress #type #design #NineteethCentury #Palimpsest
HBD Henry P Hamilton born 21 Apr 1862 youngest of 3 brothers, worked with older brthr George at _The Detroit Record_ as a printer & then with oldest brthr James at Hamilton & Baker, later Hamilton Mfg Co Credited patents USD37308 & 37309 http://www.woodtyperesearch.com/hamilton-mfg-672-673 #WoodType
21.04.2025 15:51 — 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #TypeDesign #letterforms #typography #letterpress #type #design #GraphicDesign #NineteenthCentury #OnThisDay #birthday #bibliography #archives #ArchivesOfInstagram #libraries #collections #excelsior
25.03.2025 14:53 — 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Image is of Tuscan Open as shown in the 1853 _Specimens of Machinery Cut Wood Type, Manufactured by Bill, Stark & Company, Willimantic, Connecticut._ (held in the ATF Library Collection at Columbia University, Rare Books & Manuscripts.)
25.03.2025 14:53 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
HBD! Horatio Nelson Bill born in Lebanon, Conn., USA, March 25, 1824. He worked as a sign painter before cutting wood type for Edwin Allen (w/ brother Jeremiah). They formed their own wood type co., H & J Bill (1850), then Bill, Stark & Co (1853), closed in 1854, & was sold to Wm. H. Page in 1856.
25.03.2025 14:51 — 👍 19 🔁 1 💬 3 📌 0The Werner Collection is fantastic if you ever get a chance to visit in person. Also if you haven’t already bumped into it, here is a link to a list of known digitized type specimens (lots of excellent wood type catalogs!) https://typographica.org/on-typography/now-open-the-typographica-library/
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Happy Birthday William Hamilton Page,born in Tilton, NH, USA, March 14, 1829. Images shown here from his co’s 1878 specimen catalog, slightly repurposed from 1867.
More at www.woodtyperesearch.com/william-hamilton-page/
#WoodType #TypeSpecimen #letterforms #typography #archives #libraries #19cwntu
Black and white contour lines from close up of wood engraving.
Black and white cross hatched lines from close up of wood engraving.
Black and white wavy, undulating lines from close up of wood engraving.
Angled forms in tightly cropped detail of type specimen.
A few textures encountered while looking at type specimen catalogs held at the Smithsonian’s National American History Museum, and at the Library of Congress. File under: 2-jam-packed-days in DC.
#WoodType #19thCentury #typography #Letterpress #WoodEngraving #archives #libraries
