Paul Shaw Letter Design

Research

Research consists of unintended or accidental discoveries that I have made during the course of my research into other topics. They are posted here in the belief that others may find the information equally fascinating. Some items are meant to challenge or question existing scholarship on a specific topic. And others are intended to alert scholars to material that may be relevant to their own pursuits or to new opportunities of research.

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21 August 2025

Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—Addendum 3: Unidentified Metal Script Type

Case containing two sizes (60 pt D and 48 pt D) of an unidentified script type in metal at the Tipoteca. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.
When the focus of the workshop pivoted from an exploration of Stocchetti 004–006 to a broader examination of roundhand scripts in type, it became essential to find a metal version for comparison to it and Rosaria 030–032, the other script wood type. Leonardo Facchin located a beautiful one in the Tipoteca’s collection labeled Graphic …
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22 July 2025

Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—Addendum 2: Rosaria 030–032

Since we did not plan to use a second script wood typeface for the workshop, we did not spend time exhaustively analyzing Rosaria 030–032. The fount was acquired by the Tipoteca from Rosaria Arti Grafiche in Palermo and occupies drawers numbered 030 to 032, hence the name I have given it. Its manufacturer and date of creation are unknown, though it is clearly not as old as Stocchetti 004–006. It appears to have been machine cut and lacks the sloped …
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20 July 2025

Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—2. Cornuda

June 10, 2025 | Day 2—Tipoteca
The morning walk to the Tipoteca from the Villa Bolzonello. Visible are Richard Ardagh, Riccardo De Franceschi, Yasmin Rodriguez, Breanna Parolini, Julian, Erin Roche, and Gabriella Miyares. The other participants rode bicycles. Photograph by Paul Shaw 2025.
Letterpress workshop with Richard Ardagh
This was the first day of the script wood type letterpress workshop at the Tipoteca that was the principal focus of the Letterforms Study Group. After a tour of the Tipoteca, led by Sandro Berra, …
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19 July 2025

Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—1. Milano

June 9, 2025 | Day 1—Archivio Bertarelli
Workshop with James Clough
This was the first official day of the Letterforms Study Group at Tipoteca tour and workshop. We were starting in Milano so that the participants could receive a grounding in Roundhand, the 18th century English script commonly referred to as Copperplate or wedding script which is the basis for the corsivo inglesi typefaces we would be studying at the Tipoteca. James Clough, an expatriate Englishman long resident in Milano, who has …
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19 July 2025

Letterforms Study Group: Corsivo Inglese in Caratteri—0. Milano

June 8, 2025 | Day 0—Castello Sforzesco
Orientation Day
Normally Orientation Day for Legacy of Letters or for the Letterforms Study Group abroad begins in the evening with a group meeting, followed by a convivial dinner. However, this year began in the afternoon with an optional visit to the Castello Sforzesco to see a small but rich exhibition titled Cataloghissimo: La comunicazione dei grandi magazzini. The exhibition had nothing to do with the theme of the study group, but the posters, …
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18 May 2025

More information on Nelson Cook, black stereotyper

Andrew W. Shurtz, Assistant Professor of Graphic Design in the School of Art at Louisiana State University has kindly called my attention to three obituaries about Nelson Cook. All of them are from African-American newspapers that have been digitized as part of the The California Digital Newspaper Collection. I am appending the complete text of all three below.

The Elevator 7 June 1873
Virginia City, June 3d, 1873.
Mr. Editor,—It becomes my painful duty to announce another one of those sad …
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7 May 2025

“Experimental No. 223, a newspaper typeface, designed by W.A. Dwiggins” by Gerard Unger

Nick Sherman has put online one of the best articles written about W.A. Dwiggins’ work as a type designer. It is “Experimental No. 223, a newspaper typeface, designed by W.A. Dwiggins” by Gerard Unger Quaerendo, vol. 11, no. 4, (Amsterdam 1981), pp. 302–324. The article is ostensibly a history of Exp. No. 223 (later known as Newsface or Hingham), one of several Dwiggins designs that was never released, but it is actually broader in scope. Not only does …
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8 January 2025

The First Black Typefounder in the United States?

