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Donald & Carolyn Hoke collection of typewriter advertising and ephemera

Creation: 1829-2015
 Collection
Accession: 20160328-DCH

Abstract

Donald Hoke (1951-) and Carolyn Hoke (1951-) are co-owners of Vintage Steam Products, LLC, which manufactures and sells restoration materials for Stanley steam vehicles in Texas. Don Hoke created the Virtual Steam Car Museum, Inc. in 2011. Sparked by eight years at the Milwaukee Public Museum curating the Dietz Collection, he started collecting typewriter ephemera privately and discovered eBay in 1995. A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for producing written characters using a key to strike an inked ribbon to transfer ink or carbon onto paper. This collection of typewriter advertising and ephemera offers great insight into the technological development of the typewriter through its beginnings in the 1870s until its eventual dissolution in the 1990s. The plethora of advertising ephemera helps frame the typewriter historically and sociologically, offering insight into the careers of typists and the migration of the typewriter from the office into the home. Trends in advertising and industrial design through the twentieth century are also represented in this collection and will offer ample evidence of these evolutions to researchers.

Dates

  • Creation: 1829-2015

Extent

13 Linear Feet

Biographical Note

Donald Hoke (1951-) and Carolyn Hoke (1951-) are co-owners of Vintage Steam Products, LLC, which manufactures and sells restoration materials for Stanley steam vehicles in Texas. Don Hoke created the Virtual Steam Car Museum, Inc. in 2011.

Donald Hoke earned his bachelor’s degree in Economics and Theater Arts in 1973, Master of Arts in the History of Technology in 1977, and Doctorate of Philosophy in Economic History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. His dissertation won the Nevins Prize. In 1988 he received a certificate of Museum Management from the Getty Leadership Institute.

Carolyn Hoke earned her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Beloit College in 1973, a Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Chicago in 1974, and a Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Connecticut School of Business in 1983.

Donald Hoke served as curator, Americana at the Milwaukee Public Museum from 1977 to 1985. There he curated the Carl P. Dietz Typewriter Collection, the largest in public hands. In 1985 he became the director of the Outagamie County Historical Society.

After leaving the Milwaukee Public Museum, Hoke started personally collecting typewriter ephemera, made easier when he discovered eBay in 1995 while looking for materials for his horological collection.

Historical Note

A typewriter is a mechanical or electromechanical machine for producing written characters using a key to strike an inked ribbon to transfer ink or carbon onto paper. The typewriter as we currently know it is a fairly modern invention, although the printed word was invented in the fifteenth century with the rise of the printing press. The typewriter was not invented and popularized until the latter half of the nineteenth century. Handwriting all records, including business correspondence, was common practice until this point. Still, with the industrial revolution making it possible to cheaply produce these typewriting machines, which sped up the act of handwriting, typewriters became the new standard.

The beginnings of the typewriter are ambiguous; however, the standard accepted history points to the inventor Christopher Sholes (1819-1890), who in collaboration with James Densmore (1820-1889), Carlos Glidden (1834-1877), Samuel Soule (1830-1875), and the E. Remington & Sons manufacturing firm were able to mass-produce the first Sholes and Glidden typewriter in 1873. The typewriter became one of the greatest inventions in nineteenth-century communication technology, along with the telegraph, the telephone, gramophone, and photography.

In the first half of the twentieth century, the typewriter became ubiquitous in business, school, and home environments. As social values and economic needs changed, so did the design of the typewriter. Electric typewriters were first produced in the 1930s, portable typewriters even earlier in the late 1890s. Typewriters became sleeker and were offered in a variety of appealing colors by the 1950s. The typewriter produced a doorway for women into office work and the business world. Typists and secretaries were regarded more highly than manual laborers, and typewriters were designed to look less and less like machines to appear more respectable and less oppressive.

