Etcetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No

ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No. 125 • Summer 2019

In This Issue

Editor’s Notes 2 The Shift-Key Bar-Lock 3 The Excelsior Script and Type Writer 4 Continental Music Writer 7 The Typewriter Boys of Summer 8 In Memoriam: Dennis Clark 18 The Rembrandt Jubilee 19 New Typographics 20 New on the Shelf 22 Around the World 24 Letters 24

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 1 ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association

No. 125 • Summer 2019

Editor Editor’s Richard Polt 4745 Winton Rd. Notes Cincinnati, OH 45232 USA 513.591.1226 [email protected] it’s been another exciting quarter Matthew S. Eylar. It was offered together in the typewriter world. A lovely Writing with other memorabilia from Underwood Secretary-Treasurer Ball (serial number 103) was sold by Auc- and from the 1939 New York World’s Fair, Herman Price tion Team Breker on May 18 for well over where the giant was last exhibited. Chanc- its estimated price. With the auctioneer’s es are good that this massive machine was Board of Directors fees and taxes, it brought an impressive scrapped to support the war effort—but at Martin Howard €125,940 ($142,312). least one part survived. Now it is part of Bert Kerschbaumer Another notable price, though not in Peter Weil’s great collection. Richard Polt the same league, was reached by a Eureka Peter Weil index typewriter that sold for over 1600 Reinmar Wochinz times its original price of $2 (not adjusting for inflation). Why did this little trinket Design bring so much? Because it’s the only one Nick Tauriainen that has been discovered by collectors so far—as far as I know. This simple device Translation is not even on the radar for most of us, al- German: Lars Borrmann though it is included in the very thorough Spanish: Guillermo Fernández Boan Kleines Lexikon historischer Schreibmaschinen by the late Leonhard Dingwerth. It was Proofreading made around 1896 by the World Manufac- Whitney Carnahan turing Co. of New York. This little type- On a different note, I managed to writer joins some other extreme rarities complete the Cold Hard Type project, etconline.org in the special collection of our friend Fla- with the help of co-editors Frederic S. vio Mantelli. You can see it in this issue’s Durbin and Andrew V. McFeaters. It is ETCetera welcomes submissions that “New on the Shelf.” published in two volumes: Paradigm shed new light on typewriter history, Shifts collects stories, poems, and art based on original sources and firsthand about typewriters in a future where experience. Material not previously digital technology is breaking down, published elsewhere will have priority. and Escapements is set in worlds where digital tech is gone. All text in these ©2018 ETCA. Published quarterly. books is typewritten. No, we can’t resist Calendar year subscription: $35, North puns—we are even calling this new America; $40 elsewhere. Payment: publishing venture Loose Dog Press. check or PayPal. Herman J. Price, 195 The books are available at very mod- Greenbag Rd, Morgantown, WV 26501, est prices on Amazon. Will there be a USA. [email protected] further volume? Stay tuned. With this project and others, I do find ISSN 1062-9645 it difficult to keep editingETCetera , and I would like to step down at the end of this calendar year. Herman Price has also gone On the Cover Another very intriguing item on eBay well beyond the call of duty in serving was what may be the last remaining piece for many years as secretary-treasurer Royal Bar-Lock no. 14, shift-key model, #7143 (Eric Meary collection) of the legendary giant Underwood: the and mailer. This is your opportunity to “S” key. Measuring 6.5 inches wide and 2.5 consider whether you’d like to take a inches tall, this handsome object is part turn helping your fellow collectors keep of the estate of Underwood executive informed and entertained. ■

2 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 The Shift-Key Bar-Lock

by eric meary Bar-Lock no. 1 and shift-key Bar-Lock no. 14 (Meary collection)

i recently found a shift-key royal compiled a list of 15 machines, with pic- 1903 and their serials run from 500 to Bar-Lock no. 14 (#7143). Very little is tures and/or serial numbers for about 50% around 7100; this fits my list. known about the shift-key Bar-Lock of them. It seems evident from the serials The most evident difference between (SKBL), which was called Columbia in and their appearance that the machines the early SKBLs and the SKBL no. 14 is the U.S. market and Royal Bar-Lock in labeled Model 14 are the latest of the SKBL. aesthetic. On the early model, there may Europe. The information in the literature The SKBLs were produced simultane- be a semicircular copper plate between the is sometimes contradictory. ously with the double-keyboard Bar-Locks keyboard and the shield, painted black, Peter Weil reports that a Columbia (DKBL). Most SKBLs have features similar with the name of the company embossed in Typewriter Manufacturing Co. trade to those of the late DKBL (post-Model 10). small letters in the middle of the plate, as on catalog issued about 1904 refers to the The bell, which was previously at the left Herman Price’s Columbia #2568, 1 or there shifted typewriter as “The Columbia end of the carriage, is now under it; the may be no plate, as on Richard Polt’s Royal Typewriter” while the other design, paper table is black, with a scale and two Bar-Lock #6610. 2 In contrast, the SKBL no. with a “duplicate keyboard,” is called the folding arms to hold the paper. The shift is a 14 features a nickel plate with large text. 3 “Bar-Lock Typewriter.” The Columbia simple rocking mechanism; the shift levers On my machine, the shield is tilted had either 84 or 90 characters, based on are connected rigidly to the carriage and slightly forward, as on the late DKBL, and the wishes of the buyer; the “Bar-Lock” tilt it forward when they are depressed. the back feet are higher. 4 Both features typed only 78 characters. At least two of the SKBL pictured in are intended to provide a better view of The SKBL (aka Columbia) models are my list look like DKBL Model 10; these the work in progress. quite rare. From the Internet, from Breker machines have low serial numbers. My machine still has a bar-locking auction catalogues, and with the help of According to Bert Kerschbaumer in system, but the pins that lock the type- the friendly collector community, I have ETCetera No. 114, SKBLs started in June bar are on the bar itself. 5 Early SKBLs have the classic system with vertical pins 1 3 located around the printing point, as do the late DKBLs. To conclude, SKBLs were built simul- taneously with the late DKBL (Model 10 and after), following the improve- ments of these more common machines, but had only limited success. Only the bar-locking system of the SKBL seems specific to the shift-key models. Any more information would be welcome; readers can reach me at 2 [email protected]. ■ 4 With thanks to Richard Polt. 5

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 3 The Excelsior Script and Type Writer

by mark adams

when ulrich graff called upon the Patent applications, however, tell a the offices of the San Francisco Examiner partial story. It is worth observing that to inspect the Excelsior Script and Type Christopher Latham Sholes’ daughter, Writer, he was met with intrigue. The in- Lillian Sholes, while not a patent holder, ventor declined to give his name nor did played an important role in the develop- he want it published. However, he could ment of the Sholes and Glidden Type not have given his name, for the inventor Writer beginning in 1868. She experi- of this machine, introduced in 1895, was mented with prototypes and offered As many as five machines were manu- not a man, but a woman. feedback on the problems of function factured in San Francisco, and one was Graff, a researcher and librarian at and design, and she was instrumental in displayed at the offices of theSan Fran- the University of California at Berkeley, bringing the machine to Remington for cisco Examiner for promotional purposes. likely encountered a member of the Ex- manufacturing in 1873.³ The Examiner wrote on July 7, 1895, “The celsior’s board of directors, eager to pro- Welspiel is distinct for being the first type is arranged in three circles or baskets mote this ingenious machine. The actual female and sole inventor of a typewriter. immediately beneath the keyboard, and inventor, one of only a few women in the (Hynes and Prouty collaborated as a may be revolved into any desired position late 19th century to design a typewriter, team—and later married.)⁴ at the will of the operator. These baskets or was Leonie Jacobina Welspiel. Unfortunately, there is scant biograph- circles of type are entirely independent of The Excelsior failed utterly to ical information on Welspiel. How she ac- the machine proper and can be lifted out launch—few were ever made—but Wel- quired the skills to design a typewriter is instantly while any kind of script or type spiel’s contribution to the history of the unknown, but she was listed on the honor may be substituted for the style removed. typewriter deserves recognition. roll at South Cosmopolitan Primary in The Excelsior is the only writing machine San Francisco in 1884. She apparently was in existence which will permit of using Women and the Typewriter an apt learner at the age of 15. more than one kind of type or script.” women pressed the keys of societal Born November 4, 1869, in Boston, The Excelsior was not the first to change by joining the workforce as typ- Massachusetts, to parents of German feature interchangeable type—the Ham- ists. From the mid-1870s and on, they stock, Welspiel married Frank Lem- mond, Crandall, Munson, and Blickens- gained employment as stenographers, a berger⁵ in 1890, who was a member of derfer employed interchangeable type class of professionals who were among the board of directors for the company elements, and the Daugherty incorporat- the earliest to adopt the typewriter as manufacturing the Excelsior. For un- ed a swappable type-basket—but it was a tool of the trade. In 1870, women held known reasons, she filed the patent for the first to offer interchangeable type as only 4.5 percent of all stenography posi- the Excelsior in 1894 under her maiden a built-in feature: one simply turned a tions, but by 1895 women constituted 70 name. They had only one child, Ludwick. lever to switch between regular type and percent of the profession. Some 4.5 mil- The Lembergers resided in the San handwritten script. lion women worked as stenographers in Francisco Bay Area for a number of years large part because of the typewriter.¹ but divorced in 1922, on the grounds of Graff's Examination However, the number of women who desertion.⁶ A 1929 city directory associ- though no excelsiors appear to designed or improved typewriters in the ates Welspiel with the Novelty Art Com- have survived, Ulrich Graff offered a criti- late 19th century was quite small. Research- pany in San Francisco. She died in 1937.⁷ cal examination of the machine in a letter er Deborah J. Merritt counts only four fe- to The Illustrated Phonographic World a male patent holders from that period: Olive Introducing the Excelsior month after the Examiner’s announcement S. Hynes and Enoch Prouty (US 389,854, hailed as “ingenious” and “marvel- (his letter is reprinted on page 6). Absent 1888) for a front striking typewriter; Mary ous” in local press accounts, the Excelsior this letter, the modern scholar would have B. Harris (US 489,306, 1893) for a multi- Script and Type Writer employed both no objective account of the machine. colored ribbon design; Lizzie J. Magie (US regular and script type. Purportedly, one Graff, who was gaining a reputation as 498,129, 1893) for improved paper handling could have a type cast from one’s own an authority on typewriters, later pub- on Hammond typewriters; and Welspiel handwriting. Marginally, the Excelsior lished an essay entitled “The Typewriter: (US 516,384, 1894) for the Excelsior.² was a visible writer. A Study,” an unpublished essay which

