For more information on Underwoods, visit Joan Sales' Ode to the Underwood.

Underwood #3 with 26" platen. Serial # 96665-26. 1923. An accounting typewriter, designed to fit the ledger sheets. Overall, it is 38" long!

Underwood #5. 1926. Serial # 1488329. The classic. This is the machine which started my collection, and the machine I learned to type on. I found it in my grandfather's basement after he passed away. The Underwood #5 is what most people think of when they think of old manual typewriters. One of the most popular lines ever, with over 4 million sold. The Commodore 64 of the '20s.

Underwood Standard Portable. 1929. Serial # 209815. I saved this 3-banker from a keychopper. What depraved, heartless person would cut the keys off this little gem and toss the rest of it in the trash??

Underwood Junior. 1935. Serial # 810544. Though unlabeled, the lack of backspace, tab, or margin-release keys says that this must be the Underwood Junior. Like the Corona Junior and Royal Signet, the Underwood Junior was a no-frills, low-cost depression-era portable.

Underwood Noiseless Portable. 1941. Serial # P1171091. Made from 1931-'42. A clone of the Remington Noiseless Portable, built at Remington's Ithaca, NY, factory through a licensing deal.

Underwood Leader. c.late 1940s. Serial # L48632

Underwood Finger-Flite Champion. 1952. Serial # L2230207.

Underwood De Luxe Quiet Tab. 1956. Serial # AA2664270. This second version of the De Luxe Quiet Tab is probably the flashiest typewriter Underwood ever produced. The influence of contemporary automobile design is obvious. Slight changes were made to the top half of the shell. Note the button to release the ribbon cover and the swoopy carriage return lever. Not immediately apparent is a new geometric slab serif typeface--apparently based upon Memphis--that is more modern and artistic while still being professional enough for business use.

Unlike the previous De Luxe Quiet Tab, this version was available in dual two-tone color schemes: green and grey, and black and white. These models have two leading letters in the serial #--the first A indicates the De Luxe Quiet Tab line, and the second indicates the color: A for green, B for black.

This is a weighty machine, more desktop than portable, with a solid key touch to match.

Underwood Leader. 1956. Serial # CA2602342. Some people dislike the post-war Underwoods, citing a flimsy touch and awkardly-placed controls. I tend to not agree with them except when I use this machine. It rattles like a Model T on a washboard road, and has a keyboard touch only slightly more subtle than hailstones upon a steel-sided house. It displays well, but then the De Luxe Quiet Tab both displays better and types better. The Leader is only for the completist collector or the self-abusive tortured writer.

Underwood Universal. c.1958. Serial # BF2871953. Note that the "U" doubles as a push-button ribbon cover release. This body style was among the last of the "true" Underwoods. In 1963, Olivetti bought stock in Underwood, the beginnings of an eventual merger. As we'll see below, Underwoods gradually became Olivettis in diguise.

Underwood Leader. 1959. Serial # CE2957563.

Underwood 319. Serial # unknown. Nearly two decades after their merger with Underwood and eventual erasure of the name in the 1960s, Olivetti briefly revived the Underwood brand in the 1980s. Many, such as this one, were made in Spain and shared their designs with other Olivetti machines. This particular machine is a clone of the Olivetti Lettera 92. Included here as a curiosity, as the '80s Underwoods have about as much relation with the original Underwood company as today's Indian motorcycles have with their famous predecessors.