Scope and Contents

The collection documents the development of typefaces and contains some company business records, including reports, memoranda, correspondence, marketing materials, and other business papers; and typeface examples.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 13 series. The series level arrangement scheme was imposed during processing to facilitate a more usable order for the records. Several series documenting typeface were combined into a single series, Series 2: Typefaces.

In most instances, original folder titles were retained. In circumstances where there was no folder title, the processing archivist created one derived from the nature of the materials.

Series 1: Organizational Records, 1929-1997

Series 2: Office Files, 1908-1992

Series 3: Typefaces, 1904-1991

Subseries 3.1: Typefaces, 1923-1993

Subseries 3.2: Designers of Typeface, 1929-1987

Subseries 3.3: Technical Development of Typeface, 1933-1985

Subseries 3.4: Matrix Data for Typeface, 1923-1974

Subseries 3.5: Typographic Committee Meetings (Standards), 1984-1988

Series 4: Licensing Agreements, 1939-1988

Series 5: International Files, 1956-1989

Series 6: Correspondence and Inter-Office Memoranda, 1968-1994

Subseries 6.1: Domestic, 1968-1994 Subseries 6.2: Marketing, 1984-1993

Series 7: Variable Input Phototypesetter (VIP), 1970-1977

Series 8: Conferences, 1986-1993

Series 9: Executives' Records

Suberies 9.1: Brian Boyajian Files, 1989

Subseries 9.2: Bruce Brenner Files, 1981-1991

Subseries 9.3: Jackson Burke Files, 1956-1961

Subseries 9.4: Stephen "Steve" Byers Files, 1973-1995

Subseries 9.5: Ames Gutierrez Files, 1990-01-1991

Subseries 9.6: Karl Heidenreich Files, 1983

Subseries 9.7: Jürgen Krufcyzk Files, 1989-1990

Subseries 9.8: Franklin J. Lassman Files, 1984-1985

Subseries 9.9: Mike Parker Files, 1969-1981

Subseries 9.10: Ray Pell Files, 1982

Subseries 9.11: Günter Zorn Files, 1990-01-1990-12

Series 10: Sales Materials, 1886-1982

Series 11: Project Files, 1977-1987

Series 12: Xerox Corporation Materials, 1982-1989

Series 13: Adobe Systems Incorporated Materials, 1983-1993

Biographical

Ottmar Mergenthaler (born May 11, 1854 in Hachtel (today: Bad Mergentheim), Kingdom of Württemberg; died October 28, 1899 in Baltimore, MD) was part of a large wave of German immigrants who sailed to the United States and settled in Baltimore between 1861 and 1910. He arrived in 1872, at eighteen years of age, and started working for his step-cousin August Hahl, who ran a workshop for electrical equipment and patent models. It was during Mergenthaler's time in Hahl's workshop that he first discovered his true passion: print technology. In 1885, thirteen years after landing in the United States, Mergenthaler was awarded a patent for a typesetting machine that eventually became known as the Linotype. The invention was the result of a decade of intense engagement with mechanized typesetting machines and the surrounding literature. The Linotype represented a major milestone in the history of printing, and, by extension, the larger history of Mergenthaler's time. His invention revolutionized the printing industry, making it possible to print faster and more efficiently than ever before. Ultimately, Mergenthaler's Linotype opened a new chapter in the history of mass communication and determined the path of the printing industry for the next century.

Mergenthaler Linotype Company was founded in the United States in 1886 to market the Linotype machine invented by Ottmar Mergenthaler.

Tsaniou, Styliani. "Ottmar Mergenthaler." In , 1720 to the Present, vol. 3, edited by Giles R. Hoyt. German Historical Institute. Last modified July 26, 2013. http://www.immigrantentrepreneurship.org/entry.php?rec=42

Related Materials

Warshaw Collection of Business Americana, Series: Printing and Printers

Presentation of Mergenthaler Linotype Machine to the National Museum of History and Technology, now known as the National Museum of American History. (SIA Acc. 11-008 [OPA-1521])

Mergenthaler Linotype Company catalogs

Ottmar Mergenthaler, postage stamp, 1996. See 1997.2004.49.

Ottmar Mergenthaler, sculpture, 1908. See IAS 08650110.

Ottmar Mergenthaler, sculpture, 1908. See NPG.79.77.

Linotype Machine used by the Chicago Defender Publishing Company, 1902-1906. See NMAAHC-2012.18.

Mergenthaler Linotype Collection, 1881-1954

Eight linear feet of materials including letters, legal papers, and patents. The collection represents only a limited portion of the company's history.

Chauncey Hawley Griffith papers, 1903-1969, undated

Primarily of manuscript correspondence, drawings, and proofs that document typefaces designed and developed by Chauncey Hawley Griffith, William Addison Dwiggins, and Rudolph Ruzicka for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company in the early- to mid-twentieth century.

William Addison Dwiggins Collection, 1927

Typewritten manuscript for an essay written by Dwiggins and related correspondence.

William Addision Dwiggins Collection, 1902-1990

Includes over 130 volumes and over 30 pieces of ephemera documenting Dwiggins's design career, as well as works written about him.

Paul A. Bennett papers, 1925-1966

Personal and professional correspondence, research materials, typescripts of writings, and other papers relating to Bennett's career in advertising and his work with the Typophiles. Includes material relating to the Chap Book series, published by the Typophiles.