The QWERTY Connection and more -- follow the
links here to read about the QWERTY
keyboard, the hobbies of collecting typewriters and typewriter
ribbon tins, and the historic Sholes and Glidden typewriter.
Maintained by Darryl Rehr.
Antique
Typewriter Down Under Connection: this site by Australian collector
Bob Moran has a lot of good features, including an opportunity for you
to leave comments and respond to those of others.
The
S.L. Johnson Typewriter Page: this collector
lists the various writing machines and related items that he's
accumulated, plus has special tributes to Corona and Oliver. Very
nicely designed.
Adolf
Mayer collects and restores typewriters; he shows us photos of a few
of his machines. In German.
Mechanista: a glimpse into the possessions of a couple of anonymous typewriter and adding machine collectors.
Swedish
Typewriter Page: an attractive site created by Christofer
Nöring, with beautiful pictures spanning a century of writing
machines. In Swedish, with English summaries.
Landbee
Collection: a lovely set of typewriters assembled by British collector Les Owen.
John Payton's site shows off his typewriters as well as his Model A Ford.
Lady Typewriter:
Englishwoman Janet Riding's perspective on typewriter collecting
includes photos of her collection and a great deal of information.
Machines of Loving Grace: W.A. Seaver shows off and discusses his collection, featuring
many midcentury portables as well as a variety of other machines.
The Tanner Page:
Collector Jack Tanner's perspective on the world of old
typewriters.
typewriter.be: a big and beautiful site created by Belgians Wim Van Rompuy and Guy Pérard.
Old Typewriters for Sale
eBay has over a thousand typewriters for sale on any given day.
Antikma: a
German auction house specializing in interesting typewriters.
Auction Team Breker:
this German auction house is the largest in the world specializing in mechanical and technical items,
including typewriters. In English.
Blue Moon Camera in Portland, Oregon, sells refurbished, warranted typewriters at affordable prices. They will ship machines to other locations.
Early
Office Museum: a handsome site created by an antique dealer,
including lots of information and pictures
about typewriters and other antique office equipment.
Eclectisaurus Typewriter Museum: an attractive site by a dealer who sells
modern portables on eBay. Includes a list of repair shops.
The European Typewriter Project: a growing collection of information on and images of European typewriters, many of which cannot be seen elsewhere on the Net. Machines from the Tilman Elster and Thomas Fuertig collections, Web site by Will Davis. In English.
International Rasmus
Malling-Hansen Society: an excellent site maintained by an organization
dedicated to the Danish genius who invented the world's first commercially sold typewriter
(the Writing Ball) and the fastest writing machine ever (the Takygraf).
Mark Twain
and the typewriter: What was the connection? Well, this is an interesting
Web page, but you won't find the true story here--
only the aged Twain's recollection of
what happened. Twain probably submitted a typescript of
Life on the Mississippi (not Tom Sawyer).
The first author known to have submitted typewritten
manuscripts is not Twain, but
Fanny Kemble, actress and writer.
Archivio Storico Olivetti: a source for information about the famous Italian company. In Italian and English.
This extensive
Polish site
includes some pages in English and provides glimpses of little-known
Polish writing machines.
Portable Typewriters, by Richard Milton: "This site is devoted to the early history of the portable typewriter, from around 1890 to 1930, illustrated by antique typewriters from my collection."
The Remington factory in Ilion, New York: a collection of vintage postcards.
Siamese
Smith Premier: an interesting exploration of Smith Premiers and
other antique typewriters in Thailand, by Thai collector
Pluethipol Prachumphol.
The Truth of QWERTY: a blog by Koichi Yasuoka that investigates the Sholes & Glidden in impressive detail.
The Typewriter Database:
a growing list of serial numbers for a number of makes. A
very convenient resource.
Typewriter
Illustrations, by Jay Respler: pictures of several makes, and some corrections to
typewriter history books.
Typewriters by Will Davis: Will is known for digging up intriguing facts about
mid-20th-century portables that most collectors don't know
about, but he has plenty of information about older machines too.
Typewriters in Tompkins: a little about typewriter history and its connections to Tomkins County, New York.
The User-Friendly Typewriter: a thorough and interesting article by Martin Campbell-Kelly in The Rutherford Journal explores user-oriented design in the age of the mechanical writing machine.
Will's Typewriter Annex,
also by Will Davis, collects a lot invaluable advice and information in an easily navigable way.
Virtual Typewriter
Museum: a great site from top Dutch collector Paul Robert,
collaborating with other enthusiasts around the world. This
online museum features pictures of machines,
history, hundreds of facts, and even typewriter erotica.