4 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 was described in lecture notes as an corporating both formal and informal type machine in 1922, but Halstrick was not con- “exhaustive and valuable study... giving in one continuous writing experience. nected with the San Francisco machine. a general history of the typewriter and The Webster Company, manufacturer Lucien S. Crandall, who manufactured discussing the underlying mechanical of ribbons, speculated (“we assume”) the Crandall and International, also de- principles of various machines.”⁸ in one of its catalogs that the “No. 1” signed a machine called an Excelsior, but His assessment of the Excelsior was Excelsior would retail for $75, about $25 what became of that effort, if it was ever thorough and critical, and he observed cheaper than standard machines.⁹ Graff manufactured, is uncertain.¹¹ Further, an that “the greatest drawback to this ma- offered that two models of the Excelsior index typewriter of unknown origin was chine is, in my opinion, through the fact would retail for $25-$30 and $50-$65. It is also apparently named the Excelsior.¹² that the keys are arranged in a perfect unknown if any machines were ever sold. The people associated with the San circle instead of in different rows, like Francisco machine, however, were Edwin the other machines.” A Legacy Lost... and Found... K. Alsip of Sacramento and Edgar L. Had the machine gone into produc- michael adler, whose books on the Atkinson, Edward Lande, W.A. Keefer, tion, consumers likely would have history of the typewriter are essential and Frank Lemberger of San Francisco. balked at this design. reading, mistakenly identified the in- They organized the Excelsior Script and Despite this shortcoming, the Excelsior ventor of the Excelsior as a man named Typewriting Company under California did allow the operator to shift from type to Halstrick.¹⁰ An Adolf Halstrick of Cologne, law in 1895, purportedly with $10 mil- script simply by the turn of a lever. One did Germany, was awarded a patent for a type- lion in capital stock, though that figure is not have to change out typefaces or baskets writer in 1903 (US 740,126), and, separately, likely a gross misprint.¹³ to achieve this effect. Certainly, Welspiel a German company named Excelsior- Alsip, a prominent businessman in approached this design with an eye for in- Maschinen did manufacture an Excelsior Sacramento, was persuaded to act as di-

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 5 rector with a promise that he would not have to pay $1,000 for stock subscribed in his name. Keefer, Alsip’s childhood friend and sometime business partner, had separately been engaged in a variety of business schemes in San Francisco. In 1896, the Excelsior Script and Type- writing Company sued both Alsip and Keefer, claiming that each owed $1,000 for stock assigned to them.¹⁴ Also that year, Milton M. Davis sued the company for $2,529 for bills assigned to him for collection.¹⁵ The Excelsior was struggling. More grimly, Alsip became embroiled in a massive building and loan scandal in Sacramento. Seriously indebted, he and his wife disappeared sometime in 1898. Alsip’s family later claimed the two were possibly murdered. One newspaper reported that others believed Alsip had com- mitted suicide.¹⁶ Keefer vanished months earlier, facing separate legal issues.¹⁷ How these issues were resolved is unknown, but the Excelsior Script and Typewriting Company utterly vanished after these scandals. So too did any record of Welspiel’s contribution. Despite a patent application filed under her name, the effort of a young female inventor (she was only 26 when she filed that application) was entirely unknown to modern collectors and researchers, lost in the confused history of failed typewriter companies. Some eight years ago, Robert Messenger restored Welspiel’s place in history, in a blog post chronicling the earliest female inventors of typewriters; he found Wel- spiel’s patents, but did not identify them The Illustrated Phonographic World, August 1895 as the Excelsior (the patent application was not assigned to the company).¹⁸ Some substantial part of Welspiel’s history still needs to be discovered, and this article and similar accounts can only distantly relate it. ■

Endnotes

1. Margery W. Davies, “Clerical Workers in the United as Lamberger, but period accounts present Lemberger. 13. The Record-Union, Sacramento, California, July 27, 1895. States by Sex: 1870-1930,” in Woman's Place is at the 6. The Oakland Tribune, Sept. 11, 1922. 14. The San Francisco Call, San Francisco, California, Typewriter (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 7. According to a headstone notation at https://www. December 22, 1896. 1992), 178-79. findagrave.com/memorial/82338815/clementina-welspiel. 15. The San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco, California, 2. Merritt, Deborah J. “Hypatia in the Patent Office: 8. Handbook and Proceedings of the Annual Meeting, August 28, 1896. Women Inventors and the Law, 1865-1900.” The California Library Association, 1909. The paper was 16. Los Angeles Herald, Los Angeles, California, January 13, 1898. American Journal of Legal History, vol. 35, no. 3, 1991, presented twice, in 1909 and again in 1910. 17. An account of this affair was published inThe 235–306. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/845974. 9. An image of the catalog was provided by Peter Weil. Record-Union, Sacramento, California, January, 13 3. See Peter Weil, “Oh, Lillian, We Hardly Knew Ye!” 10. Michael Adler, The Writing Machine: A History of the 1898, under the title “The Mystery Yet Unsolved.” ETCetera No. 117 (Summer 2017). Typewriter (London: George Allen & Unwin, 1973), 277. 18. A draft of this article had to be substantially rewritten 4. Robert Messenger writes about female inventors at 11. The Illustrated Phonographic World, New York, March after this author discovered Messenger’s post on these his blog, https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/ 1895, 185. inventors, found here: https://oztypewriter.blogspot. on-this-day-in-typewriter-history-cxxi.html. 12. The Antikey Chop presents a sketch of this machine com/2011/09/on-this-day-in-typewriter-history-cxxi. 5. Researchers at Ancestry.com persistently spell his last name at https://www.antikeychop.com/excelsiortypewriter. html, or by visiting the site and searching “Welspiel.”

6 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 show & tell : markéta hažová Continental music writer i’m the owner of a continental music typewriter, which was made in the German Reich, during the Second World War, in 1940. (Its serial number, 4026184, is missing in the records available on typewriterdatabase.com.) My father was told that there were only a few pieces made. Before it went to the market, it was introduced in Prague as a special limited piece and then moved to a military depot. Because of the war and political changes, it stayed there through the communist period. After the fall of communism, it would have been destroyed (about 1989), but it was saved because our father repaired all kinds of typewriters and knew the value of this piece. The communist soldiers had been ordered to destroy all things in the building, but this one piece was saved by my father’s friend and then given to my father. The typewriter hasn’t ever been used. It’s a completely new piece from the factory. It can type note lines, musical notes, and all special marks for composing music. It can also type the alphabet, but not capital letters. I have a newspaper article with a picture of my typewriter from 1940. The caption reads: “Recently the first typewriter intended for writing musical notes, made in the German Reich, was introduced in Prague. The machine’s keyboard writes both musical notes and was rather late with its machine. After letters, and the machine itself lines the the War Continental didn’t return on paper with music notes. It will be a very the market, but in 1949 the Musicwrit- useful invention.” er from the firm R. C. Allen appeared, One typewriter specialist writes to also based on such a standard device, me: “Indeed, there is not much infor- which became the Olympia Musicwrit- mation about the music Continental. er later on.” Except for a text in Ernst Martin’s book I would appreciate more informa- and one in the Büro-Bedarf-Rundschau, tion at [email protected]; I am nothing additional could be found. Its still trying to make my story complete. production started in 1939 or maybe And I’d be happy if one day, somebody even earlier, and probably stopped who has a real passion for typewrit- with the outbreak of the Second World ers owned this machine—for example, War. It was introduced at the Leipziger Tom Hanks! ■ Frühjahrsmesse 1939. It was based on Continental’s normal Standard machine, but differed because of a double shift mechanism. There were several music typewriters before. Continental

