Impact of US Immigrants

During the 1860s and –70s, the most successful US typefounders aggressively recruited brilliant young Scottish and German punch-cutters with the extraordinarily rare combination of creative imagination, drawing talent and highly developed technical skills.

Routinely taught both applied and fine arts in public schools, the Germans offered something else too: a burning (and timely!) desire to escape the “shackles” of traditional gothic letterforms.

By the mid-1870s, these geniuses catapulted their employers to extreme wealth and worldwide industry leadership.

  Textbook Previews. Edwin Ruthven (Scotland), James West (Scotland), William Capitain (England), Julius Herriet Sr. (Germany), Carl/Charles E. Heyer (Germany), Herman Ihlenburg (Germany), Henry Brehmer (Germany), Gustav Schroeder (Germany).