Typewriter Collection

Typewriter Resources

Some of my favorite typewriter information and resources:

• Typewriter Database
• Richard Polt’s Classic Typewriter site
  • typewriter manuals
  • typewriter restoration
  • typewriter repair shops
• Typosphere
  • My typecasts
• r/Typewriters
• Facebook Antique Typewriter Collectors
• Facebook Antique Typewriter Maintenance Group
• Typewriter Discord
• Type Pals (find pen pals who use typewriters) 
• Typewriter Wiki

Typewriter Articles

Articles I’ve written about particular typewriter-related topics:

Typewriter Market

• Typewriter Repair Costs and Valuation: Professional Shops versus Collectors versus First Time Buyers
• First Time Typewriter Purchases with Specific Recommendations for Writers
• The Typewriter You Probably Don’t Want to Buy
• On the Value of Typewriters
• Typewriter Market: It may be better if you didn’t get an Olympia SM3 typewriter today

Cleaning, Repair, & Restoration

• On colloquial advice for degreasing, cleaning, and oiling manual typewriters
• Typewriter Repair Costs and Valuation: Professional Shops versus Collectors versus First Time Buyers
• Learning Typewriter Maintenance and Repair
• Adding to My Typewriter Toolset
• Typewriter Tools Upgrade: A new bag and some specialty typewriter tools
• Tools Acquisition: RIDGID 6 Gal. 150 PSI Portable Electric Pancake Air Compressor 
• Aggregated Resources and Playlist for a Crash Course on the Olympia SM3 Portable Typewriter
• Using the Fold-A-Matic feature of the Remington Standard to Clean, Oil, and Adjust
• Repairing the Drawband on an Orga Privat 5 Typewriter
• 1949 Smith-Corona Clipper Black Wooden Case Restoration

Typewriter Ribbon

• Bulk Order of Typewriter Ribbon from Baco Ribbon & Supply Co.
• Fine Line Ribbon for your Typewriter Ribbon Needs 

Typewriter Accessories

• Typewriter Walking and Singing: Improving Typewriter Performance with Mats, Pads, Rubber Feet, Felt, Recovered Platens, and More
• Steel Desk Drawer Paper Organizer (Hunt Manufacturing Co. (Fresno, CA), Lit-Ning Products Division)
• Solari #606 elite typewriter erasing shield, letter counter, line counter, 8 inch ruler by Solari Manufacturing Co., Los Angeles, California
• Felted Wool Typewriter Mat
• Tom Hanks’ ingenious custom typewriter covers/mats

Analog Office Accessories

Perhaps not immediately typewriter related, these pieces are about analog office accessories that would have been contemporaneous with the use of the typewriter.

• Tanker Desks: McDowell & Craig and Steelcase
• Vintage steel table from The General Fireproofing Co.
• Card indexes (aka the 19th and 20th century paper database)
• Mutual Centamatic Punch No. 250
• Master Products Mfg. Co. 3 Hole Punch
• Hummer 3 hole punch (Wilson Jones Co.)
• Steel Desk Drawer Paper Organizer (Hunt Manufacturing Co. (Fresno, CA), Lit-Ning Products Division)

Typewriter Collecting

• Standard Typewriters versus Portable Typewriters and Ultraportable Typewriters
• On the Value of Typewriters
• Typewriter Market: It may be better if you didn’t get an Olympia SM3 typewriter today
• Photos of Typewriters for the Typewriter Database
• What typwriter-related project(s) are you working on this weekend?

