The Type Museum is a unique and massive collection of artifacts representing the legacy of type founding in England, whose famous type foundries and composing systems supplied the world with type in all languages. The museum was founded in 1992 and is located in Stockwell, south London, England.
The Type Museum is the final repository of many of the original forms, punches, matrices and patterns of some of the most famous and successful metal and wood type foundries in the world. It also holds a historic collection of presses. It is estimated that the collections include between five and eleven million artifacts.
The Museum's collection is unique in holding examples of successive generations of technology used for type design and manufacture, from hand foundry and machine composition, through wood type, to photography and film setting (which laid the foundation for today's digital typography).
In addition to holding its collections, it is a working museum that manufactures matrices for letterpress printing. The Museum has become a valuable educational resource for many colleges, and helps to meet the demand for an educational and experimental type workshop.
According to the Museum's website:[1]
[The Museum's holdings include] punches, matrices and moulds from the principal eighteenth- and nineteenth-century London type foundries, complemented by business archives and by one of the world's best collections of type specimen books.Cataloguing and conservation of a major collection, acquired from Stephenson Blake in 1996, is currently being undertaken with the aid of a grant from The Pilgrim Trust.Since 1995 the collection has been housed in Stockwell, in a range of industrial buildings built between 1895 and 1905 as a veterinary hospital.[The Museum's] mission is to collect, preserve and interpret the historic artefacts associated with the spread of the printed word and image, throughout the world, and to place them in the context of modern technology and design and of the far longer history of mankind's use of graphic symbols.[The Museum's] first goal has been to preserve the means of making type. The Type Museum has been able, with the support of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, to acquire key collections documenting the principal chapters in the history of type in Britain
- traditional typefounding, from Stephenson Blake and Co., Sheffield
- woodletter type, from Robert DeLittle, York
- mechanical typecasting ('hot metal'), from the Monotype Corporation
These collections include materials dating from the sixteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Smaller collections include the working papers of Walter Tracy RDI.Each major acquisition has brought with it substantial quantities of archival material, including highly important collections of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century type specimen books and, in the case of Monotype, the complete business records of a global enterprise. Taken together, these materials form the nucleus of a typographic study centre where documents can be studied alongside the artefacts and processes to which they refer.
[edit]Collections
The Museum’s major collections include:
- The Stephenson Blake Collection of English foundry type with industrial and hand casting equipment. Stephenson Blake & Company in their long trading history acquired many of the other famous-name English type foundries and these all now reside at the Type Museum.
- The Monotype Collection covers the entire history of Monotype Corporation’s global supply of fine letterpress machine composition in almost all languages and continues as a working company within the Museum.
- The Robert DeLittle wood type manufactory — the last specialist English wood type manufacturer is a superb resource in this vital, engaging and under-researched area of type design.
[edit]Entities
The Type Museum involves the following entities: the Type Museum Trust, which is a Registered Charity 1009198 and a Registered Museum 1101 and its subsidiary The Type Museum Limited Registered Company 3677895 (trading as Monotype Hot-Metal).
[edit]Location
- 100 Hackford Road
- London SW9 0QU
- England
[edit]Recent events
The Museum suffered financially due to difficulties in finding a site suitable for displaying its massive collections, to the point that its financial difficulties threatened the continued existence of the Museum.
In May 2006, staff at the Type Museum were told that they would be laid off and that the Museum would be closed because of lack of funding. This news prompted a wave of support for the Museum in the typographic community and in the media and communications industries. During April, May, and June of 2006 there was a grass-roots effort to save the Museum[2]by the newly-formed Type Museum Society.[3] The effort failed to prevent the closure of the Museum during the last week of June 2006 but has continued to raise awareness of the value of the collections, argue for renewed access and monitor developments.
In May 2008, it was proposed to move the collections to a National Museum of Science and Industry (NMSI) storage facility in Wiltshire. In response to protests and requests for clarification of the situation,[4] the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) issued the following statement:
The Type Museum is an independent trust and is not sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). The decision to move its collections to the National Museum of Science and Industry's (NMSI) facility in Swindon was taken by the Type Museum's Trustees. The DCMS has no role in this issue.
DCMS provides £125,000 per annum to the NMSI, to contribute to the storage costs of the NMSI's Monotype collection held at the Type Museum. Other than this, DCMS has no involvement with the Type Museum.It is unfortunate that Lambeth may lose this museum, but I understand that the Type Museum is unsustainable in its current location and is at threat of going into receivership. This seems to be the best available solution for the Type Museum collections; the typographical collections will be saved for the nation and stay together.Yours sincerelyTracy DalbyPublic Engagement and Recognition Unit
In 2006 when the museum was told they would have to close a campaign was set up to ensure that it was saved.. at which point the http://www.typemuseumsociety.org/ was set up. All the posts on the blog date back to 2006 and there hasn't really been any developments since?! Hmm.
http://typophile.com/node/13014
100 Hackford Road, London SW9 0QU
Holdings include a large amount a material from the Stephenson Blake and Co., Wood type from Robert DeLittle, York and hot metal from the Monotype Corporation as well as the working papers of Walter Tracy.
