Our “Western” affair with wood type began in 1827 by Darius Wells of New York. He created a process to draw the letter on a wood block and then carve around the letter with hand tools. He later introduced the basic invention of a Lateral Router. Along with the Pantograph introduced by William Leavenworth in 1834, they now had the essential materials for mass-producing wood type. Following his initial presentation of wood type in 1827, other designers and manufacturers began producing wood type blocks.
In 1868 James Edward Hamilton moved to Two Rivers, Wisconsin and went to work in a chair factory. An editor at the Two Rivers Chronicle needed letters for a rush project. Time did not allow him to order and have them made. He then asked Hamilton if he could make them for him. Hamilton made them on his mothers back porch using a foot-powered scroll saw. The blocks printed so well, Hamilton went on to establish the J. E. Hamilton Hollywood Wood Type Company, later to become Hamilton Wood Type Factory. Within twenty years they became the largest wood type provider in the United States and they produced more than one thousand styles and sizes. Today the original Hamilton factory in Two Rivers, Wisconsin has become the Hamilton Wood type Museum.

We have some fine examples of early hand-carved and other graphic wood type blocks in our gallery.