This past weekend on a trip out to Port Townsend to visit Cassandra's parents, we were curious if perhaps they had any old typewriters that had been passed down through the family. Luckily, they were in possession of an old, what I'm assuming is a 30's vintage Underwood typewriter, in incredibly good condition. It was beautiful, and in what seemed like excellent shape. Always having a fond interest in the history of typography and printing, I was surprised to realize how little I actually knew about typewriters and their history.

Doing some research, I came across several informative pages, but found myself lost in this page for quite some time. This is the collection of early typewriters of Toronto-based Martin Howard, and while not featuring a real deep or thorough history of the machines, it provides a solid background and details of the numerous old typewriters in his possession. Browsing through the site I came across several strange precursors to the familiar object that most of us recall. There are also some awesome design treasures to be found as well, including a smaller but still interesting collection of ribbon cans and some old company letterheads.