Morris Fuller Benton

Morris Fuller Benton (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, November 30, 1872 - June 30, 1948) was an American typographer, one of the most important in history.

Biography

At just eleven years old he was already doing some work such as printing tickets and brochures, thanks to the printing press he set up in his parents' house.

At the age of 24, he graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca (New York state) as an engineer and months later he began working as his father's assistant at AmericanType Founders (ATF), where he would apply his mechanical knowledge in the field. of the machinery of the graphic arts.

At that time Morris's father, Linn Boyd Benton, was famous for having developed a machine for making punches, an invention that led him to become director of the ATF.

In 1900 he became chief designer of ATF, where he practiced his profession until his retirement in 1937 at the age of 65. He died on June 30, 1948 at the age of 76. Benton's life was characterized by the mixture of typographic creativity and the knowledge and precision of an engineer.

His love for typography was notable since he was born into a family that was dedicated to this business. After he started working with his father, they made more than 180 types of letters with great diversity, which included Cloister Old., Style, or Franklin Gothic (1904). Among other things he did was divide typefaces into letter families. Like him he was responsible for many recreations of letters in the history of typography. We could probably say that Franklin Gothic is one of his most remembered creations.

Morris Fuller Benton is probably one of the most important typographers in the history of typography, being the creator of various fonts that are used today. Some of them are:

• Century Expanded (1900)
• Linotex (1901)
• Franklin Gothic (1902)
• Century Oldstyle (1908-1909)
• Hobo (1910)
• Parisian (1928)
• Novel Gothic (1928)
• Chic (1928)
• Modernique (1928)
• Broadway (1928)
• Tower (1934)
• Phenix (1935)