Colwell Handletter Type Specimen
Date
Credits
- M. Elizabeth Colwell Designer
Format
- Typeface 56
- Type Specimen 15
Type of Work
- Archive 200
Publishers
Typefaces
Techniques
- printing 438
Locations Made
- United States 756
This type specimen showcases the ‘Colwell Handletter’ font designed by M. Elizabeth Colwell in 1917 and published originally by the American Type Founder's Company (ATF).
M. Elizabeth Colwell was a female typographer and designer from Michigan who worked in the early 20th century (possibly the only female designer known from this time and location according to ‘American Type Designers and Their Work’ in 1947, Carl Purington Rollins). Having attended The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (according to ‘Tenth Letter of the Alphabet’, Alex Jay), she was one of the first generations of women in America to be allowed to enroll at many large universities and institutions, as even though women were given the right to attend university in the US in 1837 many institutions would continue to deny women for many more years (according to the Russel Sage Foundation, https://www.russellsage.org/sites/all/files/Chamberlain_Chap1_0.pdf). Unsurprisingly, she was then able to apply her talent and learned skills to become one of America's earliest professionally recognized female type designers.
