Typewriter HistoryThe Underwood No. 5: How One Machine Set the Century's StandardBetween 1900 and 1930, the Underwood No. 5 was not simply the best-selling typewriter. It was the reason the modern office keyboard exists in the shape it does.Special collection
The Iconic Brands Atlas
A visual field guide to the six factories whose machines defined the twentieth century — Underwood, Royal, Olivetti, Olympia, Hermes, and Smith-Corona.
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- Typewriter HistoryThe Underwood No. 5: How One Machine Set the Century's StandardBetween 1900 and 1930, the Underwood No. 5 was not simply the best-selling typewriter. It was the reason the modern office keyboard exists in the shape it does.
Typewriter HistoryThe Royal Quiet De Luxe: An American Portable Grows UpErnest Hemingway typed on one. Ian Fleming typed on one gold-plated. But the Quiet De Luxe's real achievement was making a serious portable typewriter feel like a proper writing instrument.
Typewriter HistoryOlivetti Lettera 32: The Italian Portable That Designed Itself Into the MuseumDesigned by Marcello Nizzoli in 1963, the Lettera 32 was small enough to travel and beautiful enough to enter the permanent collection of MoMA. Sixty years later it is still the most-recommended vintage portable in the hobby.
Typewriter HistoryOlympia's SM Series: The German Portable's Golden AgeIf the Olivetti Lettera 32 is the portable a writer chose for beauty, the Olympia SM is the portable an engineer chose for feel. Twenty years of production, ten model numbers, and one of the finest keyboards ever put on a portable.
Typewriter HistoryThe Hermes 3000: The Writer's Machine From the AlpsManufactured by Paillard in the Swiss Jura from 1958 to 1975, the Hermes 3000 is the portable that Larry McMurtry, Sam Shepard, and Jack Kerouac all reached for. Curved, seafoam, quiet, and precise as a watch.