![]() We jokingly call these fonts “Pirate Type.” The P22 Type Foundry of digital type, for example, recently issued Franklin Caslon designed directly from Franklin’s publications, and has a beautifully worn quality about it.Įxamples of Benjamin Franklin’s use of Caslon type, as well as some of its wear and spotty printing, can be seen in our copy of Poor Richard’s Almanack for 1751 (the Almanack was published continually from 1732 to 1758), authored under Franklin’s pseudonym “Richard Saunders,” and printed and sold in Philadelphia by Franklin and his business partner David Hall in 1750. The popular American conception of Caslon derives from these worn faces, and some modern re-designs of “Caslon Old Style” bear the hallmarks of these overused types. Therefore, because of the expense and difficulty of importing type, Franklin and his American contemporaries would continue to print with the European types they already had even after they were worn, chipped, and broken. Type foundries would not be established in America until the late 1760s or early 1770s. He was a great champion of Baskerville and his types, but it was mainly Caslon that Franklin used in his printed works. Throughout his career, Franklin corresponded with the major type designers of his day: Baskerville, Caslon, Fournier, Didot, and Bodoni. Baskerville is classified as a transitional typeface, intended as a refinement of what are now called old-style typefaces of the period, especially those of his most eminent contemporary, William Caslon. In 1737, Franklin introduced Caslon typefaces in his Pennsylvania Gazette, beginning a trend in American printing that established Caslon fonts as the typeface of America. Baskerville is a serif typeface designed in the 1750s by John Baskerville (17061775) in Birmingham, England, and cut into metal by punchcutter John Handy. Two years after Franklin launched his Poor Richard’s Almanack, William Caslon published his famous specimen sheet in 1734. Franklin returned to Philadelphia in 1726 to start his own printing house, for which he imported English-made (mainly those from the foundry of Thomas James) and Dutch types. The great English type designer William Caslon, who would alter Britain’s typographic landscape, was just beginning his career at this time, and Franklin may have been familiar with Caslon’s work, as Franklin’s English employer James Watts partially funded Caslon’s enterprise. Most types being used at the time in both England and the Colonies were of Dutch origin, as England’s typefounding industry was meager and sub-par, and there were no type founders in America at all. It was here that Franklin became interested in the art of typefounding. In 1723, Benjamin ran away to Philadelphia, and a year later traveled to London to continue training as a printer. These letters also had an independent streak, which did not sit well with James when he discovered it was all a ruse, as he was already in a lot of hot water with the government over his challenging periodical. This year marks the 300th anniversary of James Franklin’s truly independent-minded newspaper The New-England Courant, employing his younger brother Benjamin as an apprentice, and to which the 16-year-old Ben clandestinely wrote letters in the persona of “ Silence Dogood,” a middle-aged widow.
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