Type-Ins

• 2025-05-10 Vroman’s Bookstore Type-in [invitation]
• 2025-06-14 International Printing Museum (Carson, CA)

Typewriter Use, History, and Miscellanea

• The Rules for Typewriter Club
  • What are the “Rules of Typewriter Club”?
• Typewriter 101 on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood
• Typewriter Use and Typewriter Maintenance for Beginning to Intermediate Typists
• The Uses and Subtleties of the Line Indicator on a Typewriter
• Collective Nouns for Typewriters and Typists
• Mr. Typewriter, a Royal 660 Electric Typewriter, as inspiration for Stanley Kubrick’s HAL 9000?
• Users of the early Henry Dreyfuss Royal Quiet De Luxe Portable Typewriters
• Jim Halpert of The Office and a 1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter
• Typewriter Backing Sheets for Index Cards
• Typecasting with IndieWeb Building Blocks
• Typecast orientation

Typewriter Bibliography: Books, Movies, etc.

• A. C. Van Sant. The Van Sant System Of Touch Typewriting For Smith Premier (Book), 1902. http://archive.org/details/TheVanSantSystemOfTouchTypewriting-ForSmithPremier.
• Ackerman, Peter. The Lonely Typewriter. Illustrated edition. Boston: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2014.
• Adler, Michael. Antique Typewriters: From Creed to QWERTY. Schiffer, 1997.
• Adler, Michael H. The Writing Machine: A History of the Typewriter. George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1973.
• Allan, Tony. Typewriter: The History · The Machines · The Writers. 1st ed. New York: Shelter Harbor Press, 2015.
• Atkinson, Annelise. Typewriter SOS: The DIY Guide to Fixing Common Problems with Typewriters, 2014.
• Auster, Paul, and Sam Messer. The Story of My Typewriter. 1st edition. New York: D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers, Inc., 2002.
• Beeching, Wilfred A. Century of the Typewriter. First American Edition. London: St. Martin’s Press, 1974.
• California Typewriter. Documentary. Gravitas Pictures, 2016.
• Casillo, Anthony, Bruce Curtis, and Tom Hanks. Typewriters: Iconic Machines from the Golden Age of Mechanical Writing. Illustrated edition. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2017.
• Flint, Woz. The Distraction-Free First Draft. One Idea Press, 2023. https://www.oneideapress.com/product-page/the-distraction-free-first-draft.
• Hanks, Tom. Uncommon Type: Some Stories. Knopf, 2017. 
• House, Clifford R., and Samuel Skurow. Typewriting Style Manual with References to Century 21 Typewriting. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Co., 1977. http://archive.org/details/typing_202007.
• Lyons, Martyn. The Typewriter Century: A Cultural History of Writing Practices. Studies in Book and Print Culture. Toronto ; Buffalo ; London: University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, 2021.
• Maintenance Of Office Machines. 16 mm. Vol. MN-1513. United States Navy Training Film, 1943. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocdxgkxKAKo.
• Marty (Costa Mesa). Gregg Typewriting For Colleges (Complete Course), 1964. http://archive.org/details/greggtypewritingforcolleges.
• Monk, Theodore. “1954 Smith-Corona (SCM) Typewriter Type Styles and Keyboards Catalog.” – To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth… (blog), February 3, 2023. https://munk.org/typecast/2023/02/03/1954-smith-corona-scm-typewriter-type-styles-and-keyboards-catalog/.
• Pearce, H. G. Complete Instructions: How to Repair, Rebuild, and Adjust Underwood Typewriters With Handy Reference for Locating Trouble Quickly. Bridgeport, CT: Typewriter Mechanics Publishing Co., 1920. https://johnesimmons.com/Typewriter/Articles/Manualpdf/Underwood_Repair_Manual.pdf.
• Polt, Richard. The Typewriter Revolution: A Typist’s Companion for the 21st Century. 1st ed. Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2015.
• Robert, Paul, and Peter Weil. Typewriter: A Celebration of the Ultimate Writing Machine. 1st ed. New York: Union Square & Co., 2016.
• Smith-Corona, Inc. Type Styles and Keyboards for Smith-Corona Office Typewriters. Syracuse, NY: Smith-Corona, Inc., 1954. https://munk.org/typecast/2023/02/03/1954-smith-corona-scm-typewriter-type-styles-and-keyboards-catalog/.
• Vangool, Janine. The Typewriter: A Graphic History of the Beloved Machine. UPPERCASE publishing inc, 2015.

