The American Typecasting Fellowship began in 1978 as a group of enthusiasts, amateur and professional, interested in all aspects of the making of metal type. It continues today as the group central to what is becoming a renaissance of typefounding in America.
It is an unusual organization. It has no institutional structures whatsoever. Its bylaws, such as they are, were written primarily by the late Harold Berliner (an private typefounder and printer better known as the co-author of the California version of the "Miranda Warning"). The ATF's by-laws, as "scribbled on the back of an envelope" are:
The name of the ATF was a deliberate echo of the "other" ATF, American Type Founders Company (which was still in business then).
From the beginning, the role of the Comminications Committee has been filled by Rich Hopkins (Hill and Dale Private Press and Typefoundry), who has published the ATF's Newsletter on an irregular but consistent basis. Issue No. 34 appeared in 2010.
The ATF has also met ever two years since 1978. The 17th biennial Conference was held in Piqua, Ohio and hosted by Gregory Jackson Walters. The 2012 Conference will be held in Portland, Oregon and will be hosted by the C. C. Stern Type Foundry (which is currently in the process of a rebirth as a working typefounding museum).
Although the focus of the ATF is on typecasting, it has always welcomed linecasters. (When I attended my first ATF Conference in 2010, I was at that time entirely a linecaster (Linotype & Ludlow), but I was always made to feel at home.) The Newsletter has over the years published a number of very important articles on this history and technology of linecasting.
As befits a group with so little institutional structure, it is often very difficult to discover information about the ATF.
The group now has an official website: http://www.atf-hotmetal.com/
You can "sign up" for the ATF by contacting Rich Hopkins to get on the Newsletter mailing list:
Richard L. Hopkins, P. O. Box 263, Terra Alta, West Virginia 26764. E-mail: wvtypenut@frontier.com.
There are no dues. Every so often Rich will ask for contributions to cover his costs in printing and mailing the Newsletter (which is always beautifully produced).
The ATF is the heart of type-making today. Its members are involved not only in casting type by hand and every kind of machine (Thompson, Monotypes, Barth, and Küco, at least) but also in hand punchcutting, machine punch and matrix engraving, matrix electroforming, matrix justification, and, indeed, every aspect of the making of cast metal type. If these are your interests, you should join.
The primary bibliographic item for the ATF is of course the Newsletter. Click here for a bibliographic summary of it in the CircuitousRoot Type-Making bibliography
It is traditional, though by no means required, for attendees at the ATF Conferences to bring "keepsakes" for distribution to the other attendees. Some of these become more elaborate productions and are more or less official keepsakes of the conference itself. Sometimes these will now turn up on the used book market, and their provenance can be confusing to someone unfamiliar with the ATF. I wish I had them all, but I haven't even seen many of them (I'm just copying bibliography here). These keepsakes, or other publications of some significance associated with these Conferences, have included the following:
[1980, 2nd Conference, Larchmont, NY] Duensing, Paul Hayden. Proposed Draft for a Syllabus of Typographic Taxonomy. "Being a preliminary outline of all facets appertaining to the Art and Craft of the Founding of Metal Types as practiced until the time of the recent technological revolution in graphic arts." Vicksburg, Michigan: The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing, 1980.
[1980, 2nd Conference, NY] Soulé, A. R. Electro-Formed Matrices / Electro-Forming. Paper presented at the second annual Conference of the American Typecasting Fellowship, held in NY in 1980 under the name "Second National Conference on Typecasting and Design."
[1984 4th Conference, Washington, DC] Lanston Monotype Machine Company. Facts About the Monotype. (1927) 16pp. Reprinted in facsimile for the Conference by Robert Halbert.
[1984 4th Conference, Washington, DC] Hurlbut, S.A. and Paul Hayden Duensing (ed.) Irregularities in the Customs Shed: The Troubles of Miller & Richard, Typefounders . (Vicksburg, MI: The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing, 1984.)
A reprint of an appeal to the U.S. House of Representatives (H.R. 3671, some time after 1876) seeking relief for unfair duties on Miller & Richard type imported via San Francisco.
[1986, 5th Conference, Indianapolis, IA] Hopkins, Richard L. Richard A. Hill, illus. On "Sets" &c.: The Trials and Tribulations of Casting Monotype Matrices . Terra Alta, WV: Hill & Dale Private Press and Typefoundry, 1986.
[1986, 5th Conference, Indianapolis, IA] Hyder, Darrell. Confessions of a Letterpress Printer. (North Brookfield, MA: [by the author], 1986)
[1994, 9th Conference, California] Hopkins, Richard L. American Typecasting Fellowship Commemorative Casting / Story Behind the Engraved Matrix . Terra Alta, WV: Hill & Dale Private Press and Typefoundry, 1994.
Describes the engraved matrix used for the third commemorative casting done for an ATF meeting. This matrix was made in 1994 on a surviving American Type Founders "Ad-Cut" pantograph engraver by William C. Gregan for The Dale Guild.
[2000, 12th Conference, Rindge, NH and Ashuelot, NH] Duensing, Paul Hayden. Weighty Matters for Monotype Movers. Michigan: The Private Press and Typefoundry of Paul Hayden Duensing, 2000.
Consists of reproductions from an unspecified source of specifications (with weights and dimensions) for the Monotype Keyboard, Composition Caster, Type and Rule Caster, Supercaster, and Thompson Caster (all English Monotype) and the No. 4 Vandercook press.
[2002, 13th Conference, Provo, UT] Rehak, Theo, Dave Peat, Rich Hopkins, eds. Photographic Views of Central Plant: American Type Founders Company, Jersey City, New Jersey . American Typecasting Fellowship, 2002. [a reprint of an American Type Founders booklet]
[2010, 17th Conference, Piqua, OH] For this conference, Mel Arndt of Toledo engraved a beautiful 120 point matrix for the ATF logo. We cast this using a hand mold that Gregory J. Walters, our host, imported from India. There was no publication associated with this matrix or casting.
Hopkins, Richard L. "Acceptance Remarks of Richard L. Hopkins for the American Typecasting Fellowship." in "APHA's [The American Printing History Association's] 2004 Institutional Award for Distinguished Achievement." on the receipt of that award by the ATF in 2004. Online at: http://www.printinghistory.org/htm/misc/awards/2004-ATF.htm
Local copy: private/apha-2004/2004-ATF.htm
All portions of this document not noted otherwise are Copyright © 2011 by David M. MacMillan and Rollande Krandall.
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