Man Standing Next to Linotype Machine

Photographer Unknown

CountryUnited States

MediumCyanotype

Year1895-1905

View Additional Information & Tags

Commerce, Industry, Men: Occupational, Portrait: Men, Supports

Dimensions

Image Dimensions: 11.9 x 9.6 cm
Support Dimensions: 13.2 x 10.6 cm


Associated Blog Posts:

Blue Prince


With the only annotation being the word Chicago written on the verso of this intriguing card-mounted cyanotype indicating origin, it’s interesting to note that blueprinting, in addition to recording mechanical drawings, was also commonly used to make a record of large machinery like this early Linotype machine, an invention that revolutionized the speed of printing, particularly for newspapers and magazines. Invented by the German-born Ottmar Mergenthaler, (1854-1899) who has an uncanny surviving photographic likeness to the gentleman appearing in this cyanotype, the Linotype was first commercially used by the New York Tribune newspaper in 1886 and was in use into the 1970’s, when it was largely replaced by offset lithography printing and computer typesetting.

 

Title of this work provided by this archive.

Man Standing Next to Linotype Machine