The Type Archive (formerly the Type Museum) was a collection of artefacts representing the legacy of type founding in England, whose famous type foundries and composing systems supplied the world with type in over 300 languages. [1] [2] The Archive was founded in 1992 by Susan Shaw in Stockwell, South London. [3] [4] The Archive announced in mid-2022 that it would relinquish its building and return portions of its collections to other institutions. [5]
The Type Archive was a repository of the original forms, punches, matrices and patterns of some of the most successful metal and wood type foundries in the England. It holds a historic collection of presses. The Archive estimated that its collections included over six million artefacts, though collating among sources provides a number over 10 million. [6] [7]
The Archive housed Monotype Hot-Metal Ltd., a group of four pensioners, formerly of the Monotype Corporation, who manufactured matrices (moulds for typecasting) for Monotype hot-metal typesetting equipment that remain in operation around the world to supply letterpress printing hobbyists and some commercial firms. [8] The Archive offered apprenticeships and trained several individuals in matrix manufacture. [9] These operations ended on 25 July 2022. [10]
The Archive had no regular open hours nor scheduled availability for researchers for most of its operation. However, it conducted open houses from time to time, hosted occasional exhibitions in a gallery space, and had school groups in for printing workshops.
The Museum’s major collections were:
The Type Archive involves the following entities: the Type Museum Trust, which is a Registered Charity 1009198 and a Registered Museum 1101 and its subsidiary The Type Museum Limited Registered Company 3677895 (trading as Monotype Hot-Metal).
The Archive was located for its 30-year history at a set of a buildings on Hackford Road in Stockwell. The buildings were once occupied by Price & King’s veterinary medicine and quarantine station, sometimes housing baby elephants. This history led founder Shaw to use an elephant as a symbol of the Archive. [11]
The Type Archive was run by a small team of staff and volunteers. Some were directly involved in the manufacture and provision of Monotype matrices and spare parts and employed by Monotype Hot Metal Ltd. The company had continuous orders for matrices and machine parts since it began operations from the Stockwell site. Uniquely skilled volunteers also maintained and operated the historic presses and Monotype casting machinery.
A major exhibition showcasing the work of the late Berthold Wolpe, artist, designer, calligrapher, type designer, and typographer ran from September to December 2017 through December. The Archive said around 1,000 visitors viewed the material on display. The Wolpe exhibition was arranged in conjunction with Monotype Imaging, using a combination of resources in possession of the Type Archive and the children of Berthold Wolpe.
An exhibition featuring the calligraphic work of Icelandic artist and handwriting expert, Gunnlaugur SE Briem, opened in June 2018, closing in mid-July that year.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the unrelated death of founder Susan Shaw (1932-2020 [12] ) made access particularly difficult for staff, volunteers, and researchers from March 2020.
On the 29 November 2021, after over 75 years of involvement with the Monotype Corporation and then Monotype Hot-Metal Ltd., Duncan Avery retired.
An unsigned note on The Type Archive’s website, posted in mid-2022, said the site would be relinquished and collections moved. [5] Monotype Hot-Metal Ltd. informed its customers that it would halt its operation in July 2022. [10]
Matthew Carter is a British type designer. A 2005 New Yorker profile described him as 'the most widely read man in the world' by considering the amount of text set in his commonly used fonts.
Letterpress printing is a technique of relief printing for producing many copies by repeated direct impression of an inked, raised surface against individual sheets of paper or a continuous roll of paper. A worker composes and locks movable type into the "bed" or "chase" of a press, inks it, and presses paper against it to transfer the ink from the type, which creates an impression on the paper.
In the manufacture of metal type used in letterpress printing, a matrix is the mould used to cast a letter, known as a sort. Matrices for printing types were made of copper.
American Type Founders (ATF) Co. was a business trust created in 1892 by the merger of 23 type foundries, representing about 85 percent of all type manufactured in the United States at the time. The new company, consisting of a consolidation of firms from throughout the United States, was incorporated in New Jersey.
