Handsome Typos: An Improved (but Still Incomplete) History of Baltimore Type Foundries 1795–1895
Detail of front binding of Mengel’s Type-Foundry Specimens of Printing Types, Rules, Cuts, and Printing Material (Baltimore: John G. Mengel and Company, n.d. [1891]). Note that this is entirely lettered. Image courtesy of Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
The standard account of the history of type foundries in Baltimore is Maurice Annenberg’s Type Foundries of America and Their Catalogs (1974). Annenberg lists four inter-related foundries (Baltimore Type Foundry, Chas. J. Cary & Co., John Ryan & Co. and John G. Mengel & Co.) that existed between 1795 and 1895. There were actually more than that. I will be giving a talk for the Chesapeake chapter of the American Printing History Association on September 12, 2024 on Baltimore type foundries in the 19th century. In it I will not only retrace the histories of each of the four foundries that Annenberg describes, but I will add information about several additional foundries. In doing so, I will fill in gaps in Annenberg’s narratives and challenge several of his conclusions.
Library of Congress (Jefferson Building, Room LJ 129 which houses the Copper Torch Press)
12 September 2024 at 3 pm
Specimen sheet of 2 Line Great Primer roman and italic types by Samuel Sower & Co. (1811). Image courtesy of Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Eight Lines Pica Oak Leaf from A Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments from the Baltimore Type Foundry F. Lucas, Jr., Agent (Baltimore: Printed by Lucas & Deaver, 1832). The page has been rotated 90° counterclockwise for easier readability. Image courtesy of Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Poster Ionic from Advance Sheets from the New Specimen Book of the Baltimore Type Foundry (Baltimore: Chas. J. Cary & Co., 1883). Image courtesy of Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
Page showing Artistic Brass Rule Designs from Complete Specimen Book of Printing Types, Borders, Ornaments, Rules, etc. from John Ryan & Company, Type Founders, South and German Sts., Baltimore, Md. 1881. Designed by J.E.H. (probably John E. Hanrahan). Image courtesy of Columbia University Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
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