Andreas Valette Haight

The first of the 19th-century independent type designers to be discussed is Andreas Valette Haight [1842–1916], suggested by Annenberg “for others to research.”¹ Celebrated in the US and UK for cutting-edge layouts, Haight tastefully balanced fashionable display faces with super-legible ones.

He perfected half-tone color blending competitive with lithography and was an extremely influential leader of the Artistic Printing Movement. More information and specimens illustrating Haight’s important contributions to the printing world are plentiful at Dick Sheaff’s website on Artistic Printing.

   Early Life. According to US census/military records and professional journals,² Mr. Haight was born in Ellenville, NY on February 4, 1842. After attending public school there until c1856, he started job printing training: two years with the Ellenville Journal and one year with the Rondout Courrier. When the US Civil War started in 1861, he enlisted (and re-enlisted) in the US Army.

   Career Development. After honorable discharge the following year, he continued his printing career in California in 1863. By 1866, he advanced to head of the job printing department for the state printing office at Sacremento.  He returned to the Ellenville Journal in 1867 or 1868. Next he worked for the Rondout Freeman, where he rose from superintendent to stockholder/officer.

   Letterpress Business. In 1878, he established an independent printing office in Poughkeepsie NY, where he settled permanently. In 1884, he partnered with a Mr. Dudley; printing specimens thereafter are identified as “Haight & Dudley, Eagle Printing House.”

   Personal Life. Census records of 1870 and 1880 do not indicate a spouse; in 1900, Emily Haight is identified; military records name Emily A. Haight. According to De Follette’s biography (1878), he was married in 1867 and had a family of sons and daughters. The marriage date was about the time he returned to Ellenville, so it is uncertain whether the couple met in CA or in NY.  Mrs. Haight published his Death Notice in February 1916.³

   Type Designs. Although he held no design patents, The American Art Printer article (±1887-1888) accounts that he had designed five faces. Two more, about 14 years later, are also documented. Four of these seven faces are known to be digitized (#) at this writing:

Card Gothic, Farmer (New York). Andrew Little patented this face in January-March 1883 [USPTO D13700]; it was cut by August E. Woerner.⁴

Atlanta#, Central (St. Louis). This face was patented by Carl Schraubstadter Jr. in February-October 1886 [USPTO D16946] and cut by Gustav Schroeder.⁵

Vassar#, Farmer (New York). Patented by Andrew Little in July-August 1887 [USPTO D17632]; the cutter is unattributed. Farmer also marketed a variation tradenamed Vassar Shaded#.

Fashion Antique, Farmer (New York) ≤1887. A derivative of (unpatented) Fashion (designer/cutter unknown, 1876), Farmer’s 1887 catalog specimen displays an unverified Patent Pending notice.

No type designs dated ±1888-1902 are identified in the literature. Continuing his relationship with Carl Schraubstadter Jr. ten years after Central TF joined ATF in 1892, he designed the next two faces introduced by Inland TF in 1902:⁶

Rogers# appeared in the Inland catalog dated May 1902; Haight, four months later opposite Rogers# in a two-page advertising spread published in the Inland Printer dated September 1902.⁷

Both Inland faces were surely “new and novel” (patentable); no such design patents are recorded. A Patent Pending notice is displayed with Rogers# in Inland 1902, with neither face in the Inland Printer ad of September 1902 nor in Inland 1907.

Instead, Haight is marked Registered in Inland 1907—perhaps meaning that the tradename was registered. This strategy may have been an attempt to economize on USPTO application fees by implying that the design was duly patented.
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