Hamilton
(no not a musical)
I remember when we used to drive up (in the 20th century) to Washington Island from the Milwaukee area. The freeway stopped at Manitowoc (Waldo boulevard) and we'd proceed to drive up to Door County on Wisconsin highways 42/57.
Highway 42 proceeds north from Waldo boulevard along Lake Michigan, eventually getting to Two Rivers, WI. Along that lakefront roadway we'd always pass a building with the name: Hamilton on it.
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| it wasn't this one but it had a similar font |
I always wondered what Hamilton was.
Fast forward to the 21st century, PBS Wisconsin showed the documentary movie: Typeface on their Director's Cut program. (here is an interview with the director of typeface:
https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/directors-cut/directors-cut-justine-nagan-typeface/
Also, PBS Wisconsin had a documentary which mentions Hamilton on their Wisconsin Hometown Stories program about Manitowoc/Two Rivers:
https://pbswisconsin.org/watch/wisconsin-hometown-stories/wisconsin-hometown-stories-manitowoc-two-rivers/
So one or the other of those shows spilled the beans to me on Hamilton: it turns out that Hamilton was a company that started making wood type for printing, large block letters that were impractical for metal type.
Those memorable tabloid headlines like the New York Post's from April 15, 1983:
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| April 15, 1983, a taxing day |
source: https://img.nbc.com/mpx-static/image/1023/859/150611_2873078_Seth_s_Story__RIP_to_the__Headless_Body_in_a.jpg
were called "the wood" even though the newspapers had already abandoned type of any kind by that time and were using some kind of computerized photo-offset dealio.
Hamilton also made other stuff like furniture for dentist's offices and icemakers for motels.
I took a "drive" along highway 42 recently (via Google's Street View) and couldn't recognize the Hamilton building that I had seen all those trips, maybe it got torn down or repurposed.
Anyway, I finally had the Hamilton mystery solved for me by PBS :)
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm