Smith-Premier #1. c.1893. Serial # 36516. It's debatable whether to include this full-keyboard upstrike here, under the Remingtons, or in a class by itself. Although the first typewriter built by the L.C. Smith & Bros gun factory that would ultimately give rise to the legendary Smith-Corona line, the Smith-Premier Typewriter Co and Smith-Corona were not corporately related. It was invented by an L.C. Smith & Bros employee, Alexander Brown, who felt he could improve upon the Sholes & Gliddon. After the company folded in the early 1900s, the Smith-Premier name was purchased by Remington, which continued to sporadically apply the name to their own machines. Since this machine was born in L.C. Smith's factory, and presumably was the stimulous for them to enter the typewriter business later on, I'm going to catagorize it here, as the grandfather of all things Smith-Corona.

Smith-Corona "Proto-Sterling" and "Proto-Standard". 1932. Serial # 1020186T (top) and 1020861 (bottom). Smith-Corona introduced the new "flattop" design in 1931. There were two versions, both called simply Smith-Corona for the first few years, the only significant difference being that one had a tab feature and the other did not. They came in black, red, and green. The name honored the first new portable produced after the 1926 merger of L.C. Smith and Corona and was designed to look like a combination of Corona's portables and L.C. Smith's standards. In 1934, these two typewriters would become the Sterling and the Standard.

This very early version has a medallion of the Smith-Corona logo embedded in the ribbon cover, and the ribbon cover itself is completely removeable. By the next year, the medallion had been omitted and the ribbon cover hinged in back.

Corona Standard, 1935. Serial # 1C35598. Emeritus collection.

Corona Sterling, 1936. Serial # 1A24212

Corona Junior. 1936. Serial # 1F14675J. A low-cost portable for the depression era, the Junior was made from 1934-1940. In 1937, the Model S was added to the line (see below).

Corona Junior, Model S. 1938. Serial # 1F 27775JS. Virtually identical to the original Junior, the Model S features the addition of a Back Space key.

L.C. Smith & Corona Super-Speed. 1938. Serial # 1452332-11. This was a teaching typewriter. All of the letter keys are blank, so the student would have no choice but to memorize the keyboard layout. The blanks, however, are just black plastic or celluloid inserts; the letters are present underneath. The inserts have cracked and come off of a few of the keys, revealing the letters.

Corona Silent. 1940. Serial # 2S64811. In 1939, Smith-Corona's "Flattop" style portable was replaced by the sleeker "Speedline" design. The Speedline somewhat belatedly reflected the futuristic, organic Art Nouveau style that had begun to move from architecture into industrial products in the 1930s. Speedlines continued through 1949, after which they were superceded by the Super-5 body.

Corona Sterling. 1940. Serial # 2A40715.

Smith-Corona Silent. 1946. Serial # 4S187453. Smith-Corona resumed production after WWII with their product line mostly unaltered, except that the pre-merger "Corona" name has been dropped in favor of the "Smith-Corona" brand. The line of portables was also pruned to three: the Silent, Sterling, and Clipper.

Smith-Corona Clipper. 1948. Serial # 4C216557. According to the serial number, this particular late-'40s Clipper was among the last of the Speedline bodies to roll off Smith-Corona's assembly line. However, as we've seen, Speedlines continued to appear sporadically well into the 1950s. The Clipper seems to have superceded the Standard name in 1945.

Note the logo, which depicts a Boeing B-314 flying boat. Although the ubiquitious Pan-Am Clippers had been retired from service in 1946, the airplane continued to--and to an extent still does--symbolize travel in style and grace.

Smith-Corona Super-Speed. 1948. Serial # 1A2128222-11. The Super-Speed got a makeover in late 1939, just 2 1/2 years after coming onto the market. Though always seemingly ahead of the design curve with their protables, Smith-Corona lagged a bit when it came to its desktops. The original Super-Speed still strongly resembled the L.C. Smith body style begun in 1904, and the L.C. Smith & Bros company stubbornly clung to its naming convention of "L.C. Smith" on standards and "Corona" on portables until after WWII, when all models adopted the Smith-Corona badge.

In my mind, this version of the Super-Speed belongs more to the '30s than the '40s, yet it continued into the early 1950s. The final version, probably introduced late '40 or early '50, was available in tan as well as black, and featured the same two-tone green keys as the rest of S-C's product line. A new model, the 1951 6A, was a partially new design, the main alteration being the change to a slotted segment. Up until then, Super-Speeds still operated with the individually ball-bearinged typebars that had been used in L.C. Smiths for almost half a century. It's unclear whether the Super-Speed line was completely discontinued in 1951 or if it continued to be manufactured on a limited basis in parallel with the 6A, 7A and 88 lines.

Smith-Corona Skyriter. 1950. Serial # 2Y 39083. When Smith-Corona debuted an entirely revamped line in 1949, among them was a brand-new model, the Skyriter. The Skyriter wasn't entirely brand-new; it was essentially a revamped Zephyr (a fact further alluded to by its 2Y serial number prefix; the Zephyr's had been 1Y). Culturally, the Skyriter reflected the shift from long-distance travel by train to travel by airplane. Supposedly it was designed to fit beneath the seat of a typical airliner of the day.

Smith-Corona Sterling. 1950. Serial # 5A273444. The first full year of the new Super-5 body style. Note the lighter-green shift, tab, and margin-release keys unique to the 1949-1954 Smith-Coronas.

Smith-Corona Sterling. 1952. Serial # 5A434530. Identical to above.

Smith-Corona Silent. 1953. Serial # 5S467543. This must have been one of the first Smith-Coronas to feature a green plastic logo rather than the chromed logo.

Smith-Corona Model 88. 1953. Serial # 88E4073754-13

Smith-Corona Sterling. 1954. Serial # 5A507714.

Smith-Corona Super. 1956. Serial # 5T 319061X

Smith-Corona Sterling. 1956. Serial # 5A631884

Smith-Corona Sterling. 1959 Serial # 5A862417. 1959 was the year that Smith-Corona introduced white keys. It was also the year that they introduced the new Galaxie body style (see below). The "Super 5" body style would last for a few more years, but this specimen was truly one of the last of its era. By the way, this is the "seafoam green" edition.

Smith-Corona Electric. 1961. Serial # 5TE144763. Known as the 5TE, Smith-Corona introduced the first successful portable typewriter in 1957. Properly, it's an "electric assist" typewriter, as the carriage return, tab, and backspace mechanisms are still manual. It looks to be a modified Silent-Super, which we'll see another reincarnation of below.

Smith-Corona Sterling. c.1963. Serial #s 5AX-328200 (top) & 5AX 221527 (bottom). Note that although this Sterling bears the "SCM" badge adopted along with "Galaxie" body redesign in 1959, its body is a 1950s "Super 5". Like the 5TE Electric, it's a Silent-Super under the hood. Remnants of the "Super 5" line can be found being made well into the first half of the '60s. It's unclear why this was done other than possibly to offload leftover Super-5 housings by marketing it as an economy typewriter.

Smith-Corona Super-Sterling. c.1966. Serial # 6SS-410267

Smith-Corona Classic 12. c.1968. Serial # 6LTV-230056. For all practical purposes, this is the original Galaxie with a 12" carriage and the addition of a half-space bar. I believe this to be one of the models built by SCM's British subsidary British Typewriters. I'm basing the date upon the copyright of the manual included with the machine.

Smith-Corona Deville DeLuxe. Serial # K6MA 109278W

Smith-Corona Galaxie DeLuxe (x2). Serial # 6T2V-233563 & 612V-918116