LBP - Issue № 4 - Three Days at a Museum
Three Days at a Museum: Exploring the Museum of Printing, interviewing Frank Romano, and discussing the history of keyboards.
Linotype Book Project - Issue № 4
Three Days at a Museum
I realize that spending three consecutive days at a small printing museum off the beaten path isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, but I’m excited to share my research trip to the Museum of Printing in Haverhill, MA.
But first, we must get this out of the way: It’s pronounced “HAY-vrill” by the locals, because Massachusetts loves to make up pronunciations, I guess? ;-)
Like a Large Gift Box
The Museum of Printing’s nondescript, metal and brick exterior looks exactly like what the building used to be: an electrical supply warehouse. When you drive up, you want to double-check your maps app to make sure you’re at the right location, but what is contained inside far surpasses your first impression of the dull exterior.
Maybe it’s like that present from your childhood which your dad put in a random old box to throw you off on Christmas morning (just me?), because once you walk inside you’re greeted by all sorts of fantastic and interesting machines, galleries, and exhibits. To a self-described “type historian” like myself, it certainly felt like Christmas walking into the museum.
Day One - Books, Brochures, and Busts
Frank Romano’s library is in the back of the museum, so you must walk past a dozen printing presses, several typesetting machines, and then take a left at the Intertype Fotosetter, before you get there. Immediately, you see printing-related ephemera covering every wall, table, and even the columns holding up the building itself.
The library is a large, cozy place. On the walls are floor-to-ceiling bookcases built for Frank’s massive book collection. Additionally, there is a desk (covered with books), a couple of leather couches with a coffee table (wood type covered with glass), and a few display cases (with books both inside and stacked on top). It feels like crawling inside a well-lit cave of history and you’re not sure quite what you will discover.
To avoid being overwhelmed, I kept my focus limited to the Linotype. There is one glass display case with many artifacts in it: from stock certificates, to machine parts, to original photographs, to small Linotype miniature toys, and even a large bronze bust of Ottmar Mergenthaler that is too big for the display.
At the right of this case are two cabinets of books with hundreds of Linotype books. This is where I spent my entire day: photographing books that I’ve not seen before, obscure brochures about obscure machines, and one-of-a-kind items that Frank has collected over the years.
Day Two - Interview and Insights
I started out day two interviewing Frank about his life in publishing, his time working for the Mergenthaler Linotype Company, and why he still cares about print history after all these years. I’ve known Frank for over a decade now but throughout the morning, I learned how Frank became the person he is today.
With his knowledge of printing, I had assumed he grew up surrounded by publishing and maybe his family owned a print shop or something similar; but I was completely wrong! He was simply a young man graduating from high school in Brooklyn, NY who needed a job. His guidance counselor told him Mergenthaler Linotype Company might be hiring and thus Frank began his career in the shipping department; packaging up matrix and part orders for Linotype customers.
Moving Up at Mergenthaler
Frank was quickly promoted to mail boy where he got to meet everyone in the building as he delivered their mail. Because Frank is Frank, he started learning about all of the salesmen and executives and understanding what Mergenthaler did as a business.
He was promoted to the order department, where he tried to emulate his supervisor who had every Linotype part number memorized! Frank didn’t memorize them all, but he learned enough to impress people later in his career and prove he knew what he was talking about.
Finally, an opening in the advertising department on the executive floor came up, and Frank asked permission (he says Linotype was very paternalistic and he had to ask permission to do anything) to apply. He was accepted and started doing a little bit of everything in the advertising department: from writing scripts for promotional films and advertisements to learning about these new things called “computers.”
At this time, Linotype was moving out of its headquarters in Brooklyn to Plainview, Long Island to save costs. Frank was in charge of packing up the executive offices and found several priceless objects slated to be thrown out. With his foresight, he asked if he could save several one-of-a-kind books about the history of the company and manuals for salesmen that are now treasure troves for people like me, researching its history.
Frank bought a car to commute out to Long Island, but that quickly got old. Soon after, he left Linotype to work for a new startup, Visual Graphics Corporation as their first advertising manager. There is much more to his life story of course, but I will leave it at that for now because this newsletter is already getting long :-)
Day Three - “Shift Happens meets etaoin shrdlu”
A few months ago, I was talking with Glenn Fleishman about my book project when I learned that he and Marcin Wichary were planning press checks for the printing of Marcin’s book “Shift Happens”. They would be flying into Boston and then driving up to Lewiston, Maine and Glenn suggested we try to coordinate our schedules so we could meet up at the museum and propose a event at the MOP.
So on my third day at the museum, we had a “fireside chat” with Frank Romano about the history and transformation of the keyboard. Along with Glenn, Marcin, and myself, we added Jeff Jarvis who recently published his book “The Gutenberg Parenthesis”. Past discussions have lasted around 45 minutes, but we went over 90 minutes because there was so much to discuss and the crowd (including someone who flew in from Washington D.C.!) had great questions.
It was such a fun time talking about the typewriter, keyboards, and the future of communication. Thankfully, for those who couldn’t make it in person, the discussion was recorded and will be put on YouTube in the future. I’ll link to that in an upcoming newsletter, once it is released. A huge thanks goes out to all of the museum volunteers who made it a great event.
Thanks and More Thanks
And speaking of thanks: as I was writing this update, I paid off my business credit card on which I had put all of my research expenses. This made me so incredibly grateful for the supporters of this newsletter who have put their trust and financial backing behind this project.
Without your support, I could not have afforded this research and would not have uncovered several new threads to pull for the project. I’m confident this research will enrich the final product far more than I even realize at this point.
So as always; more to come,
Doug
