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Thursday 5 September 2013

Ionian Club Typewriter Presentation: 'A Favourite of Fortune'

I gave a typewriter presentation for the Ionian Club at the Hyatt Hotel in Canberra today. Since the Ionian Club is a "friendship club for women on the move" and is to a large degree made up of businesswomen and female executives, I decided to narrow the talk down to the significant influence of women on the early success of the typewriter. The presentation was titled "A Favourite of Fortune" (see below).
In particular, I focused on Margaret Longley and Mary Orr (above) and their part in making typewriting the means of widespread financial emancipation for young women in the latter part of the 19th century. In this, I was greatly aided by Peter Weil's excellent PowerPoint presentation, Typewriters and the Cultural Construction of Gender in Industrial Societies.
Courtesy of Peter Weil
Given the difficulties I now face with transporting typewriters, I took along only three (a Remington 2, a Caligraph 2 and a Blickensderfer 5, the last of which I can never resist for presentations) - plus my mock Sholes & Glidden. But these proved more than adequate for the occasion.
The event was a huge success - with, as unusual, the ink-laden Blick the unqualified star of the show.


4 comments:

Ted said...

What fun! and love your tie (:

TonysVision said...

The thought of lugging those typers ... lovely as they are, I'd be tempted to show off my Hermes Rocket, Adler Tippa, and Olympia SP. Oh, and I don't even have anything as cool as those lovely machines you brought for the ladies. It sounds like they enjoyed them.

shordzi said...

What a tie! Good event!

Miguel Chávez said...

That Remington 2 is fantastic!

So I reckon the new Typerwagen did not turn out to be a better typer hauler? That's a pity. On the other hand, the ladies were really fortunate to see these fantastic machines.

Hey, that could be the subject for another post: "Consumer Guide on approved typewriter haulers"... will definitely give it a thought.