Rob Roy Kelly Collection

-The Rob Roy Kelly Wood Type Collection is a wood type collection that contains almost 150 different typeface sizes and styles that were manufactured and used for printing in America during the 19th century.

-In 1966 when Rob Kelly could no longer maintain his massive collection, it was sold to the head librarian of the Museum of Modern Art in New York after which is was sold again to the University of Texas at Austin.

-The collection has every example of methods used to commercially produce wood type besides the the process referred to as celluloid or enameled.

-The 1880s was the time of the wood type manufacturer competition containing only six manufacturers doing buissness at the same time. Connecticut and New York City were the centers of wood type production throughout the 19th century.

- Rob Kelly’s final work with the Collection came in the early 1990s when he worked with Adobe on a project to develop digital revivals of historic wood types as part of the Adobe Originals program.