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 7 ephemera : by peter weil

1 the combination of typewriters and here will feature especially those noted but industrial companies tended to resist baseball was one of the true grand more frequently, including Oliver and the hiring men who regularly participated in slams in industrial history.¹ The Olivers Union Trust teams (Remington, Smith the sport, seeing baseball as a distraction (established in 1902), seen here practic- Premier, Yost, and Monarch), and, more that made employees less attentive to ing near their factory at the Woodstock briefly, Underwood, Corona, and Royal. their jobs. The firms blamed early-morn- fairgrounds field in Woodstock, Illinois I will discuss the beginnings of this ing weekday practice sessions required (1906-07), were only one of several, happy synthesis of typewriters and base- by amateur and semi-pro teams. albeit the most famous, of the writing ball, drawing upon published sources, However, in the post-Civil War period, machine teams that played from the especially period newspapers and maga- the number and size of factories greatly late 19th century to the first half of the zines. My use of such sources restricts expanded, requiring far more workers. 20th century.² 1 Other official factory my discussion to typewriter companies Owners could ill afford seeing baseball teams, with their earliest documented that made the news. Even then, media as a mark against the skilled and semi- dates, include Caligraph (American Writ- coverage during this period was uneven skilled employees they sought to hire. ing Machine) (1888), Wagner (maker of and happenstance, often lacking final Factories began sponsoring teams, and Underwood) (1900), Remington (1904), scores and other details. There may have that number increased later on, after— Underwood (1904), Smith Premier (1907), been official company teams and, also, as companies responded to employee Royal (1908), Yost (1908), Secor (1909), unofficial ones organized by employees pressure—factory owners shrank the Elliott-Fisher (1910-11), Noiseless (1910), on their own that were never reported workweek from 65 hours in 1865 to Monarch (1913), Standard (Corona) on, or that I missed in my searching of between 50 and 56 hours by the 1890s. (1913),³ and Molle (1920). These teams several news media databases. Company owners and factory managers, are generally categorized as “semi-pro” Before discussing specific typewriter worried that this increased leisure time because, whether the members were paid factory teams, a bit of general history would result in heavy drinking and other or not for playing baseball, their activity concerning the development of indus- work and family problems for employees, on the team usually was linked to their tries and the sport of baseball is needed saw factory- and sales office-sponsored compensation as employees at a factory. to better understand the specifics con- baseball teams as means to control em- Contemporary media reported the exis- cerning writing machine factory teams. ployees’ new freedom, to the good of the tence of Caligraph, Secor, Elliott-Fisher, Before the end of the Civil War (1861-65) companies and the employees. Noiseless, and Molle squads only once, in the United States, baseball already was Another set of factors that brought and then only briefly. The discussion becoming a popular American pastime, about a change in industrialists’ per-

8 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 2 spectives, especially those managing the much larger factories of the 1890s and beyond, was the increased competition they faced for skilled labor. In the case of companies like Remington, Underwood, and Royal, for example, their strong emphasis on marketing to Europe required hiring employees who were literate in German, French, Russian and other lan- guages. Often they were the very same laborers who had been reared in European industrial apprentice systems. In addition, some companies saw baseball teams as a form of advertising in a culture where baseball had become the most popular local and national sport. The final stimulus for the willing- ness—even, for some companies, the desire—to create factory teams was the growing labor unrest after 1890. Compa- nies came to see participation by employees in company-related leisure activities as a means to solidify identity with the 3 interests of the company and to create an esprit de corps among their workers. It was in this historical context that factory baseball teams, paralleling those of sales offices, multiplied and developed. The Caligraph team was the first documented typewriter factory team, but it was mentioned only once in the media, in 1888. At that point, the company had already moved production in 1885 from Corry, Pennsylvania, to Hartford, Con- necticut, a city that was later to become a major nexus for typewriter and other industrial baseball activity. The Caligraphs played the Hartford Machine Screw Co. at a game sponsored by that company’s employees association. During the next decade, the first of what became numerous national and local distribution and sales office writing machine companies’ teams were formed. Ironically, the earliest of these were reported for the United Kingdom, home of cricket, not baseball. There, the Wyck- Remington (1907). For example, see this esting and important in the history of off, Seamans, and Benedict Remington photograph of the main office’s Under- typewriter companies, these marketing- team was organized no later than 1895 wood team, the “Utes,” in April, 1910.⁴ 2 based baseball organizations are not the by the UK national and British Empire The Utes had their own field in Brooklyn, focus of this column.⁵ Instead, I will main office in London. In that year, they New York (52nd St. and 20th Ave.), where present here an overview of typewriter played the Derby city team and lost badly, they played the New York City Reming- factory teams. 34-17, but later in the season persisted ton office team on July 15, 1907, and won The earliest substantial data on an to become the London Baseball Associa- 13-8 in what was called a “lively batting American typewriter factory team is tion champions. In the U.S., major sales contest.” Branch offices and smaller, local about the Olivers in 1902. Here is a por- office baseball teams were formed in the agencies of typewriter companies formed trait of that first group of players.⁶ 3 The first decade of the 20th century, includ- teams in the first half of the last century team was composed of workers from the ing those for the main offices in New in much of the U.S., but especially in New Oliver Typewriter factory in Woodstock, York City of Underwood (1905) and WSB England and the Midwest. While inter- Illinois. While this statement is accurate,

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 9 4 5 7

10 11

it ignores the reality that was to become his playing career. Here is a cigarette The creation of the Oliver team in 1902 fairly common concerning the creation trade card of the young Tigers player took place at the same time as other ef- and operation of such teams. Oliver distributed in the 1909 season.⁷ 4 forts to engage the company’s employees in 1902, followed by other typewriter Over the years, the strength of the in company-organized activities outside companies, began recruiting some work- Olivers, matched by their cockiness, the Woodstock factory. For example, a ers whose primary qualification was earned them the enmity of many of their baseball (not softball) team was set up for their known skills as baseball players on opponents. This began early in their first women who worked at the factory, and a semi-pro, collegiate, and pro teams. In season, when the Olivers defeated the brass band made up of factory men was this first documented instance, Oliver re- Chicago Athletes 8-0, and, when the win- organized to support the Olivers—and, cruited George Moriarty, who played on ners left the field, the Olivers gave each some years later, to play concerts in a a non-industrial semi-pro team and was Athletes’ player a goose egg. bandstand built by the company in the recruited by the nearby Chicago Cubs the The Olivers’ first uniform used the center of the town. The band marched very next year. Moriarty is the subject on original company logo, “The Oliver.” and played through the streets of any lo- the right end of the third row in Figure Around 1906, the logo on the jerseys was cation where the Olivers had a game, and 3. The Olivers’ first year and much of the changed to an early form of the com- blared away to welcome the team on and second year were so successful that the bined “OTCO” we see on this photo of the off the field and to celebrate any on-field Chicago Cubs agreed to play the type- 1906 squad, the same as the less-visible successes, much as today’s homeruns are writer team in a demonstration game. As logo on the players’ shirts in Figure 1.⁸ 5 marked by music. The band also played to be expected, the Cubs triumphed, 12-0. This is an example of that second logo in holiday parades of The Olivers’ home- But the 19-year-old Moriarty’s stellar in color. 6 The workers’ enthusiasm for town, Woodstock. As an illustration, see performance in the game resulted in his their own team probably stemmed from this image of the Oliver band marching being hired by the Cubs and becoming their love of the sport itself, as can be in the town on Independence Day, 1910, the youngest player on a major league seen in this photo from the Oliver as- performing much as it marched to take team. Making a poor showing, the next sembly room in October, 1907, where the the team to the fairgrounds, where the year he was sent down to the minors, but workers made note of a Cubs win over community had built a small baseball later he reentered the majors, ending up the Detroit Tigers in the World Series stadium for them to play in. 8 An Oliver on the Detroit Tigers, where he finished that year. 7 musician’s hat band worn in 1913 gives us