Monotype Imaging Holdings Inc., founded as Lanston Monotype Machine Company in 1887 in Philadelphia by Tolbert Lanston, is an American company that specializes in digital typesetting and typeface design for use with consumer electronics devices. Incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in Woburn, Massachusetts, the company has been responsible for many developments in printing technology—in particular the Monotype machine, which was a fully mechanical hotmetal typesetter, that produced texts automatically, all single type. Monotype was involved in the design and production of many typefaces in the 20th century. Monotype developed many of the most widely used typeface designs, including Times New Roman, Gill Sans, Arial, Bembo and Albertus.
In printing and typography, hot metal typesetting is a technology for typesetting text in letterpress printing. This method injects molten type metal into a mold that has the shape of one or more glyphs. The resulting sorts or slugs are later used to press ink onto paper. Normally the typecasting machine would be controlled by a keyboard or by a paper tape.
A type foundry is a company that designs or distributes typefaces. Before digital typography, type foundries manufactured and sold metal and wood typefaces for hand typesetting, and matrices for line-casting machines like the Linotype and Monotype, for letterpress printers. Today's digital type foundries accumulate and distribute typefaces created by type designers, who may either be freelancers operating their own independent foundry, or employed by a foundry. Type foundries may also provide custom type design services.
Caslon is the name given to serif typefaces designed by William Caslon I (c. 1692–1766) in London, or inspired by his work.
Berthold Ludwig Wolpe was a German calligrapher, typographer, type designer, book designer and illustrator. He was born into a Jewish family at Offenbach near Frankfurt, emigrated to England soon after the Nazis came to power in 1935 and became a naturalized British citizen in 1947. He was made a Royal Designer for Industry in 1959, awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in 1968 and appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1983. He died in London in 1989.
Punchcutting is a craft used in traditional typography to cut letter punches in steel as the first stage of making metal type. Steel punches in the shape of the letter would be used to stamp matrices into copper, which were locked into a mould shape to cast type. Cutting punches and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of letter punches was a highly skilled craft requiring much patience and practice. Often the designer of the type would not be personally involved in the cutting.
Janson is the name given to a set of old-style serif typefaces from the Dutch Baroque period, and modern revivals from the twentieth century. Janson is a crisp, relatively high-contrast serif design, most popular for body text.
A Ludlow Typograph is a hot metal typesetting system used in letterpress printing. The device casts bars, or slugs of type, out of type metal primarily consisting of lead. These slugs are used for the actual printing, and then are melted down and recycled on the spot. It was used to print large-type material such as newspaper headlines or posters.
Type casting is a technique for casting the individual letters known as sorts used in hot metal typesetting by pouring molten metal into brass moulds called matrices.
Bell is the name given to a serif typeface designed and cut in 1788 by the punchcutter Richard Austin for the British Letter Foundry, operated by publisher John Bell, and revived several times since.
Stephenson Blake is an engineering company based in Sheffield, England. The company was active from the early 19th century as a type founder, remaining until the 1990s as the last active type foundry in Britain, since when it has diversified into specialist engineering.
The Grabhorn Institute is a nonprofit organization formed in October 2000 for the purpose of preserving and continuing the operation of one of the last integrated facilities for typefounding, letterpress printing, and bookbinding in the fine press tradition, as a living museum and educational and cultural center. It is named in honor of the brothers Edwin and Robert Grabhorn, who established the Grabhorn Press in San Francisco in 1920. The press was "one of the foremost producers of finely printed books in twentieth-century America." The Grabhorn Press Building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places in San Francisco, California.
Vincent Figgins was a British typefounder based in London, who cast and sold metal type for printing. After an apprenticeship with typefounder Joseph Jackson, he established his own type foundry in 1792. His company was extremely successful and, with its range of modern serif faces and display typefaces, had a strong influence on the styles of British printing in the nineteenth century.
Susan Shaw born Susan Mahon was a publisher and the British founder of the Type Museum in London. Her publishing house created limited edition books that can sell for thousands of pounds a copy.
The Caslon type foundry was a type foundry in London which cast and sold metal type. It was founded by the punchcutter and typefounder William Caslon I, probably in 1720. For most of its history it was based at Chiswell Street, Islington, was the oldest type foundry in London, and the most prestigious.
In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. First used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was lighter and cheaper than large sizes of metal type.