Antique Typewriters
The Martin Howard Collection
Underwood 1Wagner Typewriter Co., New Jersey
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The Underwood typewriter was the first widely successful modern typewriter. It pulled together the three main design elements that would be found on all later machines, a four-row straight keyboard, front striking type-bars (giving visible typing) and one shift key. The Underwood was not the first to offer these essential features, the Daugherty was in 1893, but it was by far the best engineered machine to have done so by 1896.
Franz Wagner, a brilliant engineer who was involved with the Caligraph and other pioneering typewriters, sold his invention to the John Underwood & Co., a major supplier of typewriter ribbons. The first model, shown above, still maintained Wagner's name stenciled onto the back of the frame.
The Underwood model 5 remained in production from 1900 to the early 1930's, making it the "Singer Sewing machine of typewriters".
Over the next ten years, just about all of the under-strike (blind-writers) and index typewriters would be dropped from the market. The Wild West of typewriters was over.
The following prophetic words (from the 3rd letterhead shown below) were written to a prospective Underwood client in 1897.
" ..The Underwood Typewriter, which you will find, we think, a very interesting one, from the standpoint of what a writing machine should be."
Detailed Typewriter Image
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Period Advertisement
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Typewriter Letterhead
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