Morris Fuller Benton 1872–1948
Morris Fuller Benton (1872 – 1948) was a type designer worked at the American Type Founders in New York. He designed numerous typefaces with various styles including Alternate Gothic, News Gothic, Bank Gothic, Century, Franklin Gothic, Goudy, Cheltenham, and etc. His works were reproduced by many type foundries and typographers over the decades and are still being
widely used. This project is a type specimen that tells the narrative about Benton and also an analysis on each typefaces that he designed.
The American Type Founder
In the beginning of 1890s, most type foundries in America was in financial crisis as the introduction of Linotype and hot metal type dropped the prices. Linn Boyd Benton decided to set up a committee to unite small foundries that were seperated in America. More than 20 type foundries were brought together to create The American Type Founders Company (ATF) in 1892. As soon as it was founded, it became the largest type foundry and also the most important and influential in the history of type-making.
Shortly after the founding of the company, Morris Benton joined as his father’s assistant and designed machines for type foundries. As he was working closely with many type designers, he realized the problem that they needed same type designs for every type foundries that were in the ATF. While he was organizing the collection of type matrices at ATF, he decided to set up his own drawing office and begin creating his own type designs.