My Brief Typewriter Biography

I started out in my youth swiping a small late 60’s Royal portable from my older brother so frequently that my parents got me a cheap, plastic PETITE 400 sometime about 4th grade. It really wasn’t up to snuff, so they later picked up a used Smith-Corona Clipper around 5th or 6th grade for me to use. This was roughly the same time frame at which I began learning and using BASIC to learn computer programming.

Later on, the Smith-Corona ceded way to a carbon tape-based Panasonic word processor (an RK-T36) that got me through to early college before being superseded by a variety of computers. In my first few post-college jobs, I had occasional use of an IBM Selectric II whose primary use was for typing out envelopes, though I did retype a full draft of a book on one once.

In Spring of 2023, I recovered the old Smith-Corona Clipper from my parent’s basement and began noodling around with it again. My old touch memory for all of its functionality came flooding back, and I was hooked on typewriters again.

Since March of 2024, I’ve begun collecting and repairing a small segment of manual typewriters. I’ve got enough now that it’s probably worth having a page I can point to with a list of what’s in my collection. I’ve written about many of my machines, their cleaning, repair, and even some use along with lots of photos. I also keep a (duplicate) profile with some of my collection documented at the Typewriter Database.

I’ve now collected this page of details and resources to help other enthusiasts to discover how to buy, collect, maintain, repair, and restore their own typewriters. 

My Typewriter Collection

1. 1948 Smith-Corona Clipper
2. 196X Smith-Corona Galaxie Deluxe
3. 1965 Smith-Corona Classic 12 (cleaning)
4. 1957 Remington Rand Quiet-Riter
5. 1985 Brother Charger 11 Correction (needs parts)
6. 196X Remington Streamliner
7. 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe
8. 1955 Royal Quiet De Luxe
9. 1949 Smith-Corona Clipper (case)
10. 1950 Remington Rand All New
11. 1951 Smith-Corona Skyriter
12. 1953 Smith-Corona Silent
13. 1948 Royal Quiet De Luxe 
14. 1958 Olympia SM3
15. 1955 Royal HHE
16. Perkins Brailler (awaiting parts, but functional)
17. 1952 Smith-Corona Silent
18. 1958 Olympia SM3 (green; math keyset)
19. 1940 Corona Zephyr
20. c1931 New Orga (Privat 5)
21. 1968 Remington Ten Forty
22. 196X Remington Streamliner
23. 1968 Remington 666
24. 197X Smith-Corona Electra 210 (needs a new belt and servicing)
25. 1952 Royal Quiet De Luxe with Vogue typeface
26. 1958 Royal Futura 800
27. 1950 Royal KMG
28. 196X Royal 440 (parting out?)
29. 1956 Remington Standard
30. 1980 Brother Charger 11
31. 1939 Royal Aristocrat
32. 1941 Corona Standard
33. 1954 Smith-Corona Silent
34. 1968 Remington 666
35. 1946 Remington Rand Deluxe Model 5
36. 1945 Royal KMM
37. Deacquisitioned
38. 1958 Royal FP
39. 1945 Remington 17
40. 1964 Olympia SM9
41. 1957 Royal FP (restoration)
42. 1950 Royal KMG
43. 1920 Corona 3
44. 1929 Corona 4
45. 1950 Royal Quiet De Luxe
46. 1959 Royal Futura 800
47. 1977 Olympia SG3
48. 1951 Remington Super-Riter
49. 1961 Royal FP (naked)
50. 1948 Remington De Luxe Model 5 “1941 line” (Two-Tone variation)
51. 1960 Smith-Corona Skyriter
52. 1951 Royal Quiet De Luxe (Sold)
53. 1966 Underwood Touchmaster Five
54. 1949 Royal Quiet De Luxe
55. 1958 Royal FP
56. Olympia SG3 Basic Writing No. 67 typeface; 6 CPI (4.2 m/m), 3 lines/inch