Robert Hunter Middleton (May 6, 1898 – August 3, 1985) was an American book designer, painter, and

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are thousands ...

designer. Born in

Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

he came to

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

in 1908 where he studied at the School of the Art Institute. He joined the design department of the Ludlow Typograph Company in 1923 and served as director of the department of typeface design from 1933–71. In 1944 he began operating a private press,

The Cherryburn Press ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in E ...

. He died in Chicago.

Typefaces

All of these foundry types (except ''Andromaque'') were cast by

Ludlow Typograph A Ludlow Typograph is a hot metal typesetting system used in letterpress printing. The device casts bars, or slugs of type, out of type metal primarily consisting of lead. These slugs are used for the actual printing, and then are melted down an ...

MacGrew, Mac, ''American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century,'' Oak Knoll Books, New Castle Delaware, 1993, . While cited as America's second most prolific (metal type era) type designer after

Morris Fuller Benton Morris Fuller Benton (November 30, 1872 – June 30, 1948) was an American typeface designer who headed the design department of the American Type Founders (ATF), for which he was the chief type designer from 1900 to 1937. Many of Benton' ...

, many of Middleton's fonts have never been digitised. This may be because many were display or script designs which dated after their time of greatest popularity.

References

*Rollins, Carl Purlington ''American Type Designers and Their Work.'' in

Print Printing is the process for reproducing text and images using a master form or template Print or printing may also refer to: Publishing * Canvas print, the result of an image printed onto canvas which is often stretched, or gallery-wrapped, o ...

, V. 4, #1. *Jaspert, W. Pincus, W. Turner Berry and A.F. Johnson. ''The Encyclopedia of Type Faces.'' Blandford Press Lts.: 1953, 1983. . * MacGrew, Mac, "American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century," Oak Knoll Books, New Castle Delaware, 1993, . *Friedl, Ott, and Stein, ''Typography: an Encyclopedic Survey of Type Design and Techniques Throughout History.'' Black Dog & Levinthal Publishers: 1998. .

External links

Robert Hunter Middleton Papers
at

the Newberry Library The Newberry Library is an independent research library, specializing in the humanities and located on Washington Square in Chicago, Illinois. It has been free and open to the public since 1887. Its collections encompass a variety of topics rela ...

Robert H. Middleton letters
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Middleton, R. Hunter 1898 births 1985 deaths American printers American typographers and type designers

Typefaces

References

Further reading

External links