10 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 the colors of the marchers’ uniforms. 9 that same year in Remington’s alignment instructed to organize cricket teams for The popularity of the Oliver Company department, concerning extra pay for the themselves. Originally, the company paid factory team and the factory band and special language skills required to prop- for baseball uniforms and some equip- the importance of both to the community erly install Cyrillic types on machines ment, but much of the funding for the are indicated by the fans’ regular mon- being exported to Russia. Remington’s Remington (and other) baseball squads etary contributions, which helped pay first response was to introduce an em- came from the players themselves, for equipment and travel. In addition to ployee loyalty program in May 1903, in members of the Ilion community where constructing a baseball field, community which employees with 10 or more years the factory was located, and admission support included the purchase of tickets of service, whom the company judged as charges, which were originally a dime, for attendance, which guaranteed the loyal and obedient, would be given gold but by 1910 were raised to a quarter. existence of this and other typewriter and enamel badges and an annual bonus These funding arrangements were simi- factories’ teams and bands. At the end of of $100.⁹ The original “loyalty” emblem lar to those we have seen for the Olivers, the season, any extra funds were com- and one from about a dozen years later and paralleled those for other typewriter monly used by the Olivers and by other are illustrated here. 10 11 factory teams. The Remington and other typewriter factory squads to reward play- By 1904, factory-organized baseball typewriter factory teams also raised ers for making the most runs, the most teams were organized at Remington and additional funds though sponsoring home runs, and the most runs batted in, at the Smith Premier factory in Syracuse, entrance fee dances and musical perfor- and stealing the most bases. In Oliver’s New York.¹⁰ While the Remingtons did mances. Practice for the internal factory case, the company’s attempts to engage play two typewriter-related teams, the teams took place during the lunch hour employees in activities external to their Smith Premier factory one and the Type- and at least one evening after work per work in the factory were not initially writer Exchange (Boston, Massachusetts) week, and games originally were played adequate to avoid a 1903 strike, but subse- marketing team that year, the Reming- on Saturday afternoon. For the Works quently, labor relations did improve. tons primarily played against community team, these activities were expanded to Two years after Oliver’s team began, in teams from the area.¹¹ By 1905, Reming- include Sunday, and then at least one 1904, the Remington Typewriter Compa- ton’s factory managers initiated new weekday game. Moreover, the employee ny, the most powerful component of the ways of relating to and controlling their reward ceremony and the Works baseball Union Trust, decided to form their own employees. The company organized the team were brought together for the first baseball team, naming it “The Remington intramural Typewriter Baseball League time in 1905 at the first Remington Field Works.” All the Union Trust’s smaller within the Ilion factory. The regular Day, which was held on a large sports members, except American Writing production-line male employees were field at a company-supplied stadium (see Machine, subsequently formed teams as placed on teams representing the seven ETCetera Nos. 90 and 91). well, but their typewriter factory com- departments of the factory and competed The Remington Typewriter Band was petitors were limited to those within the in a regular schedule both to select the also launched as an employee-staffed Trust. Enmity between the Union Trust champion department and to discover organization to increase participation by and other factories thus affected type- the best players to assign to the Rem- workers after work. The band first played writer company baseball. ington Works nine who represented the at the Field Day in 1905, and then regu- The decision to organize a baseball factory in games with external baseball larly played at the Remingtons games. team was a part of the Remington man- teams. One of the units was the Assembly By 1909, the now well-known band also agement’s response to strikes in 1903 at Department, illustrated here in this ca. played concerts at non-sporting venues, two of the major typewriter manufactur- 1910-15 image. 12 The factory’s foremen, as here at Cooperstown, New York. 13 ers, Underwood and Oliver. Remington the immediate supervisors of the work- That first Field Day in 1905 included a also was concerned about its own labor ers, were excluded from these workers’ baseball game between the Remingtons relations problems which had developed baseball teams. However, they were and the Savage Arms team from West- 12 13

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 11 14 15

field, Massachusetts, who won the game. game, 7-6 in five innings. Here is a pho- the typewriter company that it organized The 1905 Field Day also included other tograph of the 1906 Remingtons. 14 Vital a special squad named the “All Typewrit- sports competitions, such as tugs of war, to their win that day and their successful ers” that included members of teams and more of these were added by 1906, season was the speed of Paul Risedorf, from Remington, Smith Premier and including an indoor foot race that was who had won the 220-yard indoor race Monarch. To prepare this hybrid lineup held the same week as the actual Field in 24 seconds. He is shown in Figures 14 for the competition, they trained togeth- Day. The Remington Works team played (front row, second from the left) and 15. 15 er every day for three weeks and were the neighboring Remington Arms nine at The Remington Typewriters again played primarily fed raw beef supplied, most the 1906 event in a major grudge game. the Remington Arms team at the 1908 probably, by the Remington factory. To The Remington Works won in a close Field Day. The game was so important to further strengthen the All-Typewriters,

12 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 the team managers recruited “Johnny” Premier boys made a clean score, such as enforce it. Yost, by July of 1909, was by Clark, a pitcher from a nearby (but un- it was, for a score of no runs, no hits, and far the strongest team in the league, and named) college team, just for this game. no errors and nine additional ciphers for was expected to again win the champion- Clark’s arm was compared favorably in each inning was their portion.” ship. But the Yost nine became involved the media to that of Leon “Red” Ames Notwithstanding such disdain based in a major controversy concerning the of the New York Giants. Even with a red on a single game, the Smith Premier team full-time factory employee requirement protein-enriched hybrid team and a stel- was not a weak one, and over several that threatened to cost them wins in lar ringer battery, the All-Typewriters years often triumphed over its rivals. One four games, virtually eliminating any lost. The unbeaten Arms nine triumphed instance of this team’s power included its chance to achieve the championship. One over the All-Typewriters, 18-15. strong win, 9-2, over its cross-town Syra- opponent, the second-place Crane Valve During the 1904-1908 seasons, the cuse nemesis, the Monarch factory squad, Co. squad from Stamford, Connecticut, Remington Works team played a wide ar- on their shared 1915 Field Day, in front of a protested Yost’s win in a game where the ray of local and regional non-industrial crowd of 3000 at Longbranch Park in Syr- Yosts included an employee, Bill Regen- and industrial teams. None of these acuse. That success was due, in part, to the ery, who the Cranes claimed no longer competitions were under any league pitching of Orrin Day. He was not an em- worked at the factory. Three other teams organization, but in 1909, the team ployee of Smith Premier and had recently joined the Cranes, asking that Yost’s wins joined the Commercial Athletic League played for a Central New York Amateur be negated for all games played by Re- (see the 1909 Central New York Cham- League team. The ringer arrangement genery. Yost admitted that the player was pionship Remington Works nine in this was common by this time in factory team absent from the factory, but asserted that photograph). 16 This League included baseball and semi-pro baseball in general. he was only temporarily assigned to the the Underwood factory team. For the The shared field day included the wearing Yost sales and repair office in New York first time Remington might have played of this badge by members and supporters City. In August, the League managers met a typewriter team outside the Union of both teams.¹² 17 and took all four wins and an additional Trust. However, any games between the 17 fifth one away from Yost. The decision squads of these two companies were was a hotly contested one, even among not reported in the media I researched. the managers of the league teams. This Remington’s joining of this League made was primarily because the Yosts were a season management more efficient, but strong, successful team, who drew large it did not preclude the Remington squad numbers of paying fans wherever they from scheduling games with non-league went, earning more than $1000 alone for teams. When Remington and other the League’s pool in 1910. The decision typewriter factory teams played outside against the Yosts resulted in their pick- their leagues, the competitions were ing up their equipment and abandoning often referred to as “practice games.” the league. The squad then played out However, these non-league games were the season against far less competitive an important part of a team’s reputation non-league teams, such as the Brooklawn and their ability to attract strong com- Country Club (Fairfield County, Connect- petitors and large, entrance fee-paying icut), triumphing with a win of 11-1. crowds. Remington continued to play in By 1913, the Yosts, now often referred this manner over the next several years, to as the “Remington-Yost” team, had re- and used its Field Day to feature baseball As noted above, Yost, with its factory joined the Bridgeport Industrial League, competitions with two other Union Trust at Bridgeport, Connecticut, was part and also played other teams outside it. As teams, Yost in 1913 and Smith Premier in of the same holding company as Smith an example, the Yosts played the Black 1912 and 1914-17. The Yost nine trampled Premier. This business fact resulted in Rocks in the league one day in May, and, the Remington squad, 10-1, to win the the team’s often being simply referred the next day, a Norwalk (Connecticut) “Typewriter Baseball Championship” to as the “Union Typewriters,” a name team outside the organization. They at the 1913 Field Day. Workers from the not used for others in the Trust. The Yost also played in demonstration games, Smith Premier and Monarch factories squad is first reported to have played the most famous of which were 1913 and participated in other sports at that Field games in 1907, and, in 1908, they com- 1914 contests in Bridgeport against an Day, but the year before, in the first of peted in their city’s Industrial Baseball all-Chinese team from the University of a series of hotly contested Field Day League and won the league’s champion- Hawaii. The Remington-Yost team lost baseball games between Remington and ship. This community league, which both contests. But, as we have seen, they Smith Premier, Remington won. The included some teams from outside the won the Typewriter Factory champion- Remington Types further embarrassed city, specifically required all members ship in 1913 when they met the Reming- the Smith Premiers on the Field Day in of competing teams to be working in the ton Types at the Field Day that same year. 1916, trouncing them 9-0. McCoy, the factory of a member team. Not all semi- The Yost factory at Bridgeport, Connecti- Remington pitcher, threw a no-hitter. pro industrial leagues had such a rule, cut was manufacturing the nos. 15 and 20 As one reporter sarcastically said about and, if they did, the rule was generally frontstrike machines the year Remington this defeat, “The fact is that the Smith not enforced. However, this league did played the Yosts, and the Yost team that

