This Notebook lists and reprints Lanston Monotype Machine Company specimen books that were published before Lanston began naming their faces 1 . It also includes miscellaneous showings outside of full specimen books, although its selection of these is random and incomplete.
If you were to ask any printer from the mid to late 20th century for "the Lanston Monotype specimen book," they would hand you their copy of what is presented here as "A Composite Specimen". The earlier specimens reprinted on this page were by then long forgotten.
For the specimen books published after Lanston began naming their typefaces, see the CircuitousRoot Notebook "A Composite Specimen of Lanston Monotype Faces"
The present Notebook concerns only specimens for faces in use for composition, or shown for both composition and display. If the specimen or other item concerns matrices or faces used only for display, see ../../../ Noncomposing Typecasters -> Foundry Specimens & Typography -> Lanston Monotype Machine Company. (I've put that information in with the typefoundries, even though Lanston was a matrix and composing machine maker, because people tend to think of type in terms of typeface first (ignoring type technologies.))
This Notebook covers only the American firm, the Lanston Monotype Machine Company (and its successors). For a bibliography of specimen books for the English firm, known best as The Monotype Corporation Limited, go "up and over" one level to the Notebook of "Matrix Data, Specimens, & Typography (UK): The Monotype Corporation Limited.
Note that the type series numbers for the American and English Monotype firms are entirely unrelated to each other.
Individual Lanston Monotype faces will also be identified in the CircuitousRoot Type Index.
See also the List of All Type Specimen and Matrix Information on CircuitousRoot .
The Monotype Specimen Book of Type Faces (1916)
The Monotype Specimen Book of Type Faces. Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Company, 1916 [with later material]
Cited on CircuitousRoot as {LMSB 1916-1921}.
This covers matrices and faces for both composition and display. It bears a copyright date of 1916. The date of the introduction is September 1917. The edition reprinted here contains new sheets dated November 1921. Although it is not apparent in the digital reprints, this specimen was issued in loose-leaf format.
This book has been digitized by Google from the University of Michigan copy. It is available via Google Books (Google Books ID: aOgOAQAAMAAJ). The icon at left links to a local copy of the Google scan in PDF format. It is also available via The Hathi Trust at https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/004689420 (Hathi ID: mdp.39015011601492). But note two matters for confusion: The Google and Hathi bibliographic information give this work the title "Catalog of Type and Printing Machinery." That title never appears in this work; neither does it show printing machinery for sale. But short of a visit to the Univ. of Michigan library, it is not possible to know whether this bibliographic error is present in the UM catalog or was introduced by Google. To compound this error, the Google and Hathi bibliographic entry gives author as "Lanstonmonotype" (not "Lanston Monotype"). This can complicate searches for it on Hathi.
Here is a copy of a version from the Google scans available via The Hathi Trust, rendered into PNG images and collected into a PDF. This is a very large file (by 2017 standards) at 707 Megabytes: lanston-1916-1920-specimen-book-of-type-faces-mdp-39015011601492.pdf
The cover of this book is green and bears the title "THE MONOTYPE Specimen Book of Faces." This is identical to the cover of the 1922 edition (see below), but this is a different edition.
Pony Specimen Book (1921)
The Monotype Pony Specimen Book of Type Faces, Rule, Ornaments and Borders . Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Company, 1921.
This has been digitized from the New York Public Library copy by Google Books. The version linked here is a local copy of the Google Books digitization.
Cited on CircuitousRoot as {LMSB 1921 Pony}.
Specimen Book of Type Faces. (1922)
The Monotype Specimen Book of Type Faces. Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Company, 1921.
A digital version of this book, including the original page scans, is available at The Internet Archive; the link at left goes there. This is a pretty good digitization, and the original page scans are available as (a zip of) separate files. Here is a local copy of the PDF version.
Cited on CircuitousRoot as {LMSB 1922}.
Since the dates for these are often unknown, I'll list them in alphabetical order.
Broad Stroke
"Broad Stroke." [presumably] Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Company, n.d.
{McGrew 1993}, pp. 50-51, identifies "Broad Stroke Cursive" as identical to the English Monotype "Script Bold." Unusually, both English and American types bear the same series number: 322. {JBJ 1970/2008}, p. 398, date Script Bold to 1931.
The icon at left links to a PDF of 300dpi RGB JPEGs (7 Megabytes). Here is a 600dpi version (231 Megabytes): lanston-monotype-broad-stroke-specimen-ata-0600dpipng.pdf
This material concerns ruled forms set in composition. For ruled forms set in display type, see the Notebook on Matrix Data, Specimens, & Typography (US) for Lanston Monotype Display Casters.
Blank Ruled Form System Brochure
"Monotype Machine-Set Blank ruled Form System." Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Co., n.d.
"Perfected by Wade H. Patton."
Undated, but probably prior to 1943 (no use of city zone code in the address).
The icon links to a presentation of this document on The Internet Archive, where it may be read online. Here is a local copy of the PDF (68 Megabytes): monotype-machine-set-blank-ruled-form-system-brochure-stf-0600rgbjpg.pdf
Thanks to Sky Shipley of Skyline Type Foundry for the loan of the original of this brochure.
New Monotype Blank Ruled Form System
"New Monotype Blank Ruled Form System." Philadelphia, PA: Lanston Monotype Machine Co., n.d.
"Suggestions to Monotype Keyboard and Caster Operators."
Undated, but probably prior to 1943 (no use of city zone code in the address).
Thanks to Sky Shipley of Skyline Type Foundry for the loan of the original of this brochure.
1. See the CircuitousRoot Notebook "A Composite Specimen of Lanston Monotype Faces" for a discussion of the history of the dates at which the Lanston Monotype Machine Company is known to have been publishing its specimen books in loose-leaf format and the dates by which it is known to have begun naming its typefaces.
{JBJ 1970/2008} Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry, and A. F. Johnson. Encyclopaedia of Typefaces. Fourth Edition (1970). London: Cassell Illustrated / Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., 2008.
{McGrew 1993} McGrew, Mac. American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century. Second Edition. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll Books.
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