Letter to Dard Hunter Regarding the New Font Times New Roman

This month’s artifact is a letter to Dard Hunter from a Mr. David Silve c. 1943 regarding the introduction of a newly invented font type: Times New Roman.  

In 1929, a British newspaper entitled The Times of London hired typographer Stanley Morison to create a new font for the paper, after Morison criticized The Times for being “extremely out of touch with modern trends in typography.” Morison led the project and supervised Victor Lardent, an advertising artist for The Times, who actually drew the letterforms.  

On October 3, 1932, Times New Roman font was debuted for the first time in The Times of London. This was a historical event, as it was the first time a newspaper designed and used its own typeface. In 1941, the American magazine Woman’s Home Companion adopted its use in their newspaper, followed in 1953 by the Chicago Sun-Times. From there, the use of the typeface disseminated across the United States.  

Its quick adoption by newspapers across the U.S. (and world) can be explained by the fact that the font itself was perfect for print. The reduced spacing between each letter as well as the wider portions of the letters themselves let printers fit more text per line, which were overall more easily readable. It quickly became the world’s “default font,” and this designation has followed it over time through newspapers, magazines, academia, books, and software.  

In our collection, we have a letter written to Dard from Mr. David Silve making reference to an attached booklet regarding the new Times New Roman font. Unfortunately, the museum does not have the booklet itself, but we do have an accompanying cover letter describing what the booklet has inside. We know it is from the Women’s Home Companion paper, whose quick adoption of the Times New Roman font lead the charge for its spread across the country. The booklet mostly describes and urges others to adopt the use of the font; Mr. Silve brought this to Dard’s attention, as he was particularly interested in typography (and even designed his own font at one point).  

We have chosen to include a book on typography from Dard’s collection along with the letters from Silve to further explain Dard’s fascination with typography.