Mergenthaler Linotype Company: Type Specimen Books and Associated Materials, ca. 1920-1938

RLIN ID No.
NYGG01-A63

Main Entry
Mergenthaler Linotype Company.

Title
Type Specimen Booklets and Associated Materials, [ca. 1920-1938].

Physical Description
45 items (1 box)

Historical/Biographical Note
The period from 1825 on saw the development of composing machines that would speed the process of typesetting in the face of vastly increased demand for books in Europe and the United States. About 300 had been patented by the time Ottmar Mergenthaler (1854-1899) introduced his version in 1886. The German immigrant had worked in a Baltimore machine shop for a decade while perfecting a machine which used small brass matrixes with impressions of the letterforms, etc. and melted lead to cast slugs bearing raised lines of type. The process dominated trade and business printing in the United States for several decades.

Scope and Contents
Specimen booklets, probably from the 1930s, illustrating typefaces available on the Linotype casting machine and showing the various point sizes and styles. Also miscellaneous copies of The Linotype Bulletin, mostly from the 1920s. Typefaces include Linotype versions of Baskerville, Caslon, Elzevir, and Janson. Also miscellaneous copies of The Linotype bulletin from the 1920s.

General Note
Collection complements similar material in the Grolier Club book collection.

Access points:
Names
Mergenthaler Linotype Company.
Linotype Bulletin.

Subjects
Printing. Specimens. United States. 20th Century.

Genres
Type specimens. United States. 20th Century.

Location
Grolier Club, 47 East 60th Street, New York, N.Y. 10022-1098.