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 13 18 20

triumphed looked similar to the one in companies and from the Boston Type- The Royal Typewriter Co. factory team this ca. 1912-15 photograph, posing with writer Exchange. But they did not join was the next one formed. It was organized examples of the machines they made. 18 any roundball leagues until 1909, the in 1908, the year the company began The Yost nine, labeled the “Rem-Yosts,” year Underwood joined other factories manufacturing in Hartford. Formally, played in the 1915 season, and the media in the Hartford area (Royal Typewriter, the squad was called the “Royal Type- articles focus exclusively on a series of Pope Manufacturing Co.—no longer pro- writer Baseball Association.” Its financial grudge games with the Remington Arms ducing the World Index, Electric Vehicle, arrangements and need to raise money nine. I found nothing reported on the Billings and Spencer, and some smaller from players’ own pockets were similar Yosts after that year, even though most factories, such as TATA) to form the to those described for the Oliver team. references indicate that production at Commercial Athletics Association (CAA). However, the Royal Association paid each the Yost factory continued until 1924. The CAA divided their teams into letter- player $75 per year; payment for seasonal The Underwood Typewriter Company designated leagues, and Underwood achievements, such as the most home factory baseball team is first documented was in “B.” The Underwoods became runs, was the highest documented for any in 1904, the same year that the Reming- the Association’s Champions, winning pre-1920 team, at $45 for each achieve- ton Types began. The Wagner factory its Spalding Trophy that first year by ment. Throughout their long history, the moved in 1901 from Bayonne, New Jersey, vanquishing the TATA nine 14-1. In 1910, Royals were well-known, and somewhat to Hartford, Connecticut. While Wagner- the Underwoods continued to play well, resented, because of their recruiting the Underwood had a team in its old home, but the new Association appears to have best players from their opponents’ hit I found no evidence this team continued collapsed, and the team made its own squads. The Royals’ manager, A. A. McKay, after the move to Hartford. The new arrangements for games. I found nothing was experienced and had managed the facility officially became an Underwood more on the team until 1916, when they 1900 Wagner factory team in New Jersey. one in 1903, with the dissolution of played the Sing Sing Correctional Facility From the beginning, Royal was serious Wagner as the managing manufacturer. (Ossining, New York) team in a demon- about baseball, not only hiring a seasoned The next year, the new team was formed stration game, for which no score was coach but also fully outfitting the team by recruiting men from departments reported. In 1917, the Hartford factory in handsome, dark royal blue uniforms. similar to this 1909 large mid-stage as- company left the Association and joined Their players practiced three nights per sembly line. 20 In their initial year, the the Commercial Athletic League, a larger week after work, instead of the usual one, Underwoods played local squads from organization in which it competed dur- and were expected to play in scrub games both smaller and larger non-typewriter ing the next decade. the other two. The next year the Royals

14 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 joined the Commercial Association, but as when an “All-Hartfords” semi-pro Note the Royal keystone emblem on the they also regularly played teams outside team was assembled for that purpose in Corps’ bass drum emblazoned with the the league. For example, that year they 1911. The Royal squad joined the Hartford company’s then-new model 10 machine. met on the diamond with squads from City League the next year. The new Groton, New York factory of towns like Unionville and New Britain and Shifting leagues, participating in the the Standard Typewriter Company, a far with those from institutions, e.g., Middle- games of two leagues at once, and playing smaller manufacturer than Remington, town Hospital and even with private clubs additional non-league games were all part Underwood, and Royal, began producing like the Bushnell Athletic Club. of the behavior of the industrial teams like Standard Folding machines in late 1909, In 1910, the Royal company report- the Royals. The point is they wanted to play with only about 200 employees. A hint edly built the finest of the baseball fields baseball and wanted to play against tough of the factory’s small scale and the small constructed by any of the typewriter teams. In 1914, the Royals joined the Con- pool from which they drew a baseball companies in Connecticut, with bleach- necticut State Baseball League, but, in 1915, nine may be seen in this ca. 1912 photo of ers that held 400 fans. It was far enough they joined the Connecticut Independent a components assembly room. 22 I found away from the factory that the com- Baseball League and continued playing in no published information on a Standards pany’s management offered a reward the State League and non-league games. team, but there is a tantalizing photo- to any player who hit a home run that Joining multiple leagues and shifting from graph of a baseball squad that was identi- broke a factory window. This outstand- one league to another were not practices fied by the seller as possibly that of the ing diamond helped them attract highly unique to the Royals. Rather, they were Standards. 23 Some of the players’ jerseys competitive opponents who wanted to common practices for typewriter factory appear to have an “ST,” or even an “ST” play on such a fine field. That year they teams. Also by 1915, the Hartford manage- preceding another unclear letter, adding played the first-year team from Middle- ment assembled a Royal Fife and Drum to the ambiguity of the identification of town’s Noiseless Typewriter, but the Corps to support the Royals nine and to their team. However, what is clear is the rest of the Royals’ opponents did not perform in parades and other venues. For evidence that Standard Typewriter had manufacture typewriters. This image example, see this image of a photographic organized a team playing as the “Coronas” of a baseball squad was designated by pin back from around this time. 21 in the 1913 season, just after the new Co- the seller to be the Royal Typewriter rona model 3 had replaced the Standard Co. squad in 1909 or 1910. 19 However, 21 Folding 2. This means that the date of the the team’s light-colored uniforms are photograph in Figure 23 would have to inconsistent with the expected dark ones be between 1910, the first full season of purchased in 1908, and the lack of other play after the Standard facility became clearly identified photos of the Royals for operational, and 1912, the last possible comparison make the seller’s identifica- season of play for a Standards crew. Here tion of the team in this photo problem- is a well-documented image of the first atic. In addition, there was at that time Coronas team in 1913.¹³ 24 That year, the in the U.S. another team that could have Standard company organized the “Co- worn “RT” on their jerseys, the Railroad rona Baseball Club.”¹⁴ Play was encour- Telegraphers semi-pro nine. Considering aged but voluntary, and each member these points, it is impossible at this point had to pay an annual fee to support the to state definitively that this is a portrait team. The amount for that first year is of the Royal Typewriters team. not known, but by 1918, it was about $5 Sometimes towns with several base- per year. The Coronas had such a strong ball squads challenged the powerful Roy- reputation by the beginning of 1915 that, als, assembling a single team from two or for an early season demonstration game, more local teams to represent the town, a hybrid All-Auburn team to oppose them 22 23

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 15 24 was made up of the strongest players from the Auburn (New York) town team, the All-Collegiates (i.e., Ithaca’s Cornell University and Ithaca College squads playing together), and the Midnight Sons. The results were not discovered. At some point between 1913 and 1917, the factory built the Corona Athletic Field in Groton for their team. The Coronas played ball for at least the next thirty years. Also, between 1914 and 1915, Corona organized a brass band supported by a bass drum. 25 It played a role similar to that of other factory ensembles, including the presen- tation of concerts. Lastly, while many typewriter factories never fielded a baseball team, the companies and their workers and the typewriter company’s customers usually were big baseball fans. For example, in 1897, Daugherty Typewriter Company used envelopes like this to seek customers and to send bills. 26 And the compa- 25 nies that only later created teams saw in baseball an effective means to reach their potential customers. For example, Monarch issued a series of baseball trade cards in 1911, two years before they had a team. The cards featured star players, like this one of Edward Collins, second baseman of the Philadelphia Athletics. 27 At first glance, typewriters and baseball appear to be no more connected than bicycles and fish, but actually, they