Nelson Cook (c.1826–1873)
For several months I have been compiling a list of people employed in the type founding business in the United States in the 19th century. My primary resource for this project is digitized city directories. Many directories indicate the race—white or black—of city residents via either segregated listings or a code (e.g. colored, col’d, or c) attached to a name. In the 1845 New York directory (p. 85) published by John Doggett, Jr. there appears “Cook Nelson, (col’d) …
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25 November 2024

Why you should join the Letterforms Study Group at the Tipoteca 2025—Reason no. 3: Wood Type

First National Volunteers recruitment broadside (c.1863). Image courtesy of the New-York Historical Society.
For most people wood type conjures up images of the Wild West, especially “Wanted” posters for outlaws. But such posters were a small part of the many broadsides printed with wood type in the 19th century. Broadsides for railroads, steamships, ferry services, theater and circus performances, Civil War recruitment, and political campaigns all utilized wood type because it was big, bold, and often decorative. Fat faces, Egyptians (slab …
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29 December 2023

The Definitive Dwiggins no. 722—“Mantegna” and Margaret B. Evans

Margaret B. Evans (1903–1986) was a compositor, printer, and book designer. She attended Radcliffe College, graduating in 1927, and then did graduate study in the history of printing under George Parker Winship at the Fogg Museum in Cambridge. After that Evans went from studying printing in books to learning about it first hand with a two-year apprenticeship from 1929 to 1931 at The Printing House of William Edwin Rudge in Mount Vernon, New York. In 1931 she became the designer …
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8 August 2023

Type Specimens, Type Specimen and More Type Specimens—Letterforms Study Group in San Francisco August 21–23, 2023

There are still places available for these inexpensive special study sessions about type specimens led by Paul Shaw. Registration ends August 18. Scroll to the bottom for prices and payment options.
Page from a specimen of Grobe Kabel Kursiv by Rudolf Koch (Gebr. Klingspor 1930) reproduced in Type. A Visual History of Typefaces & Graphic Styles vol. 2 edited by Cees W. de Jong, Alston W. Purvis and Jan Tholenaar (Köln: Taschen, 2010).
About Type Specimens
At first glance type specimens are innocuous …
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10 June 2023

Letterforms Study Group in San Francisco—A Type and Type Specimen Trifecta August 21–23, 2023

The Letterforms Study Group is coming to San Francisco this summer. From August 21 to August 23, 2023 I will host three study sessions focused on type specimens. These are not lectures. They are participatory, collaborative investigations of physical items (books, periodicals, broadsides, etc.) which are linked thematically. My role in these events is to act as a facilitator and an informed guide rather than as an all-knowing authority.
Participants do not need to have prior familiarity with type design or …
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25 May 2023

Grolier Club talk—The Greatest Type Specimen Ever Made: The 1882 Bruce Foundry specimen

p. 39 from Specimens of Printing Types Made at Bruce’s New-York Type-Foundry (New York: George Bruce’s Son & Co., Type-Founders, 1882).
…probably the largest, most complete and finest typographical specimen book ever produced.—La Cygne Journal (La Cygne, Kansas) April 29, 1882
Specimens of Printing Types Made at Bruce’s New-York Type-Foundry (New York: George Bruce’s Son & Co., Type-Founders, 1882)
Although it is neither the most colorful nor the most visually sumptuous type specimen, the 1882 Bruce type foundry specimen is arguably the …
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17 March 2023

Demonology & | witchcraft!!! | Printing: An online research session into the history of Philadelphia type foundries 1823–1844

Six Lines Gothic Condensed and Six Lines Gothic from Specimen of Printing Types and Ornaments by Rob & Ecklin, Letter Founders (Philadelphia: 1836). Image courtesy of RIT Libraries Digital Collections.
Letterforms Study Group via Zoom / Friday April 7 at 2 pm Eastern Daylight Time
fee $15

In this online type history research session I will retrace my recent research into the history of the Robb & Ecklin type foundry of Philadelphia, its partners Samuel Ecklin and Alexander Robb, and their relationship to …
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1 March 2023

Blue Pencil no. 68—Specimens of Wood Type 1900–2000

This is part of a series of posts listing type specimens that have been digitized and placed online. Many of them are downloadable in whole or as individual pages. This is the second part of a list that focuses on specimens of wood type. It includes not only specimens from wood type manufacturers, but also specimens from type foundries that offer either wood type or large sizes of some of their metal types in wood. [1] The first part of …
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1 March 2023

Blue Pencil no. 67—Specimens of Wood Type 1803–1899

This is part of a series of posts listing type specimens that have been digitized and placed online. Many of them are downloadable in whole or as individual pages. This is the first part of a list that focuses on specimens of wood type. It includes not only specimens from wood type manufacturers, but also specimens from type foundries that offer either wood type or large sizes of some of their metal types in wood. [1] The second part of …
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