NYPD (and Philadelphia) 20th c. header

nycpress20 May 2014

Greetings!

I am the Historian of the New York Press Photographers Association, and have collected quite a few samples of press credentials that were issued by the New York City Police Department. I've identified one font that was used for much of the first half of the 20th century by the NYPD, not only on press cards, but on other official documents such as taxi licenses, wanted posters, and other official publications. I thought it was a proprietary font, until I just noticed that it was also used as a header on Philadelphia death certificates from 1906-1909. I love it, though, and have incorporated it (through copy-and-paste) into my own business cards. It usually appears in upper-case only, but I have seen odd documents where lower case is used. Haven't been able to pinpoint its true identity, though. Any help?

Thanks!
Marc Hermann

Font:

Pontiac

Solved By:

bojev

Cohnishere20 May 2014#

It is very similar to some of the text on the cover of the 1914 poem Zang Tumb Tumb, which is in Studley Condensed:
But it isn't that, because letters N and C are clearly different.
Yet again, it's similar but not quite Radiant Condensed:
It's probably a more condensed version of Britannic than this one:
They all look pretty much the same anyway.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MTjU20VtL.jpg
http://cdnimg.fonts.net/CatalogImages/23/158003.png
http://s3.amazonaws.com/everystockphoto/fspid30/86/29/12/2/font-8629122-l.jpg

donshottype20 May 2014#

Henry, your images are broken. Perhaps if you reload with a different file name?
Don

Cohnishere20 May 2014#

I couldn't fix the images, but replaced them with links.

nycpress20 May 2014#

Studley Condensed sure looks similar, but there are differences in the "N" and the "C," among others.

donshottype20 May 2014#

Thanks for the links. Radiant and Britannic are out of the running -- not designed until many years after the heading first appeared. Here is a high quality scan of Inland's Studley Extra Condensed

Close but not quite there.
We should check the competitors' specimen books from before the Great war of 1914-1918, particularly BB&S.
Don

donshottype20 May 2014#

Another thick & thin from the era, Wesel from Barnhart Bros. & Spindler 1907

Don

donshottype20 May 2014#

Somewhat time consuming, but a page by page examination of McGrew's _American Metal Typefaces of the 20th Century_ might hit paydirt.
Don

Cohnishere20 May 2014#

This looks like it could be it. The most unusual letter from the sample was 'C', so if we were able to see that then we would know.

bojev20 May 2014#

Wesel's C is not right - just checked my BB&S No. 9 Specimen Book - it is close but not it - C is way different.

bojev20 May 2014#

This has a C that is close from 1902 ATF collection (image from McGrew)

bojev20 May 2014#

Another Sample of Pontiac from 1917 catalog

bojev20 May 2014#

A line of type set in quick and dirty font generated from Pontiac sample:

donshottype20 May 2014#

Good find Bob. McGrew is a great source but could really use a good category index.
Don

nycpress20 May 2014#

Mystery solved!!! Thank you!!!

Mike F21 May 2014#

Nice work, guys!

As an aside, Jeff Levine digitized Inland Studley as Bayview JNL.

Captured from commoncrawl.org on 26 Apr 2015. original URL