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1939 Continental Standard Serial # 853928-1 1939 Continental Standard typewriter, Serial # 853928-1 Mark Schrad's 1939 Continental Standard typewriter. 2024-06-07 From the Virtual Typewriter Collection of Mark Schrad: 1939 Continental Standard Serial # 853928-1 I got this Continental Standard in June, 2024, as part of a lot of typewriters purchased from fellow typewriter enthusiast Sheryl Oring, Dean of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In terms of provenance, apparently Dr. Oring was in Europe building her sculptural installation called "Writer's Block," in which typewriters are encased in cubes of rusty metal rebar, to symbolize the denial of the writer's tools through Nazi-era censorship. http://www.sheryloring.org/writers-block To make the art installation, she needed a great many old typewriters, many of which she got from a gentleman in Italy who had some 600 typewriters, but the roof of the building where he was storing them collapsed. Apparently these were among those German typewriters, hoarded in Italy, and then returned to Germany as part of an art display, from whence it traveled Europe and the United States, winding up at UArts in Philadelphia... and now on to me.

Of the machines in the deal, this one was in perhaps the worst condition, with broken levers and shoulder screws, and only when I got it home did I recognize that the word "Reichseigentum" was stamped on the side: Property of the [Third] Reich... which presents something of a moral conundrum.

1939 Continental Standard #853928-1

Status: My Collection
Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)
Created: 06-07-2024 at 04:34PM
Last Edit: 06-07-2024 at 04:35PM

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I got this Continental Standard in June, 2024, as part of a lot of typewriters purchased from fellow typewriter enthusiast Sheryl Oring, Dean of the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In terms of provenance, apparently Dr. Oring was in Europe building her sculptural installation called "Writer's Block," in which typewriters are encased in cubes of rusty metal rebar, to symbolize the denial of the writer's tools through Nazi-era censorship. http://www.sheryloring.org/writers-block To make the art installation, she needed a great many old typewriters, many of which she got from a gentleman in Italy who had some 600 typewriters, but the roof of the building where he was storing them collapsed. Apparently these were among those German typewriters, hoarded in Italy, and then returned to Germany as part of an art display, from whence it traveled Europe and the United States, winding up at UArts in Philadelphia... and now on to me.

Of the machines in the deal, this one was in perhaps the worst condition, with broken levers and shoulder screws, and only when I got it home did I recognize that the word "Reichseigentum" was stamped on the side: Property of the [Third] Reich... which presents something of a moral conundrum.

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Hunter: Mark Schrad (MLSchrad)

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Professor of Political Science and Director of Russian Area Studies at Villanova University. Writes about alcohol politics, Russia, and international law when not refurbishing old typewriters.


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