Description

Electric typewriter in a black and white housing with grey keys. Above the keyboard, there is a row of buttons that controlled the margins, ribbon setting, and tab spacing. An envelope with correction papers is taped to the side of the object.

The IBM Executive typewriter was released in 1944, after a three-year delay owing to IBM’s World War II efforts. It was the first typewriter that had proportionally spaced letters— that is, instead of each letter taking up the same space on the page, each letter had a space assigned to it that was proportional to the width of the letter. The result was a typed page that resembled a professionally typeset one. The model D Executive was introduced in 1967, and this one was used in Draper Laboratory before being used at the MIT Museum. After a decade in use at the museum, it transfered to the museum's collection.