Acknowledgements

I greatly appreciate the assistance of Tyler Anderson, Mike Sunday Brooklyn (New York) Daily Eagle, September Chronicle, May 22, 1905, p. 13; “Remington Typewriter Brown, Greg Fudacz, Bert Kerschbaumer, Jos Legrand, and 12, 1909, p. 8; “Corona Team Wants Games,” Rochester Annual Field Day,” Journal of Commercial Education, Paul Robert. I also appreciate the assistance of the Stamford (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, June 26, 1920, p. vol. 32, 1908, pp. 150-151; “Remington Field Day,” New (Connecticut) Historical Society concerning my questions 26; “Exchange 6, Underwood 3,” Boston Sunday Globe, York Tribune, June 28, 1909; “Remington Typewriter about the possible existence of a Blickensderfer Typewriter June 19, 1904; “Factory Costs and Business Methods: Field Day,” The Typewriter World, vol. 40, no. 1, 1912, factory baseball team. A special thank you goes to Anne Sloan Encouragement of Employees by Wyckoff, Sea- p.94; Harold Seymour, Baseball: The People’s Game for her thoughtful and vital editorial suggestions. mans and Benedict,” Iron Age, April 24, 1905, p. 509; (1990). New York: Oxford University Press; “Strikes “Industrial League Games,” Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Daily at Typewriter Factories,” Syracuse (New York) Post- Northwestern, June 4, 1920, p. 11; Ithaca (New York) Standard, September 24, 1906; The Typewriter and Pho- Endnotes News: 10/13/20 and 5/19/21; R.G. Knowles and Richard nographic World, June, 1903, pp. 470-476; Thompsonville Morton, Baseball, New York: George Rutledge and Co., (Connecticut) Press, September 8, 1910; “3000 Attend 1. The data in this article are from many sources, Ltd., 1896; “Molle to Play Tustin,” Oshkosh (Wisconsin) Employees Annual Outing,” Syracuse (New York) especially numerous newspapers and magazines. In Daily Northwestern, June 17, 1921, p. 14; New Haven (Con- Herald, June 27, 1915, p. 1; “Trophy for Calafin Team,” order to conserve space, if the same publication is necticut) Morning Journal Courier, August 18, 1888, p. 4; New York Daily Tribune, July 31, 1910, p. 9; Typewriter sourced from multiple dates, the dates of the articles Clarence Vernon Noble, “The Cost of Living in a Small Topics: 9/1915; “Twelfth Annual Remington Field Day, will follow the name of the publication. Sources Factory Town [Groton, New York]”, Ph. D. Disserta- Typewriter Topics, August, 1916, p. 47; “Typewriter Day include; American Machinist, vol., 28, no. 1, August tion. Ithaca: Graduate School of Cornell University, in Ilion,” Remington Notes, January, vol. 1 1906, pp. 1-2 24,1905, p. 245; Nancy L. Baker, Images of America: 1925; “Old Rivals to Meet,” Washington (District of ; “Typewriter Visibility No Longer Talking Point,” Woodstock, Chicago: Arcadia Publishing Co. 2006, p. 37; Columbia) Herald, May 29, 1911; “Oliver Baseball Team: Printers’ Ink, 1909, pp. 10-12;”Typewriting Notes,” The “Baseball: Derby vs. Remingtons,” Reynolds (London, Players Nearly All Selected and First Game Arranged,” Phonetic Journal, September 28, 1895, p. 610; Peter Weil, England) Newspaper, Sunday, May 12, 1895; Bridgeport The Woodstock (Illinois) Sentinel, May 8, 1902, p. 1; “Ephemera,” ETCetera, no. 90, June, 2010, pp. 8-10; (Connecticut) Times and Evening Farmer: 2/12/1909, “Opening of Remington Typewriter Baseball Park,” Peter Weil, “New Information on the First Remington 4/23/1909, 7/14/1909, 8/20/1909, 8/26/1909; 3/22/1910, The Remington Budget, vol. IV, no. 9, September, 1905; Field Day,” ETCetera, no. 91, p. 16; “What’s Going On,” 6/17/1910, 5/19/1912, 10/25/1912, 3 /23/1913, 5/1913; “Premium on Faithfulness,” New York Times, May 22, Typewriter Topics, vol. 6, August, 1907, p. 156; “Win 6/23/13; 9/23/1915; Buffalo (New York) Evening News: 1903, p.1; “Realization of Ideals in Industrial Engineer- Fifth Straight Game ,” Austin (Texas) Daily Statesman, 6/7/1905, 5/1/1909; Underwood Typewriter Outing,” ing,” Transactions of the American Society of Industrial May 1, 1915, p. 3; Buffalo (New York) Courier, August, 1904; Chicago Engineering, vol. 27, 1906, pp. 363-372; “Remington http://herkimer.nygenweb.net/ilion/ilionsocial.html; Daily Tribune, May 31, 1903; “Commercial A.A.Games,” 12, Monroes 1,” Rochester (New York) Democrat and https://www.madeinchicagomuseum.com;

16 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 26 27

did come together. And this divine com- ment, team identity, and the possibility bination did so in a manner that gener- of changing outcomes, became a posi- ated immense fun for factory workers tive embodiment of the values of the and their fans. The typewriter and its workers. This was in a world in which, manufacturing developed at the same otherwise, much of their lives was time that baseball became a central part controlled by others and daily results of the lives of workers who were work- at the factory were highly predictable, ing on highly regimented production itself a goal of the factory owners. Ironi- lines in the growing American factories cally, it was just that aspect of worker for more hours, more and more intense- identity that was adopted by typewriter standing these mixed, often conflict- ly, than at any other time in American factory owners and by other industrial ing motivations and goals, the creation history. The subculture of factory managers to attempt to mediate labor- and sporting play of typewriter factory workers developed during rapid indus- ers’ demands, to control laborers’ free baseball teams were important for the trial growth and changes in relation- time, and to advertise the companies players and their communities, and for ships between factory owners and their that made the new technologies. A more giving greater meaning to the typewrit- employees. Baseball, with its emphasis general goal was to assert in the public ers made by the teams’ members. Let’s on the interplay of individual skills and arena that factories deeply cared about remember and celebrate the typewriter the recognition of individual achieve- the welfare of their employees. Notwith- boys of summer. Play Ball! ■

http://www.ilionalumni.com/maincovers/ them here is that the cultures of factory workers and 10. The Union Trust was created in 1892 as the Union 2016_03_cw_seamans.html; sales staffs were somewhat different ones. The great- Writing Machine Co. and renamed in 1908 as the Union https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2012/03/ est difference was the emphasis in sales offices on the Typewriter Company. That was dissolved in 1913, with from-oliver-typewriter-factory-floor-to.html; strong values of highly individualistic competition Remington Typewriter Co. taking over direct control http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/ to reach both personal and company goals, and the of all the products formerly produced within the Trust. team.cgi?id=ae7e00bc; American concepts of this pre-1920 period that sales For discussion of the context concerning baseball at http://www.covehurst.net/ddyte/brooklyn/ staffs were members of a social class superior to that Remington and its related Trust affiliates, see Weil, otherparks.html of factory workers. Thus, while these corporate bases June, 2010, pp. 8-10 and September, 2010, p. 16. 2. This photograph and other images and ephemera used have similarities and are linked, they are different 11. Between 1901 and 1905, Ilion was home to a semi- in this article are from the author’s collection, unless enough for them to be addressed separately. pro mid-New York State Baseball League team, the otherwise specified. 6. Photo from Baker, 2006, p. 37. Typewriters. It was not affiliated with the Remington 3. Based on a photograph, the Corona team was pre- 7. For a more thorough discussion of Moriarty, see Co. Thus, in the early years of the Remington team, it ceded by an earlier one from the original parent firm, Robert Messenger’s blog https://oztypewriter.blogspot. was not called the “Remington Typewriters.” Instead, Standard Typewriter Co. The date of the possible com/2012/03/from-oliver-typewriter-factory-floor-to. it usually was referred to as the “Remingtons” and the Standard nine photo, which will be displayed in the html. Note also that two other players from the Olivers “Remington Works” team. However, by 1908 and later, discussion below of the Corona team, is not marked also were recruited onto major league clubs. the Works team was often also called the “Typewriters.” on it. However, it dates from the 1910-1912 period, after 8. Photo from Robert Messenger’s oz typewriter blog: To complicate matters further, the separate and inde- the Standard factory became fully operational in early https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2012/03/from-oliver- pendent Remington Arms Co. created its own baseball 1910. The introduction of Standard’s third model, the typewriter-factory-floor-to.html. team, but on their uniforms and in media stories it was Corona 3, apparently was the basis for the changing of 9. The average pay of the workers in the Remington regularly identified as the “Remington Arms” team to the team’s name in 1913, the first baseball season that Factory in 1903 was around 27 cents per hour or $750 distinguish it from its neighboring factory’s squad. followed the new identity for the factory’s product. per year ($19,950 in 2018 dollars). Thus the $100 ($2850 12. In 1915, both organizations had been fully absorbed Lastly, no mention of the Standard Typewriter team in 2018 dollars) bonus represented a significant ad- into the Remington Typewriter Co., a fact alluded to was found in published sources. dition, more than 13%, to the pay of employees who on the badge. 4. Photo from the Hartford (Connecticut) Daily Courant, were judged to be loyal and competent throughout 13. Photo from Typewriter Topics, October, 1915, p. 91. April 8, 1909. their employment, starting in their eleventh year 14. The Standard Typewriter Co. became the Corona 5. These sales office teams are far too numerous to dis- as employees. To be considered “loyal,” an employee Typewriter Co. in 1914, thus aligning its name with its cuss within this article, but one reason for excluding could not participate in labor organizing. product, the Corona typewriter.

