Why San Francisco’s International Airport has a museum of typewriters, was not clear: I only had time for a quick run-through while waiting for a carry-out breakfast order and a flight home.
I’ve since discovered that it was only one of a series of displays rotating through museum spaces at the airport; the typewriters come from the collection of History San Jose, a Bay Area local history museum.
Well, museums in airports can only be a good thing! Especially one that speaks to my inability to get rid of my last typewriter many years after I last used one. I wasn’t the only nostalgic typist on the scene—I found myself comparing notes with a retired high school typing teacher who was also enthralled.
And yes: Old habits die hard. We both noticed instantly that in one of the pictures from an ad, the typist had her wrists resting on the desk, not arched above the keyboard. A real ergonomic no-no, and a contributor to stress conditions such as carpal-tunnel syndrome.
The display was heavily-populated with portables, perhaps appropriate for an airport full of travelers toting the laptops that put the typewriter out of business. Among the displays, the stunning 1950s Olivetti Letter 22 (right) and 44 (left) which totally changed the appearance (and weight) of portables. Weight was evidently not an issue for the model at the top of this blog; it’s an only-slightly-scaled-down Royal desktop model fitted in a case.
But even that’s not the heavy-weight, either in pounds or what it takes to use it. The Chinese flatbed typewriter above is not only incredibly heavy, with its 2000 metal characters, but the operator needs both significant dexterity—and a knowledge of all 2000 characters.
Learning to type got its moment in the display, too, but only for our Western-style typewriters. But if the Learn-to-Type book at the top left looks familiar, it’s not surprising. The same image, minus the outdated technology pictures, was recycled for one of the early computer typing programs, even before Mavis Beacon.
And, of course, if the modern typewriters in the museum were made obsolete by computers, here are some of the machines that they themselves replaced.
