If Edith Wharton Had Facebooked

• November 24, 2009  /
• by Nancy Sharon Collins

I recently spent a week at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin, researching engraving’s influence on type, graphic design and the way we communicate. For five days I examined—with my bare hands (although many research facilities require cotton gloves) and a Rodenstock three-power loupe covering a 6×6 centimeter area—original specimens of engraving. Three days were spent on copybooks and engraved collections of calligraphy used for teaching writing from the 1600 to 1800s. The rest was dedicated to Edith Wharton’s secret love letters to Morton Fullerton and some folders of Mark Twain’s personal papers. My purpose was to find interesting examples of American social stationery engraving. Since this is a “tag” that does not yet exist, I go to great lengths defining this category of design and communications history in the hopes that it will become part of our vernacular.

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