Depends on the font. What do you have in mind?

hhp

Well, I don't have a particular time period in mind yet.

I am working on a slab serif http://typophile.com/node/34427

Try to collect a group of people who are into the
genre in question, and pick their brains for leads.

hhp

If you want to find material on early slab serifs, there are two authors you should check out: Nicolete Gray and Rob Roy Kelly. You should be able to find their books through a public library.

OK, thanks.

Slab serifs began in the 19th century under the category of "Egyptian"

Correct me if I'm wrong,
Didn't they call it Egyptian because it had a "slab" base to it, like a sculpture? I think it was first used for ads in Europe, and they could make the letter larger because they were made from wood instead of metal.

The term egyptian appears to have come about to describe the original grotesques, which appeared during a period known as “Egyptomania” when the British were obsessed with all things Egyptian. At some later point the term became associated with slab serifs that were also popular during that period. If you search around you’ll find a thread started by Missgiggles in which James Mosely kindly dropped by to straighten this out.

One theory is that the term Egyptian was adopted because Egyptology was so fashionable at that time. The monolithic connection is probably relevant, but then they could've called it Stonehenge too. :-)

hhp

Here is the link to the James Mosley essay, which gives some of the history in depth:

http://typefoundry.blogspot.com/2007/01/nymph-and-grot-update.html

Thanks, that helps. I'm going to have to read through those blogs, and check out my Bringhurst bible.