By the 1970s, the typewriter had to compete with the word processor, the steppingstone between the typewriter and personal computer. The word processor offered a typewriter keyboard but a computer memory that allowed typists to correct mistakes and move text without retyping pages, as was common practice with typewriters. By the 1990s, typewriters were actively replaced with personal computers, and word processing had just become one of many programs and features available on a personal computer.

Scope and Contents

The Donald & Carolyn Hoke collection of typewriter advertising and ephemera offers great insight into the technological development of the typewriter through its beginnings in the 1870s until its eventual dissolution in the 1990s. The plethora of advertising ephemera helps frame the typewriter historically and sociologically, offering insight into the careers of typists and the migration of the typewriter from the office into the home. Trends in advertising and industrial design through the twentieth century are also represented in this collection and will offer ample evidence of these evolutions to researchers.

There was no original order for this collection; it has been artificially arranged into four series, Manufacturers, Occupations, Accessories, and Collecting.

The Manufacturers series is arranged by manufacturer title dating from 1829 to 2015. It consists of trade catalogs, manuals, pamphlets, correspondence, invoices, flongs, tear sheets, price lists, and bulletins from 163 different typewriter manufacturers. The series gives great insight into how typewriter manufacturers conducted business and advertised their products from the beginning of the typewriter's existence to its eventual decline. A highlight from this series is a run of service bulletins between the 1970s into the 1980s from the SCM company to its technical department about part upgrades and changes in their line of typewriters; it offers a detailed look into the evolution of typewriter design within a specific company. The manufacturers series holds ephemera from a large variety of manufacturers, but the four that are especially well represented are Remington, Smith-Corona, Underwood, and Royal. The various manufacturer's file holds ephemera from fifty-six smaller manufacturers that are only represented by one or two pieces of ephemera. Still, it is a good place to look for rarer manufacturers' history.

The Occupations series dates from 1887 to 1988 and is divided into four sub-series: Training, Repair, Sales, and Typists. The Training sub-series holds typing education materials such as keyboard charts, typing contests, textbooks, and advertising ephemera from typing trade schools. The Repair sub-series holds repair and parts catalogs for various makes of typewriters, correspondence, invoices, and advertising ephemera from typewriter repair companies. The Sales sub-series holds typewriter dealership letters and invoices along with advertising material such as trade catalogs and tear sheets. The Typists sub-series is worthy of particular note, holding 500 postcards along with photographs and publications that supply an important viewpoint on the cultural significance of the occupation of typists and the oftentimes sexist and misogynist humor that influenced the conception of a typist's role in the office setting.

The Accessories series dates from 1891 to 1989 and is arranged by type of typewriter accessory, including typewriter ribbons, paper, keys, silencer feet, office furniture, and type correction materials. Each accessory has its own file with advertising ephemera, including trade catalogs, price lists, tear sheets, stamps, pamphlets, and trade cards. There are several vintage boxes of typewriter and carbon paper that highlight the packaging trends for the product in the 1920s and 1960s.

The Collecting series dates from 1875 to 2001 and consists of correspondence, newsletters, listserv emails, collector convention ephemera, history, and research materials. Much of this series was produced as a byproduct of Donald Hoke's collecting and involvement in various typewriter collecting communities. A highlight from this series is the complete run of listserv emails between 1997 and 1998 from the Platen typewriter collector community discussing repair, identification, and trade of vintage typewriters. This series offers insight into the communities involved in collecting and disbursement of historical materials related to the typewriter.

Access Restrictions

This collection is open for research.

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Provenance

In Memory of Dr. Stephen Salsbury and Dr. Reed Geiger.

Finding Aid & Administrative Information

Title:
Donald & Carolyn Hoke collection of typewriter advertising and ephemera
Author:
Janeen Lamontagne
Date:
2021
Description rules:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description:
English
Script of description:
Latin

Repository Details

Repository Details

Part of the Published Collections Repository

Contact:
PO Box 3630
Wilmington Delaware 19807 USA
302-658-2400