Continental Typefounders Association, Inc.

The Continental Typefounders Association, Inc. was organized in New York City in 1925 by Melbert B. Cary Jr. Its aim was to import from Europe the best new designs in type, initials, borders, and ornaments being developed by foundries on the continent, but cast to American type height and using the American point system primarily so that designers and printers in the United States could use fresh and modern faces for commercial advertising. Officers included Cary as president, Douglas C. McMurtrie as vice president, Franklin Woodruff as treasurer, and Warren A. Ransom as secretary; Frederic W. Goudy also served as a vice president. The firm's offices were at 248 West 40th Street (1925-1928) and afterward on East 45th Street; they briefly maintained a Midwest office, Continental Typefounders of Chicago, Inc. (1930-1933).

Melbert Brinkerhoff Cary Jr. (1892-1941) was born in New York, educated at Groton School and Yale University, and died in New York. He was president of Continental Type Founders Association and the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and proprietor of the private Press of the Woolly Whale. His professional and personal interests in printing led him to collect printer's manuals and type specimens, as well as exemplars of the printer's art.