
A broadside that Conkwright produced in 1949 to announce the Linotype revival of one of these faces assumed that the four were among those appearing in the earliest surviving specimen book of their fonts, printed in 1812: "They were the first types cut by Archibald Binny, and were probably in use by 1797. Upon opening shop under the name Binny & Ronaldson, they had at least four sizes of type to sell: English, Pica, Long Primer, and Brevier. James Ronaldson (1769-1841) put up a like amount in cash and turned his energies to the partnership's business affairs.
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Archibald Binny (1762/3-1838) contributed his skills as a punchcutter plus his collection of engraving tools, casting molds, and other paraphernalia, which customs officials had valued at $888.80. Its creators, two young immigrants from Scotland, were not the first to manufacture type on these shores – six or seven others had preceded them – but they were the first to make an ongoing business of it. Thus, for an American font, Monticello can claim an exceptionally long heritage. With the Jefferson Papers project expected to continue until 2026 (the 200th anniversary of the third President's death), and with the pace of technological change showing no sign of abating, a ninth life seems inevitable. Though it carries a different name, this was Monticello's eighth life and a kind of return to the past. At about the same time, a digital version tailored to produce photopolymer plates for letter-press printing was created for Andrew Hoyem's Arion Press in San Francisco. The accumulated defects were finally rectified by Matthew Carter's masterful reinterpretation in 2003.

The advent of computerized typesetting systems in the 1980s led to the creation of two intermediate, and unsatisfactory, digital renditions of Monticello.

It was this revival, intended to provide a historically appropriate face for the publication of The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, that gave the font its modern name. Griffith at the Mergenthaler Company with the aid of Princeton University Press's P.J.

Its fourth incarnation, an arduous conversion to Linotype, was undertaken in the 1940s by C.H. Its first three iterations took the form of hand-set type and spanned more than a century. Among the most enduring American types ever designed, it has now nearly realized a proverbial nine lives. The origins of the typeface we know today as Monticello can be traced back to America's first successful type foundry, established in Philadelphia by Archibald Binny and James Ronaldson in 1796.
