It’s been a good long while since I posted from our 1906 American Type Founders American Line Type Book - my work distracted me. Which is good for me, but maybe not as good for you.

Today I hope to remedy that with our 13th post (we at Ragtag Design.com do not believe the number 13 brings bad luck.) 13, 13, 13!!  See? We’re still here.

We’re making a HUGE leap from the last pages to page 101 - while the type specimen pages in between showed some very usable typefaces, they were only mildly interesting & fairly ordinary sample specimen pages. So we skipped them - because we can. (We wade through all the boring stuff so you don’t have to. ; ] )

So, on page 101, with a couple of simple sample ads and an ornament, American Type Founders features their University Script - a formal script typeface you’ll probably recognize, featuring some pretty fancy-schmancy caps. Their header is an art nouveau-ish Strathmore ornament, which I’ve made shiny and new, uploaded for you here in a print-quality high-res file.

Their first ad is a faux ad for the Society of Colonial Dames - which I’d never heard of; I figured it was D.A.R.-like, but probably long-gone. Nope, founded in 1890, around the same time as the D.A.R., they too are still alive & kicking - and unlike the D.A.R (for the most part) are primarily active in the field of historic preservation, restoration and the interpretation of historic sites. (Both groups, however, have a stringent ancestor-based membership requirement.) I’ve provided a screenshot of their heraldic logo.

So current are they, in fact, they even have an online store, a twitter, a youtube channel, and a facebook. It ain’t yer mom’s colonial preservation site.

I was not so lucky finding out anything about Youngblood & Brothers, from the second ad - there was a similar-sounding-but-slightly-differently-named store years ago in Detroit (and no further info other than a listing in an industry journal), but my google-fu produced *nothing* in San Francisco, though currently there are stores that hold that address. There were no groovy vintage photos or old-time ads to be found. (I cried a little.)

Certainly Youngblood is a family name that has been around for centuries, both in England & the United States. Alors. Sadly, not every record survives the transition to the internet.

Anyhoosits, we’ll be back sometime soon with more typeface pretties. Meanwhile, you can read more about the American Type Founders typefaces here.

(This type book is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

More Typogrammoricon!

This is our 11th post from the 1906 American Line Type Book. I like this page, because American Type Founders offers to custom-design & cut a logo for their clients, and shows some examples - so you get to see some typical turn-of-the-century logos. Very different from the logos of today, when kabillions of various effects can be created & reproduced. We’ve also clipped the logos out & zoomed in so you can see them better.

Since once again: we find inclusion of this kind of type history info important (in our own very special OCD way) but maybe not-so-very fun or glitzy ; ] we’re also giving you several ornaments from later pages. A big bowl of fruit! A MENU header in beautifully florid Edwardian style!! (They are high-resolution jpgs, cleaned-up and suitable for 300 dpi print work.)

Later in the book, you’ll be seeing the rest of these Cafe/Menu illustration & ornament plates - and pages and pages and pages of other gorgeous and intricate images that were offered for sale as movable type: very useful to the job printer without money or resources for for commissioned illustration.

We’ll be back with more soon.

(This type book - from 1906 - is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

This is our 10th post from the American Line Type Book; it’s the page which offers type related to the use of diacritical marks (accent or tone marks). They had several typefaces - Cheltenham & Century - which had letters available with integrated accent marks; additionally, they offered accent marks as separate pieces of type that could be set/placed over typefaces not available with them. They called these “piece” accents.

Since we find inclusion of this kind of moveable type info important (in a kind of OCD way) but perhaps lacking in the drama and verve departments ; ] we’re also giving you several ornaments. Kitty! A bee! How can you not love them? (They are high-resolution png files, cleaned-up and suitable for 300 dpi print work.)

These two animal ornaments were from a set of about 100+ dingbats & ornaments designed for use with a typeface named “Post” which they also sold in numerous font variations - a sample of this type is offered in this post’s gallery. You can see how suited in style these images are for use with that face.

(Later in the book, you’ll be seeing the entire set of these Post ornaments: puppies! flowerpots! flowers! horsies! you-name-it! - and pages and pages and pages of other gorgeous and intricate images that were offered for sale as moveable type: very useful to the job printer without money or resources for for commissioned illustration.)

(This typebook- from 1906 - is in the public domain; it is scanned from our own hardcopy.)

Today’s page from the American Type Founders 1906 type sales book is their ad, set to show off their type and one of their ornament forms. This is a Strathmore ornament, and I’ve also included a cleaned-up version to use in your design.

This book is in the public domain.

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

Today’s American Type Founders 1906 line book page is boring, let’s face it - it’s the index - but it had to be done, just so you get a sense of what’s coming up. (I’ll spare you the PAGES and PAGES of more the specific index.) To help offset the dullitude, I’m also giving you a taste of the book’s treasures: some Wayside ornaments, and one - a darling lizard of some sort - cleaned up as a png for your graphic delight. Enjoy.

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

In our continuing presentation of the 1906 American Type Founders “American Line Type Book”, we give you the intro page, discussing one of their signature types, Cheltenham, and set in Cheltenham, as well.

(Source: ragtagdesign.com)

We present the 1906 American Type Founders “American Line Type Book”. There are several scanned versions of this classic type sales book available online, but many of them are of poor quality, and most of them give you about 1200 pages to wade through to find the good stuff. (Most notably, there is a simply stunning array of type specimen books through the ages - of various qualities - compiled here at the site of Dr. David M. MacMillan, ranging from the 15th century to the current catalogs of letterpress professionals & aficionados. Be prepared to happily lose your mind there, if you like to spend hours looking at old type. We do.)

We intend to bring you a page a day (or thereabouts) of this fascinating & useful type specimen book - a glimpse into our typographic heritage - though we’ll only present pages that we think are interesting or useful. When that book is done - or when y’all get bored, whichever comes first - we’ll move on to something else.

We’re giving you the title page, too, as a taste of what’s to come.

Above also is the ATFC logo, designed by Clarence P. Hornung who you may recognize as the creator of countless well-known publishing & other logos, and as author of numerous well-known books of design, art, and symbology.

The American Type Founders Company was an 1892 North American amalgamation of 23 type foundries - the major type supplier in the U.S. for decades. They sold metal type and printing equipment & supplies; their chief designer, Morris Fuller Benton, created typefaces used today, such as Franklin Gothic, Bank Gothic, Broadway, etc., and other designers, including Frederic Goudy, supplied original designs for now-classic typefaces.

The third image is the bookplate of the Typographic Library and Museum of the American Type Founders Company (founded in 1908 in Jersey City, New Jersey) designed by Bruce Rogers of Riverside Press at Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Image courtesy of the journal “Libraries and the Cultural Record.”)

Enjoy.

P.S. Since we *own* this copy in meatspace, we are able to scan & correct to the quality we like. If you need a higher quality copy for any reason, contact us. This book is in the public domain.