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All the United States California San Francisco Letterform Archive

Letterform Archive

A library and museum dedicated to typography.

San Francisco, California

Added By
Molly McBride Jacobson
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Been Here
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A sampling of the material shown to visitors on a regular basis.   stewf / Atlas Obscura User
A sampling of the material shown to visitors on a regular basis.   stewf / Atlas Obscura User
Joaquim Carneiro da Silva’s “Breve Tratado Theorica las Letras Typograficas”, 1803.   Letterform Archive
Letterform Archive reading room.   Letterform Archive
Aldo Novarese’s debut of the Estro font, 1961.   Letterform Archive
Jan Tschichold’s “Schriftschreiber für Setzer”, 1931.   Letterform Archive
Jan van den Velde’s “Spieghel der Schrijfkonste”, 1605.   Letterform Archive
Hand-painted OJ label by Lehmann Printing, c. 1930.   Letterform Archive
Founder Rob Saunders presents on typographer Ernst Schneidler.   Type@Cooper/CC BY-ND 3.0
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About

A tiny library to cheer on the obscured beauty of type design, the Letterform Archive began as typography enthusiast Rob Saunders' labor of love. He decided to open his collection to the public, and it only proliferated from there.

Tucked into an airy San Francisco loft, the Archive invites design lovers to come celebrate the art of handwriting throughout history. It's a collection of over 30,000 artifacts of typography, calligraphy, and graphic design, spanning from ancient times to modern-day.

The Archive is equal parts museum, art gallery, and reference library. There are postcards, books, posters, newspapers, drawings, and of course, letters, as well as practically any other written format imaginable. 

The collection as a whole interrogates design in writing, both man- and machine-made. A 19th-century Korean family tree in Kanji script on yellowed parchment lives next to a 1960s concert handbill with drippy psychedelic font. Man Ray's scintillating book of poetry and nudes, Facile, sits adjacent to a Victorian children's penmanship primer.

To truly understand the scope of the project, it has to be seen in person. The painstaking care put into a hand-painted frozen orange juice label from the turn of the century, or the spiderweb-thin lines of ink in an illuminated manuscript give a whole new appreciation for the stylization that went into designing standard fonts. The world of design can be inaccessible by its very nature (it's not meant to stand out), but luckily for us, Letterform Archive has made its collection and discourse very open to the public.

In 2019, the archive digitized more than 1,000 items, which are available online to members.

Update as of August 2020: Letterform Archive has moved to a new and improved location and will be open again to the public once city officials deem it safe.

Related Tags

Design Art Art Libraries Libraries Collections Museums And Collections Archive

Know Before You Go

Check out the Letterform Archive website for visiting information. They regularly host workshops, lectures, exhibitions, and public events. They have also uploaded images of many artifacts to their website for your viewing pleasure.

Community Contributors

Added By

Molly McBride Jacobson

Edited By

stewf, namekelly, katie c5d08947

  • stewf
  • namekelly
  • katie c5d08947

Published

September 9, 2016

Updated

September 3, 2020

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Letterform Archive
2325 3rd St
Floor 4R
San Francisco, California, 94107
United States
37.760134, -122.388261
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