by Mark Adams
on February 15, 2023
“Our best customers have hitherto been theatrical people, for whom we prepare prompt books and actors’ parts at the price of 5s. an act — that is to say, an act of fifteen pages of type-writing on quarto paper.” – The Pall Mall Gazette, May 5, 1885
I recall my great aunt using a typewriter to make copies, and, yes, that entailed typing documents, over and over and over, until a sufficient number of copies were made. And such was one of the uses of the typewriter from the earliest days:
17 Sep 1882, Sun The New York Times (New York, New York) Newspapers.com
15 Aug 1883, Wed Hartford Courant (Hartford, Connecticut) Newspapers.com
30 Sep 1883, Sun Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Illinois) Newspapers.com
04 Jun 1885, Thu Cawker City Public Record (Cawker City, Kansas) Newspapers.com
© 2023 – 2022, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
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by Mark Adams
on February 8, 2023
From The Cosmopolitan Shorthander (Toronto), April 1885 –
What is noteworthy about the typewriter in this cartoon is its size: very compact for a machine in 1885. Portables of this period were exclusively index machines, which were very portable but not very typeable.
Here’s a portable typewriter of the mid-1880s:
01 Jan 1886, Fri The Midland Journal (Rising Sun, Maryland) Newspapers.com
© 2023, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
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by Mark Adams
on February 1, 2023
One of several pithy statements from The Golden Gate, June 16, 1880.
Ernest Hemingway liked his Corona typewriter well enough to write a poem about it, one of several poems published privately in 1923:
It is noteworthy that he was not the first to compare the typewriter to a mitrailleuse, a weapon similar to the Gatling gun. As early as 1880, people compared the typewriter to the mitrailleuse, as seen in one of the adages published by The Golden Gate.
The Golden Gate (Newton, Kansas), June 16, 1880 –
© 2023, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
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by Mark Adams
on January 25, 2023
Howard County Herald (St. Paul, Nebraska), December 27, 1899 –
© 2023 – 2022, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
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by Mark Adams
on January 18, 2023
Oliver salesmen in Chicago in 1904.
The Oliver Typewriter Company published an in-house periodical called The Bulletin, and while I can’t say it makes for interesting reading, it certainly offers unique insights into the minds of Oliver sales people. Somes volumes have been archived by Google including issues from 1904-1906 (click here).
The Bulletin, December 10, 1904 –
© 2023 – 2022, Mark Adams. All rights reserved.
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