We have much to learn from ancient crafts and if we don't look after their history, we lose an important part of our past. Book designer and publisher Susan Shaw felt that way about the letterpress printing industry. A fierce and determined protector of all things type, in 1992, on hearing that the once-great Monotype Corporation was in danger of bankruptcy, she set about successfully rescuing its stock and using it to found the Type Museum (later the Type Archive) in Stockwell, in south London.
Over the next 30 years, the Type Archive would gradually bring together some eight million artefacts that told the story of typography and printing. Highlights of the collection, which sadly closed in 2023, included the ancient materials of Sheffield typefounders Stephenson Blake, the hot-metal technology of the Monotype Corporation, and the innovative wood type produced by the York factory of Robert DeLittle.
Now, for the first time, a new book by long-serving Type Archive volunteer Richard Ardagh sheds light on these extraordinary materials, celebrating their significance and importance to both the history of art and engineering.
Type Archived: an homage to typographic treasures
For more than 500 years, the printed word was the primary conveyor of information and revolutionised the way we communicate. Type Archived presents the typographic treasures that made this possible, from the engraved punches (master letters) and matrices (dies for casting) to the letterpress type and printing presses that put ink to paper. Inside the book, these items have been arranged into chapters by material: iron, steel, copper, brass, bronze, lead, wood and paper.
These artefacts are 'akin to industrial jewels, letterforms demonstrating the role that supreme mechanical engineering and type design have played, over six centuries, in the development of human communication throughout the Western World’, notes Type Archive chairman and eminent printing scholar Nicolas Barker OBE.
The project is funding now on Volume. Campaign rewards offer the chance to own a collector’s set (which also includes a letterpress-printed companion edition with dust jacket by Alan Kitching) and specially cast pieces of the Type Archive’s elephant logo. There is also the opportunity to join the author for a letterpress experience day featuring a guided tour of printing workshops and the historical typefounding materials held at the St Bride Library in London.
Type Archived: A Visual Journey through Typographic History is available to back on Volume
