Typewriter Collection

Last year Martin Howard's typewriter collection was on display at a gallery in the Toronto Pearson International Airport and the ROM, with an amazing array of typewriters dating back to the 19th century and the invention of the typewriter.

Beautifully displayed in this lit case, the typewriters verge on artifact or work of art as they are showcased so nicely. The only thing missing in this case (that I can see) are little didactics with catalogue numbers and descriptions of each piece.

Some of these typewriters are incredibly bizarre, before there were common keyboard layouts like qwerty, there were ball typewriters like the Hansen Writing Ball or Stenographs for writing shorthand (which basically involved learning a whole new coded alphabet).

Conclusion: antique typewriters are beautiful.

It makes me want to hoard and collect typewriters myself, but I will have to quash those urges by ogling Martin's collection and cruising the Virtual Antique Typewriter Museum. I'll leave this collection to professionals.

- layne