Type Tuesday - Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Type Tuesdays will return January 7, 2014.

Ornaments from the Donaldson Printing & Publishing Co. 

Jaime Henderson,
Archivist

Type Tues - Holiday Tidings

Happy Holidays!

An Alphabet of Christmas Words, selected by Helen McKelvey Oakley, designed by John Begg, and illustrated by Ursula Suess. Published as Monograph No. 83 for the Typophiles, 1966.  

Here's hoping your holiday is filled with both beautiful ornaments and delicious pie!

Jaime Henderson,

Archivist

Type Tuesday - Lucian Bernhard and the Linotype Magazine

The January 1929 issue of Linotype Magazine, published by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, was dedicated to new trends in typographic design. The issue featured layouts arranged in linotype by Lucian Bernhard (1883-1972) a German graphic designer, type designer and artist well-known for his particular style in advertising known as Plakatstil. Plakatstil (or "Poster style") highlighted bold, simplified font, flat colors and streamlined shapes. These voguish samples of advertisements, including compelling suggestions for the selection of particular types, embody Bernhard's style and offered Mergenthaler Linotype users a fresh, more modern way to appeal to their customers. 

Jaime Henderson,
Archivist

Gilbert and Rivington's Foreign Types

William E. Loy (1847-1906) was a newspaperman, printer and printing equipment salesman who collected fonts for his extensive typographical library. This copy of Specimens of Gilbert and Rivington's Foreign Types comes from William E. Loy's collection of typographical specimens. 

Tucked inside this specimen is a note addressed to Loy and signed by Gilbert and Rivington, thanking Loy for inquiring about their Oriental type selections and offering him a discount on any futher orders. 

And what a selection of types Gilbert and Rivington offered! The index lists 84 types including Irish, Japanese and Flemish types and more exotic types such as Ojibbeway, Tartar and Tekke-Turkoman. What follows is a selection of types offered by Gilbert and Rivington, Oriental Printers and Typefounders.

William Loy's typographical library forms the core of the California Historical Society's Kemble Collection. Visit the CHS North Baker research library to take a peek of specimen's from Loy's terrific collection. 

Jaime Henderson,

Archivist

Type Tuesday - Francis Hart and Co.

Samples of "black letters" from the printing office of Francis Hart and Co. from 1878.

Initial letters

Tail-pieces

Jaime Henderson, 

Archivist

Type Tuesday - The Linotype Bulletin

The Mergenthaler Linotype Company was an early printing industry giant in the United States primarily due to its development and manufacturing of the first modern, functional linotype machine. Its publication, The Linotype Bulletin, was "devoted to the linotype and its users," offering articles on lay-out and design, samples of linotype work and announcements of newly acquired types by the Mergenthaler Linotype Company. The May-June issue from 1921 offered its customers a peek into the precision and care with which their individual matrices were selected. The "stock operative" seen below made selecitons from Merganthaler's 41,500 types and ensured precision with her micrometer gauges, guaranteeing customers the most accurate of print display. 

From the advertisement above:

FILLING THE SINGLE ORDER

Prompt supply for the 41,500 Linotypes in use in all parts of the world is assured by maintaining a stock of many millions of matrices ready to ship. The system of filling our daily orders from this stock is such that orders for a single matrix or for many thousands are met with equal precision. The stock operative shown in the illustration is comparing each individual matrix with the order, and she has at hand micrometer gauges and other means for final accurate examination. 

From the adverstisement above: 

INDIVIDUAL CARE OF THE INDIVIDUAL MATRIX

The matrix factory has a capacity of over 225,000 matrices a day, but nevertheless the governing principle is not quantity production. The whole system is devised to assure individual attention to the individual matrix. Inspections and tests accompany each matrix through the successive stages of its manufacture, and it is again inspected and examined when it is taken from stock to fill orders. 

The Kemble Collection on Western Printing and Publishing at the California Historical Society holds a wide range of periodicals related to printing, publishing and graphic design, including many issues of The Linotype Bulletin from 1908 to 1930. 

Jaime Henderson

Archivist

Saddle Up!

Selections on saddlery from the CHS collections!

Advertisements for Eureka Harness Oil and Mica Axle Grease from Standard Oil Company

Main & Winchester, Illustrated Catalog No. 8, from our Commerical Catalogs collection

Beautiful color pages from the 1889 catalog of Main & Winchester, manufacturers and importers of saddlery hardware.

Jaime Henderson,

Archivist

Type Tuesday - The Castle Press

Grant Dahlstrom's The Castle Press brings you initials from the Oxford University Fell Type Collection. 

Jaime Henderson
Archivist

A roasted ostrich feast for all

Bon Appétit magazine recommends trying a spicy chili rub on the Thanksgiving turkey to liven up the traditional feast in 2013, but that still pales in comparison to the boldness of a roasted ostrich feast. Even the most gloriously plump free range turkey looks quaint next to these comic photos of a massive bird turned meal. 

Though the exact date of this dining spectacle is unknown, all photographs were taken at 
Lincoln Park, Los Angeles, California.

 

 

 

All photographs from the California Historical Society Collection

Title Insurance and Trust, and C.C. Pierce Photography Collection, 1860-1960

Digitally reproduced by the USC Digital Library; From the California Historical Society Collection at the University of Southern California