In May 2006 this Museum was closed due to lack of funding. A campaign and supporting Type Museum Society has been launched which you are invited to join.
July 2008 After two years of closure and no public discussion the NMSI has apparently proposed a plan to the trustees to put some or all of the Type Museum's collections into storage at the NMSI facility at Wroughton in Wiltshire. Supporters of the museum are campaigning against this in the belief that this will spell the end of hopes for a full development of the educational potential of this incomparable type collection.
Sue Shaw (a Museum Trustee, the Founder and first Director) launched a petition and comments in a local newsletter article downloadable from http://www.stockwellpark.com/pdf/spark-2008-05.pdf
In addition there are two online petitions running against these developments please support them both:
On the Number 10 website:
"We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to stop the
proposed move into storage of the Type Archive, from its
present home at the Type Museum, London
proposed move into storage of the Type Archive, from its
present home at the Type Museum, London
The Type Museum has successfuly collected a large proportion of
all the definitive historical materials relating to the art,
design & manufacturing production in Britain of the typefaces
in which the world's languages are communicated and recorded.
This collection has been closed for two years and needs
re-opening to public access, educational and scholarly use –
not broken up or put into storage as is curently being
proposed. The Type Museum's collections need exhibiting,
curatorial & conservation development and educational workshops
- not storage. This legacy is vital for the quality of
education of future generations of communicators in which
Britain has frequently led the world. We appeal for resources
to restore and safeguard educational access to these
collections."
all the definitive historical materials relating to the art,
design & manufacturing production in Britain of the typefaces
in which the world's languages are communicated and recorded.
This collection has been closed for two years and needs
re-opening to public access, educational and scholarly use –
not broken up or put into storage as is curently being
proposed. The Type Museum's collections need exhibiting,
curatorial & conservation development and educational workshops
- not storage. This legacy is vital for the quality of
education of future generations of communicators in which
Britain has frequently led the world. We appeal for resources
to restore and safeguard educational access to these
collections."
There is of course the pre-existing online petition to the Trustees which has gathered upward of 680 signatures:
"The London Type Museum is the most comprehensive type museum in the world. Its collections are vast, representing nearly all of the world's written languages in their historic printed form. It is a timeline in letters, a record of printed history from the earliest days through the present. It is also the last place where Monotype technicians continue to manually cut typefaces.
Visitors to this unique working museum have been able to watch as type is cast, view presses in action and engage in hands-on workshops. The importance of the museum as an educational resource and source of inspiration for today's designers is immeasurable.
These valuable collections are now in danger of being broken up and dispersed to the Science Museum and the V&A, where they will likely be placed in storage.
This petition will be presented to the Trustees of the Type Museum as evidence that the public does not want to see this unique museum closed.
Please show your support!"
December 2008
A Freedom of Information Request to DCMS reveals 2006 Consultants Report for NMSI entitled 'Type Museum Otions Appraisal' Delineates many of the Type Museum Society’s supporters fears. DCMS points out it is out of date and implies NMSI has to be approached to find out what is currently planned. But it remains as one of the most detailed documents discussing the options being considered for the Museum - That it needed in 2006 a gift of a £1M and an £8M Endowment to secure a future but that this would probably require an enhanced trust management.
A Freedom of Information Request to DCMS reveals 2006 Consultants Report for NMSI entitled 'Type Museum Otions Appraisal' Delineates many of the Type Museum Society’s supporters fears. DCMS points out it is out of date and implies NMSI has to be approached to find out what is currently planned. But it remains as one of the most detailed documents discussing the options being considered for the Museum - That it needed in 2006 a gift of a £1M and an £8M Endowment to secure a future but that this would probably require an enhanced trust management.
The report vindicated the value of the collections. It is particularly noted that the authors suggest an intensive documentation project option. To be conducted before any shutdown, removal or dispersal of the collections - and in particular emphasises the need for some sort of documentary/oral/process history approach to record the skill and knowledge embodied and still practised by the Monotype engineers who continue to work on site.
"It is museological, culturally, and professionally unethical to allow these intellectual assets to be lost, even if the museum has to close."http://www.culture.gov.uk/images/freedom_of_information/103086_docs.pdf
http://www.thisisrealart.com/projects/view/78/type-museum/brand
Type Museum — Brand
Print and advertising brand
campaign. The Type Museum
has records of many weird
and wonderful typefaces. One
campaign uses a simple play
on words to make faces out of
typefaces. Another execution
reminds us of the importance
of legibility.
campaign. The Type Museum
has records of many weird
and wonderful typefaces. One
campaign uses a simple play
on words to make faces out of
typefaces. Another execution
reminds us of the importance
of legibility.
Design: This is Real Art
Agency: AMV.BBDO
Agency: AMV.BBDO
London's Most Hidden Museum? We Find The Type Museum
By Kate Smith | 09 October 2005
July 2006 update: unfortunately we hear that this museum has now closed.