Yesterday's
Office: this publication, part of
Repair, Service, and Remarketing News,
features interesting articles about old office machines,
including typewriters.
In India,
Godrej and FAL still make manual typewriters.
Typecasting
Typecasting is an increasingly popular form of blogging in which
writers compose on typewriters, scan their work, and upload it to
a web site. Here are some bloggers working today who use typecasting
(and often write about typewriters, too). If you're
into typecasting too, let me know
and I'll add you.
The Toronto Globe & Mail presents a story and video about typewriter collector Martin Howard (April 2009).
The Vanishing Craft of the Typewriter Repairman: an NPR story by Margot Adler (April 2006), featuring Paul Schweitzer of Manhattan's Gramercy Typewriter and an interview with the creator of this site.
Backspacing in Time: a report on typewriter repair in the DC area (February 2006).
What's so Special About a Hermes 3000?: Julia Keller, Chicago Tribune cultural critic, investigates Larry McMurtry's favorite typewriter (January 2006).
Keystrokes of Genius: (New York Times, June 2002): Bruce McCall
reports on famed mystery writer Rex Regis's 1909 Glab-Porkovnyka, and
other favorite old typewriters of the literati ...
An article in the
University
of Chicago Magazine about oddball alumni collectors includes a bit
on the creator of this site.
True
To Type: a May 2001 article on typewriter collecting
in the Washington Post quotes
a number of members of our eccentric little community.
A typewriter fan discussed his love of the machines on NPR's
All Things Considered in September 1998. To hear the story in
RealAudio format,
click
here.
Read an article on typewriter man extraordinaire Martin Tytell from
The Atlantic
Monthly, November, 1997.
The Cutting Edge of Retro
Jamie Wilson presents his typewriter-keyboard hybrids in this YouTube video. He's got a relatively simple way to make it work!
Install Tappy Type
on your Mac and enjoy the classic sound of a manual
typewriter as you process your words! (Unfortunately not compatible with System X.)
If you use a PC, you'll need
typewriter.exe
to do the same job.
Stop by the
VINTAGE*TYPE
site and see their cool fonts based on old typewriters.
Here's a place to go if you're looking for typewriter fonts for your computer. By the way, no "typewriter" font is ever
going to look perfectly authentic. For the best results,
you have to actually use a typewriter, then scan the results (that's
how I got the typing on this site, using my Remington Noiseless
Portable #7).
123greetings.com offers some cute electronic greeting cards you can send to your friends on "Typewriter
Day" (June 23).
Miscellanea
Typewriters on YouTube: all kinds of short films that include typewriters. Some funny stuff.
Flickr Writing Machines Group: photography devoted to "typewriters, printing presses and movable type -- anything to do with the mechanical reproduction or creation of the written word."
World Record for Typing Numbers in Words: typing up to "one million," in words, on manual typewriters -- a worthwhile way to spend 16 years of your life? You decide.
More typewritten art, by Winifred T. Caldwell, can be found at the
TypEtching site.
"Basic Typing, Part I: Methods" is a rare typing instruction film made by the US Navy during World War 2, hosted and narrated by a then-famous typist, Lenore Benton. The film begins with a look at some beautiful antique typewriters, then various current (as of 1943) machines. Then Ms. Benton gets down to business and teaches her techniques for lightning-fast typing. The film is divided into
Part 1
and Part 2.
Hommage is a modified typewriter by artist Leopoldo Maler. A very "inflammatory"
piece of art ...
Ribbon
Tin Connection: learn all about typewriter ribbon tins at this site maintained by Darryl Rehr.
ASCII
Art Gallery: pictures that you could make with typewriters,
if you were so inclined. Includes a history of ASCII and typewriter art.
At
Retinascope
you can find two animated films made on a typewriter.
Time-Warp is an attractive
and intriguing site about "vintage technology."
The Curta Homepage, based in Austria,
offers a virtual museum of Curta calculators and other interesting
old calculating machines.
Stop by Erez Kaplan's
interesting site on
antique calculators
and join his mailing
list for calculating machines.
Ribbon
Tin Connection is a valuable online source for those who collect typewriter
ribbon tins.
Learn about
the Dvorak keyboard. This fine site includes many links to further
such sites.
For a detailed scholarly exploration of the QWERTY-Dvorak
issue, which casts some doubt on the superiority of Dvorak, read
The Fable of the Keys,
by Stan Liebowitz and Stephen E. Margolis.
Joe Van Cleave's Blog