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 17 The In Memoriam: Rembrandt Dennis Clark Jubilee

by greg fudacz by jos legrand on march 28th of this year, an an- Jim Rauen and Uwe Breker traveled the plans to visit the netherlands this tique typewriter collector, a true legend, country looking for typewriters. After the year? Among others, there is one good left this world for the next. three rested one night at a hotel, some- extra reason. This year, 2019, marks the My friend, Dennis Roger Clark, was how, in the middle of the night, Den- 350th anniversary of Rembrandt van Rijn’s born on September 24, 1944 in Califor- nis’s car had been populated with a few death. Rembrandt, the famous Dutch nia, and though he would eventually more rare machines. Or the story about a painter, you certainly have heard of. “The settle on the opposite end of the country Sholes & Glidden he was hunting in New Night Watch,” remember? Even one of in Connecticut, his engineering back- Hampshire because he got wind of one America’s presidents visited the Rijks- ground took him to every corner of the “on the front porch of a house behind a museum in Amsterdam and admired the earth. He enjoyed spelunking when he round school building.” Did he visit every painting while in the Netherlands in 2014. was younger, and he was always willing school until he found it, without Google or to help a stray animal scratching at his GPS?... damn right he did! door. Dennis collected sewing machines, I know Dennis burned a lot of bridges, burglar alarms, velocipedes and, of but he was always kind to me ever since course, typewriters. we met at “Herman’s” one year. I was just Mind you, these weren’t just any type- a dealer then, but after I found my second writers. Through his 40+ years of hunt- Morris, it was Dennis who encouraged ing, Dennis amassed some of the rarest me to collect. He was genuinely happy for examples on the face of this earth. The me when I found something new to add Wagner, Index Visible, Hull, Harrington, to my collection, even if it was something Bonita Bearing, Lasar, Jones Typogra- he didn’t have—especially when it was pher, Malling-Hansen prototype, various something he didn’t have. Some evenings U.S. patent models and 14 (fourteen!!!) we would speak on the phone for hours, Of course, there are a lot of special Sholes & Gliddens are just a few ex- which would always start the same way: exhibitions in the Netherlands to cel- amples of his 700+ typewriter collection. Dennis would pick up and I would say, ebrate the event this year. There were He was called both a “vacuum” and “the “Hey, Dr. Clark! What’s cooking?” and also some exhibitions abroad, including most aggresive collector around” in his he would reply with, “Not much.” From two in the United States, but they have day—buying individual rarities and en- there our conversations would meander already finished by now. tire collections whenever they presented from typewriters to food, from patents to Can our typewriter society pay tribute themselves. Either Dennis or Dennis’s politics, from the past to the present and to this jubilee? Sure. Apart from the Rem- typewriters were featured on the cover occasionally to the future. I miss these brandt gold typewriter charms that are of ETCetera five times, and they received talks the most. offered on eBay, and for whatever reason countless mentions within the pages. In the end, cancer took Dennis. He bat- are called that, and a Rembrandt Inc. in St. He was always most enthused talking tled it before and won, but not this time. Louis that once offered ordinary typewrit- typewriters and sharing the stories he’d He, I, we all kind of knew this was it for ers, there are two kinds of typewriter collected. One such story I recall Dennis him. Having this knowledge afforded us artifacts that really honor Rembrandt. telling me was about a curved Williams the chance to exchange proper goodbyes, The first are Rembrandt ribbon boxes. No.1 that he didn’t purchase because, which I know is a great gift. I’m grateful Remington Rand manufactured type- then, at $50, it was too pricey. And another for having known him, and I will miss my writer supplies under trademarks such story about when he and fellow collectors friend, Dennis. ■ as Remtico, the old Paragon brand name,

18 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 The Rembrandt Jubilee

with a t: Rem(b)rand(t)—this invention being more interesting than the machine’s form, though. The name may have been inspired by the fact that many of the Torpedo-based Remington portables from the 1950s and 1960s were made in the Netherlands. A Dutch price list also applies the name Rembrandt to Master-Riters (made in the Netherlands, 1951-54) which were destined for the Brazil- ian market—standards, not portables. Maybe I am mistaken, and strange it may seem, but the one here might be the only Rembrandt portable that has survived, although I vaguely recall having seen another once. No others are known to me. Anyway, when I wake up in the morning and see myself in the mirror, I say to myself with a mouth full of toothpaste: there are not many people in the world who own an original Rembrandt. I am curious which American president would ring at my door to see it. The ghost of Woodrow Wilson, maybe. ■

and this Rembrandt. The connection is emphasized here with a wonderful between the silk ribbon quality and the cruzeiro currency sign on a key at the great Dutch master, also known for his left end of the upper row. It also has a marvelous black etchings, is clear. (The Brazilian warranty sticker which gives Rembrandt Silk Ribbon is not included in us a date ante quem: December 4, 1964. Hoby Van Deusen’s ribbon tin catalogue.) The date is not very helpful: Junior- There even exists a real Rembrandt Riters were made in the Netherlands typewriter. It stands on my shelf. It is between 1951 and 1955. a Remington (Rand) Junior-Riter with The typewriter’s name is beautifully serial number #GR 106454 H. This ma- invented, just by putting a b between chine has a Brazilian keyboard, which Remington and Rand, and finishing it

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 19 art review

sorship of Francisco Franco’s dictatorial New Typographics: regime and the devastating aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, which did considerable damage to her Lower Manhattan home Typewriter Art as Print studio in 2001.² Her pieces in the current exhibition are nearly illegible typewritten prints on pieces of handmade abaca paper by shanyn fiske which have been torn apart and sewn together again with thick, black thread, rising in broken lines from the docu- anyone who has attempted to fix a the American Academy in Rome, where ments like ragged scars. The interwoven typewriter has experienced the frustra- he purchased an Olivetti Studio 44 at the ideas of creation, destruction, and repair tions and ecstasies of working with a Porta Portese flea market. “The typewriter that resonate throughout her work speak machine whose multiple moving parts and is a machine, but a manual typewriter is palpably both to her personal experience minute points of juncture can provide at inert without its user, and the pressure of piecing together the fragments of her various points a trial of patience, an index exerted by the hands of the user is vari- life after disruptive events and, more of competency, and a testament to failure. able and so the printed letters on the page broadly, to the damage to language and This intimate dialogue with machinery and have various densities,” Siena writes of other mechanisms of meaning-making in the rich history of technology and crafts- the concept behind his art. “These vari- the wake of trauma. manship to which it’s tied often go unap- able densities give the typewriter image All of the artists in the exhibition find preciated by the modern typist, who might a sense of life. It’s most apparent in the ways to exploit and disrupt the typewrit- use their garage-sale find to jot grocery images that consist of punctuation, since er’s relationship to language. Dom Syl- lists or display their antique-store treasure there’s no narrative reference.”¹ vester Houedard’s carbon transfer prints as a hallway conversation piece. What dif- Siena’s works embody his awareness use punctuation to create figural draw- ferentiates the so-called “typospherian” of of the struggle both with machinery and ings that challenge the organizational the modern age from the casual user is an with language that goes into a typewrit- structures of language. Lenka Clayton’s understanding that before and beneath the ten piece. His pieces consist of repeti- typewriter drawings ask the viewer to entertaining, sometimes hypnotic, phe- tions of letters and numbers arranged in make meaning out of minimalist paper nomenon of typewritten language is the patterns that look entirely uniform when canvases containing parentheses typed intricacy and resilience of the machine. seen from afar but, upon closer inspec- in the shape of a leaf or a feather, de- A new exhibition at The Print Center in tion, are riddled with inconsistencies pending on the viewer’s perspective. Philadelphia (1614 Latimer Street) is driven and typographical errors. In one of his Alyson Strafella’s colorful prints on by an awareness of the complex relation- untitled pieces, which contains patterns pigmented abaca paper disguise language ship between human and machine. The six of repeating numbers, one can see how within geometrical visual patterns. artists whose works make up “New Typo- type slugs have hit the paper with varying “I have an old Underwood typewriter graphics: Typewriter Art as Print” attempt amounts of force so that some numbers which has a provenance of about 1945, in unique ways to restore the typewriter show fainter than others. Also visible which I acquired in the year 2000,” to the dignity of its machine roots, resist- are sections where mistakes were made writes Gustave Morin, one of the artists ing its recent appropriation as a hipster and numbers are retyped over patches of in the exhibition, whose work features prop while also adapting its function to Wite-Out. In another piece, the half-black, paper so heavily perforated that it re- contemporary modalities of meaning- half-red letters speak of a malfunctioning sembles a porous textile. “It features a re- making. There have been many displays color-selector or ribbon lift mechanism ally really sharp key, the O; and for years, of typewriter art in recent years, but, says on the machine that produced the docu- whenever I would use it to type, it would exhibition curator Ksenia Nouril, “New ment. A third print of overlapping lines literally cut the hole out of the centre of Typographics” is the first to emphasize the clearly came from a machine with line- the O. By 2010 I gave in, and began to use primacy of printmaking in the typewriting spacing issues. Whether these errors were this specific key because it yielded these process. “The works have their foundations accidental or deliberate, they witness the specific results. At this point, it’s one of in printmaking,” Nouril explains, “but they struggle within the creative process as the the arrows in my quiver.”³ Those of us also reconceptualize printmaking.” All of writer works both with and against the who have spent hours and years laboring the work on display in “New Typograph- sometimes independent will of the ma- on a typewriter—whether as writer or ics” begins with the typewriter’s original chine to produce the print. The unique- mechanic—are all too familiar with these function as a writing tool. ness of each typewritten page—unlike the negotiations that come to resemble a The keynote artist of the exhibit is uniformity of computer-generated docu- kind of intimate dialogue. “New Typo- James Siena, whose independent show ments—is a result of this fraught dialogue graphics” is unique in its awareness of “Resonance Under Pressure” currently between man and machine. the complex ways that we relate to the occupies the second floor of the gallery. A This concept of struggle is expressed machinery upon which we depend for former member of the Early Typewriter even more poignantly in the work of the creation of language and meaning. Collectors’ Association, Siena began mak- Elena del Rivero, a Spanish-born artist The exhibit will be on display at The ing his typewritten prints in 2013 while at who witnessed first-hand both the cen- Print Center until July 27, 2019. ■

