10/19/2023 0 Comments Caslon typeface specimen![]() ![]() Library of Congress with types in the 1766 Caslon type specimen book at Columbia University’s Rare Book & Manuscript Library. I compared a high-resolution image of the Dunlap Broadside from the U.S. As John Adams later wrote of the Declaration’s inception: “We were all in haste.” ![]() Though the committee appointed to oversee the printing included Benjamin Franklin, himself a printer and type enthusiast, there were much larger issues than the choice of typefaces to worry about at the time. I sometimes think that it would have made political sense to use one of the new types being made in the Baskerville style for this job, but the readers would probably not have noticed the difference and the client would not have wanted to wait. Some other printing of the time in North America was done in much worse type. It seems to me that the frequent use of types from the Caslon foundry in the colonies was the result of having had a reliable source of decent types in London for many years. As type historian James Mosley expressed in a recent e-mail on the topic: In fact, the 1785 Caslon specimen book was even dedicated to King George III – the same King that the American colonists were declaring independence from.īut perhaps the choice of typefaces by Dunlap shouldn’t be criticized too harshly, as the options for type in the colonies at the time were quite limited. Ironically, most of the type used by Dunlap to compose the document is likely from the Caslon type foundry – a British company, and later “letter-founder to the King”. He worked into the night of July 4 to typeset and print what has been estimated at around 200 copies of the Declaration for distribution the following day. ![]() On July 4th, 1776, immediately after the Declaration of Independence was formally ratified by the Second Continental Congress, the drafting committee of Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston was appointed to “ superintend and correct the press” – essentially to go on a press check – for the first printing of this historic document. The printing was assigned to John Dunlap, whose print shop was just blocks from the State House (Independence Hall). However, that iconic document was not signed until Aug– almost an entire month after the original Declaration was published. The purely typographic broadside that was distributed exactly 236 years ago today, now known as the Dunlap Broadside, is the first version that actually spread the Declaration of Independence to the rest of the world. That version, now faded to near illegibility, is often considered the definitive incarnation of the Declaration, and is the subject of several facsimiles. ![]() When many people think of the United States Declaration of Independence, they picture the elaborate calligraphy “ fairly engrossed on parchment” by Timothy Matlack with signatures by the members of Congress, including the now-famous signature of John Hancock. The Declaration of Independence in its popular calligraphic form, with signatures. These are the most common typefaces in the database, but there are many more.Haas Inserat-Grotesk / Neue Aurora VIII (50). ![]()
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