FontBook
Published by FontShop International, and due for a new version soon.
That will give you digital era.

American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century
Published by Oak Knoll

Printing Types
By Daniel Berkeley Updike
That will take you right back

MyFonts has a design date data for many fonts. Just do a search.

I've been wanting such a database for a while. Unfortunately, I've had to resort to researching the individual faces, which can be tedious, however useful and enriching.

http://www.identifont.com is a fast way to find such.

Héctor

I use identifont too.