Libraries
The Robert L. Richter Memorial Library
The Robert L. Richer Memorial Library, located within The Museum of Printing, contains about 5000 volumes at present, of which about 3000 have been catalogued to electronic files. The museum has recently installed software suitable to accommodate connection of the library to the national library system. Current library files will have to be converted. The library receives donations weekly and several large private collections are anticipated within the next year. At present rates the library will probably grow at about 1000 volumes per year. Subjects covered by the library collection include: printing history, typographic design, type specimen books, printing instruction texts, paper manufacturing history, printing methods, machinery manuals, computer and phototypesetting manuals, graphic design. etc. About 10,000 periodicals have been roughly organized but require cataloguing.
The Mergenthaler Font Library
Falling under the auspices of the Richter Library is one of the world’s most unique collections, The Mergenthaler Font Library. When this large collection, about 300,000 drawings, arrived in North Andover, it arrived in one and a half trailer truck loads, 37 skids, 7 feet high. This collection came to the museum from Heidelberg, International through the good efforts of The Smithsonian Institution. This collection contains all of the intricate letter drawings made by The Mergenthaler Linotype Company in Brooklyn, New York. These drawings were the starting point of manufacturing matrices for Linotype machines, enabling users to set type on these machines in 800 different languages and dialects.
The Ludlow Typograph Matrice Library
The museum operates a working Linotype on the museum floor and has a substantial number of matrice fonts for this technology, enough to use the working Linotype for typesetting internal museum projects. The Mergenthaler Corporation produced millions of these “mats” for worldwide distribution, but the mats are no longer made and existing fonts are often incomplete and worn. The Linotype machine was often companioned with a Ludlow machine. This machine manufactured type from mats similar to the Linotype mats, but these mats were assembled by hand. The point of these machines was to produce large type that could be integrated with Linotype composition in order to set both text and display type.
The Intertype Photosetter Font Library
Much smaller than the Mergenthaler Library and yet a sizable body of work, this library represent a different medium. The Intertype Photosetter was designed during the 1940s by Intertype Corpoartion in New York in response to the steadfast march of printing, starting in about 1910, from letterpress, relief printing to offset lithography. When it became obvious to Intertype that offset lithography would eventually displace most letterpress printing and accordingly displace the necessity to manufacture lead type, the company redesigned its linecaster to manufacture phototype. They did this by mounting film alphabets into traditional Linotype matrices. The machine was 10 years in development, introduced to market in 1950. The alphabets for this machine were film positive masters, strikingly different from the pencil drawings used for earlier systems. This alphabet collection was given to the museum by Rochester Institute of Technology.
The Photon Font Library
The museum owns the remains of the Photon Library. Photon Corporation, Cambridge, Mass., was the first company to manufacture electronically driven phototypesetting machines. These machines produced type using film masters, which sent light through the masters, creating an image on photosensitive paper. This type was then photographed and eventually printed using offset lithography. Much of this collection was destroyed but the museum has enough examples to show a different medium for making type. Manufacturing phototype completed the marriage of film-based letters and offset lithography, causing a 500-year history of relief printing to come to an end.
The Machinery and Product Library
The museum receives frequent inquiries about companies and or their products; consequently, a special library has been created to answer these questions. The library contains thousands of documents such as product specifications, information, operating manuals and parts lists. Also included in these files are internal documents about the companies to assist researchers in assessing the roles of the various companies in the competitive market.
