Monument lettering
Lettering was the part of the monument every visitor read and every customer paid for by the letter. The period sources treat it as both a trade skill and an art. On one side are Wyckoff’s practical chapters on whiting, chisels and the pneumatic tool. On the other are Robert L. Cook’s essays on letterform, spacing and composition, with designers in Granite, Marble & Bronze insisting that good lettering could redeem a plain stone.
Preparing and laying out
Section titled “Preparing and laying out”Cutting the letters
Section titled “Cutting the letters”- Letter cutting with the pneumatic tool
- Hand-cut lettering
- Sunk letters
- Raised letters
- Lettering in marble
- Lettering in the cemetery
- Sandblast lettering
Letterforms
Section titled “Letterforms”- Roman letters
- Optical corrections in lettering
- Letter spacing
- Gothic and Old English letters
- Monumental alphabets
Composing inscriptions
Section titled “Composing inscriptions”Finishing and repair
Section titled “Finishing and repair”Typefaces from the sources
Section titled “Typefaces from the sources”Wyckoff Colonial is a digital font traced from one of the alphabet plates in The Manual of Monumental Lettering.
Sources
Section titled “Sources”Citation keys are explained on the Sources & citations page.