Page:Historic printing types, a lecture read before the Grolier club of New York, January 25, 1885, with additions and new illustrations; by De Vinne, Theodore Low, 1828-1914; Grolier Club.djvu/100

XII Recent forms of types. Beginning of American type-founding. Types of American Founders. HAVE now to notice types recently made which cannot yet be regarded as historic. It seems necessary to mention them, if for no other reason, to illustrate the progress of change in styles. That some of them will be used for the printing of books that may be prized hereafter needs no explana- tion. If not historic now, they will be. Until the beginning of this century, American printers depended on the type-founders of England for their sup- plies. Types had been made here before, but in amateurish fashion. 1 Franklin, who was one of the amateurs, has told us how he was compelled to cast the types that he needed. Binny and Ronaldson may be regarded as the fathers of the art in this country. Their success soon led to the estab- i The earliest -American type-found- ers of which I can find any record were Christopher Sauer, Germantown, 1735 Mitchelson, Boston, Mass. 1768 Abel Buell, New Haven, Conn. 1769 John Baine, Philadelphia, Penn. 1790 Binny & Ronaldson, Philadelphia, 1796 Elihu White & Wing, Hartford, 1810 David & George Bruce, New York, 1814 George Lothian, New York, 1822 William Hagar, New York, . . 1824 James Conner, New York, . . . 1827 Laurence Johnson, Philadelphia, 1833 Samuel Nelson Dickinson, Boston, 1847 Some of these founders were printers before they began to make types. The date when they abandoned their first art is not readily found.