20 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 Endnotes

Images, clockwise from left: James Siena, Untitled-Capitals- 1. James Siena to Ksenia Nouril, Red (Rome, to you love will come, with sudden passion), April 24, 2019 (email). 2013, Courtesy of the Artist and Pace Gallery, New York; Allyson 2. See catalogue entry for “A Drawing Strafella, dwelling, 2013, Courtesy of the Artist and Gallery Joe, Fallen from the Sky” (La Conservera, Philadelphia; Elena del Rivero, Censored, 2011, Courtesy of the Murcia, Spain, 2010) by John Yau. Artist; Gustave Morin, crime as ornament, 2015, Courtesy of 3. Gustave Morin to Ksenia Nouril, the Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, Miami April 25, 2019 (email).

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 21 New on the Shelf 4

Babyland magazine, December 12, 1886

Lars Borrmann: Sun Standard (late Diane Maher: Smith Premier 6 #1293, Smith Franz Pehmer: Underwood 1 #5970, model with ribbon spools), 1 Blick 7 Premier 1 #24932, 6 L.C. Smith sales brochure Minerva 4 #13743 9 (with New Zealand decal) & business card, 1940 Navy Training course Javier Romano: Emerson 3, Olivetti MP1 Lothar K. Friedrich: Liliput A # 17759 2 in Typewriting, Chicago sales brochure 5 ICO (red) #72,091, Yost 10 #102970 Thomas Fürtig: Adler 7-P (Hungarian Flavio Mantelli: Eureka index, 4 Maxim Suravegin: Crandall New Model keyboard & inscription), Klein-Adler 2 Karli (2-row), 7 Keelox ribbon tester (restoration photos in our next issue), (blue), 3 Adler Privat (wine red metal- (mechanical model) 8 Victor index, Hammond 1 #246, Tell, 10 lic), Continental portable (dark grey), Peter Muckermann: Continental 34 Smith Premier 30 (Arabic), Halda 10 Remington Athena portable (Fraktur), Blick 6 aluminum Cor van Asch: North’s #1376 11 David John: Remington port. 1 (with white composition kbd. in luxury Peter Weil: “S” key from the giant #NZ00216, Noiseless port. #160 wooden box) Underwood

22 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 6 9 11

From Flea Market to Flea Market had already bought this typewriter before, and for a cheaper price. And I didn’t My Erika Disappears, Part II say a word about it—what for? I was truly happy to have found this machine again. Naturally, I bought it. Now, by hans-peter günther was this an accident? Was it destiny? I can’t say. But I’m slowly coming to believe that I don’t find typewriters; typewriters find me. some people called me to ask whether felden. A typewriter similar to the one I I’m sure someone or other may be I ever found my lost Erika typewriter at lost track of in Lörrach. thinking now: this guy’s just inventing this the Lörrach flea market. Sadly, every time “Could I take a look?” in order to get published in ETCetera. But I I had to say no. But please keep reading. “Sure.” just wanted you, my dear fellow collectors, Naturally, my experience in Lörrach “Have you had the machine for long?” to share in an occurrence that I find incom- didn’t keep me from visiting other flea “Not really. I just bought it recently.” prehensible. And it’s not the first time I’ve markets. So recently I went to such Then I took the machine from its case, had such an experience with typewriters— a market in the neighboring town of and I couldn’t believe my eyes. On the that, at least, you can believe. ■ Rheinfelden. I don’t know anymore what back was the old dealer’s plaque: ERICH drew me there. Not the desire for a special NITZEK, OFFICE MACHINES, LÖRRACH. Editor’s note: I’m reminded of the Bailey’s Har- bargain—these days, that’s hardly pos- The feed rollers were covered in cork in- mony Writer, a musical Olympia, that I bought sible anymore. But one imagines that stead of the usual rubber, and there were on eBay but lost because it was misaddressed if one didn’t go, one would miss some- other details that matched. This was no (see my Editor’s Notes in issue 116). Over a year thing—when one is infected by the flea accident. This was the typewriter I’d lost later, I discovered that a fellow collector even- market virus. Fortunately, the distances in at the Lörrach flea market! tually bought the very same machine on eBay! Germany are not so great as in the USA. “So what’s the price?” After someone stole the package, it somehow As always, first I started to stroll Oof—three times what it had cost a ended up for sale online again. I didn’t try to around the market to inform myself… few weeks earlier. After some haggling, buy the machine back; I was just relieved and But what’s this? Could this actually be an we agreed on double the Lörrach price. delighted that this rare typewriter had finally Erika no. 5? In the flea market in Rhein- Naturally, the seller didn’t know that I reached a good home after all.

ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019 • 23 nd the W ou or r ld When my ETCetera arrived, I went right to A Letters Peter Weil’s Daugherty story. Placing pro- I have just had the great pleasure and duction of the Daugherty in the Crandall excitement of reading Peter Weil’s well- factory is an amazing find—congrats! Hon- written and compelling article about the ing in on all those dates was probably very Daugherty. I was hardly able to tend to laborious, so I appreciate it. Most important my large latte while reading it. to me is being able to distinguish a proto- —Martin Howard type from an early production example, and Toronto an early production example from a later example, based on their characteristics. Fascinating article on the Royal Air —Greg Fudacz Historische Burowelt Truck!! And the other great, meticulously Wethersfield, Connecticut ifhb.de researched articles. I wonder if Royal included spare ribbons in Royal ribbon tins In old German newspapers there are many No. 115, April 2019 with their boxed-up typewriters? advertisements for early American type- • Bernd Moss’s typewriter collection —Hoby Van Deusen writers. What about advertisements of • Titania Lakeville, Connecticut German typewriters in the years 1895-1914 in • Juki 1300 card punch/printer the USA? When did the first advertisements • Olympia-Plurotyp (Mignon variant) I want to say how much I enjoyed Ian appear? Which machines were offered? How Brumfield’s fascinating story on the Air high was the price for German machines Truck. It is such a super cool and fun compared to American ones? In which me- subject, and Ian’s thorough research dia were the advertisements published? How and design made for a cover story that successful were the ads? According to old HBw-Aktuell enhances the reputation of ETCetera as issues of the Schreibmaschinen-Zeitung many ifhb.de the go-to published source on typewrit- machines were sold to the USA—that’s the ers—their history and culture. I must reason why I would like to do some research. April 2019 also mention Ian’s infectious enthusiasm, —Thomas Butzbach • Triple Smith Premier which permeates the article and leaves [email protected] • Automatic signature machines the reader excited that such a treasure • Garbsen meeting features decorated S&G of typewriter life ever existed. I do hope Wanted: Researching Hammond’s life/work. we will again hear from Ian in the near James Hammond letters, Hammond repair/ May 2019 future via another article. shop manuals. Buy, borrow, beg for a scan. • New Royal Classic portable —Peter Weil Jonathan Posey, [email protected]. • Smith-Corona Changeable Type Houston For sale at reasonable prices: 3 ABC • Mercedes typewriter ruined in WWII portables (red, cream, green metallic), • Restoring a Morris Olympia-Plana with bakelite segment & body, 2 script Privileg 270S, script Privileg June 2019 330, red Gossen Tippa, Mirina 150 (aka • Pliers for adjusting typebar links Graf & Oertel), red Olivetti Valentine. • Olivetti design exhibition Peter Muckermann, [email protected]. • IFHB meeting & Breker auction

[email protected] No. 75, April 2018 • Alexander Bain, inventor of the fax (1843) • Olivetti Programma 101 personal computer (1965) • Ada Lovelace, programmer Herman Price observes that Thomas Russo’s book Mechanical Apropos of the Air Truck story, Norbert Schwarz Typewriters includes this photo of a Gisela, the rare machine contributes this ad for the “light yet stable” Brosette. that Hans-Peter Günther asked about in our last issue.

24 • ETCetera No. 125 • Summer 2019