After walking through many twisting backstreets in Stockwell, Kate Smith tracks down London's Type Museum, home to the scripts of hundreds of languages.
After walking through many twisting backstreets in Stockwell, Kate Smith tracks down London's Type Museum, home to the scripts of hundreds of languages.
Director Howard Bratter lets me into the Type Museum by unlocking a padlock and pulling hard on a chain. There are rattling noises as the metal door gradually winds itself up to reveal a workshop space filled with printing presses - from ornate black-and-gold Victorian to tractorish 1970s industrial machines.
The Type Museum is a museum in progress. Open at the moment just one day a month (and at other time by appointment), it is home to collections spanning over 400 years to the present day.
The heart of its collection is the thousands of typefaces produced for countries throughout the world by the company Monotype, and the machines they were created on.
Many countries ordered their first ever printed typefaces from Monotype. Hence most of the world’s alphabets and scripts are represented in the vaults of the Type Museum – engraved or cast in metal, cut in wood, preserved on film or digitally encoded.
The museum has existed in some form for ten years, but it was only in September 2005 that the curators were able to switch on a substantial number of the machines for the first time. They hope that the public will be able to use the presses in the near future.
The museum is less ordered (and much more dusty) than your average heritage site, but this is its charm. Caroline Bray, head of Strategic Development, explains that they are keen to make more of the Type Museum’s collections more accessible, but it will be a challenge to get the vast collection on display, and allow people to safely use the machinery.
The interest and expertise of local volunteers will be vital to the museum as it develops: it is lucky that the demographic of Stockwell is now just as varied as the many languages represented in the museum.
You come away from the museum with a sense of the passion behind the letters - both from the curators, and from the original printers. One early Victorian press has a cast iron eagle sitting on top of the press - each time a page is printed, it flies up into the air - symbolising truth escaping into the world.
It recalls a time when printing was frequently a business that attracted radicals who used the written word to foment social change. So it is appropriate that the future of the Type Museum is planned as a practical, hands on kind of museum.
http://www.briarpress.org/3577
Type Museum London
The Type Museum in London has been closed now for a number of months.
Does anyone know or have any idea as to what is going to happen to it?
I would personally like to offer it support, wherever I can.
I would like to suggest a campaign to keep on display the relics of Englands Typefounding past, rather than locked up in a warehouse, without public access.
Please let me know your thoughts on the matter.
Hugh
Does anyone know or have any idea as to what is going to happen to it?
I would personally like to offer it support, wherever I can.
I would like to suggest a campaign to keep on display the relics of Englands Typefounding past, rather than locked up in a warehouse, without public access.
Please let me know your thoughts on the matter.
Hugh
Many students etc. may want to come and use the facilities when they’re up and running but so few people in this world want to do all the hard graft of getting projects off the ground particularly for no remuneration.
Also getting funding (and this is from experience) is very difficult for what some institutions and education establishments would consider a niche project.
I might add this doesn’t apply to the many enthusiasts out there, but you need enough people committed to get the Type Museum running, and even making money.
Having sounded rather negative, I wholeheartedly support anything that the Type Museum could do to re-open its doors, but where do we start??
Hopefully I’ve set the ball rolling, as I share your concern about a very interesting and valuable collection being mothballed in South London, when things must be used and valued by all.
I have replied to Duncan, offering voluntary support and help with the Type Museum.
So far I have had no reply, (over four weeks now).
Where do we go from here???
Even though the Type Museum is still manufacturing the matrices for the Monotype casters. I hear this may be in the balance?
about the material held there.
Curwen Press - with Walbaum matrices etc. This material is or was private property.
I believe is the property of the Victoria & Albert Museum, i.e. the State.
partly completed.
to our letterpress community over here. I don’t know how far he had got with the work, nor what has hapened to any related papers. I find myself wondering if he was related to the late Ellic Howe, master forger for the scecurity services in WW2.
You have now put the reasons for this into perspective, I never knew that other Museums or private individuals had contributed these items, and I’m sure they would never relinquish full control of said items.
As mentioned before, too many in control and Justin Howe’s tragic untimely death, may of led to its closure?
The big question now, which is on my lips “What will happen to the Type Museum?”
I wouldn’t like to see the parties taking back the exhibits and mothballing them.
This is still (I know), a worthwhile project.
The other part, I am unable to help you with
Justin Howes (d. 2005) had completed preliminary handlists to the Stephenson Blake archive (this exists only in a digital archive and lever arch files at the museum). The title pages can be viewed atwww.typemuseumsociety.org/SBatTM.html only exist in bound form in a copy presented to the Pilgrim Trust (London) who partly funded Justin’s curation of the Stephenson Blake collections. It should be noted that the Stephenson Blake collections are vastly more important than most realise since they fairly systematically acquired many of the assets of contemporary and earlier foundries as they became the last major commercial English foundry. Check out the family tree at the front of their catalogues, that they and the Type Museum having acquired them were so proud of athttp://typemuseumsociety.pbwiki.com/f/FoundryTypeAncestry.pdf