Courtesy photo Sarah Everett looks for typewriters at antique shops, flea markets, backyard sales and online marketplaces.

The Stephen King quote, “Sooner or later, everything old is new again,” seems to apply to typewriters, too, which are currently enjoying a renaissance among collectors of all ages.

Hollidaysburg resident Sarah Everett, 25, a communications graduate student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, has rescued more than 30 abandoned, vintage and antique typewriters and has traveled cross-country to type-ins, created fabric art and collected thousands of followers on social media in the process.

She’s in esteemed company with celebrity collector Tom Hanks, singer/songwriters John Mayer and Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning writer David McCullough, according to a recent article in AARP magazine.

Then there’s author Dr. Peter M. Weil of Houston, Texas, an emeritus associate professor of Anthropology at the University of Delaware.

Weil, 81, amassed a 115-typewriter collection along with related ephemera, but sold all except two of his collection when he moved from Delaware to Texas in 2019.

A member and contributor to the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association’s magazine “ETCetera,” Weil said he believes analog technology like typewriters appeals to younger collectors because “it is more controllable and more private.”

More people collect typewriters than one would think in this digital age. “ETCetera” has more than

300 subscribers and is translated into Spanish and German for its international audience. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the collectors’ association hosted conventions that drew thousands from around the world, including from Argentina, Brazil, Germany, the Philippines and Europe.

During the pandemic, Weil said he thinks typewriters became extremely popular because people had time at home and enjoyed a slower pace.

Everett agrees, adding a typewriter’s singular purpose frees writers from distractions — being disconnected from the internet is a benefit — especially writers of fiction, who emulate Ernest Hemingway, Mark Twain and Agatha Christie.

“Many younger people have never seen a typewriter before and are just fascinated by them,” she said. “You can’t check Facebook or other social media when you are at a typewriter. Its only job is to communicate your ideas and put them on paper. You are hyper focused on the act of writing.”

Rehabbing typewriters also helps keep them out of landfills, she said, another of her goals. “Don’t just toss it out. They’re not making new typewriters so someday there won’t be any to use. Even if you use it as decor on a bookshelf, that’s better than it being in the landfill,” she said. “They still have value and my goal is to make them less intimidating and save them.”

Her first typewriter — a Smith Corona Four Corsair Deluxe Portable — instantly attracted Everett with its bright teal color.

Another favorite — the IBM Selectric 2 — is an 80-pounder used as a prop in a Netflix series filmed in Pittsburgh.

“The coolest one to me and one of my favorites was made by the Barbie Toy Company in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It’s toy sized, but it has electrical components that type out in code,” she said.

Courtesy photo

Unfortunately, people thought the typewriter typed gibberish when in reality it typed in code. The instruction book failed to include this information so many people thought it was faulty. “It’s a fascinating example of the progression of toys,” she said.

The pandemic prompted typewriter enthusiasts to hold virtual meetings or smaller group type-ins. A type-in is when collectors gather with their machines and try each others’ out.

Everett traveled to a type-in in Chicago where she met with like-minded enthusiasts, including collector Lucas Dul, 21, who has a typewriter repair business.

While physically based in Chicago, customers from all over the United States and beyond ship Dul typewriters to fix.

“Sarah’s collection is quite fine,” Dul said via email. “I am impressed by how cost-effective she operates, but in terms of machines, she has some wonderful examples. The Spencerian Royal is a hard-pressed machine to come across and those Barbie typewriters are quite rare. She’s working on a very unique paint job for a Royal 10 that’s coming out to be one of the best I’ve seen. As for normal machines, she has some in there that truly represent the epitome of great typewriting. So all in all, I am impressed with her collection, I think it is a fantastic example of the broad choices within mid-century typewriting.”

Everett also repairs typewriters for her own use.

“He’s been really helpful to me,” Everett said of Dul. “He knows everything about every typewriter. He also collects but he sells more than I do. He doesn’t get as attached as I do.”

Dul’s typewriter passion started while he was in high school and saw a Royal 10 at an antique store. Antique typewriters appealed to him because of their “mechanical workings.

“I loved seeing the simple concrete cause and effect, and appreciated the brilliance in design,” he said.

“My mom actually ended up getting it for me as a Christmas gift that year, and I took it apart and put it back together over the course of two years, learning about it and researching,” Dul said. At first he learned typewriter repair so he could get better deals buying non-working machines, but then he started getting referrals from friends.

“In 2019, I repaired a Hammond 12, an early 1907 machine that really put me on the map in terms of my reputation as a repair tech. It was praised as one of the best working examples, and I was one of the few people crazy enough to use a machine that old as a daily driver. Most of them just sat on shelves and looked pretty. That was kind of the machine that made people take me seriously. From there it exploded.”

For Everett, inspiration came from watching a 2017 documentary “California Typewriter.” Then, in 2018, she started the YouTube channel “Just My Typewriter” to connect with others. (https://www.youtube.com/c/JustMyTypewriter)

Three years later, she has thousands of followers on Instagram (@just.my.typewriter).

Estate sales, antique shops and online marketplaces are her go-to places to find machines.

Altoona, Weil said, is a typewriter-rich area because of the Pennsylvania Railroad and its successors.

Everett peruses antique shops, flea markets, backyard sales and online marketplaces looking for machines. It took a year of searching to find her own Barbie typewriter.

Her go-to cleaning tools are mineral spirits and canned forced air as many typewriters have been sitting unused and gathering dust. She’s also created “how to” videos to help others salvage machines.

Using a typewriter is extremely tactile as it involves the feel of the keys, the rat-a-tat sound of a key striking the ribbon to imprint a letter on paper. Even among the same brand and models, each typewriter is unique, the collectors said.

“I feel like each machine is so different and has its own personality,” Everett said, explaining why she names her typewriters. “They may have the same basic functions, but you can take a bunch next to each other and they all do the same job in different ways. The names help me personify them and it has helped me differentiate myself on social media.”

Everett said she uses a typewriter to write to other collectors and Weil uses his to write thank you notes.

Asked if she planned to write her doctoral dissertation on her typewriter, Everett said, “Oh my gosh, no. It would be 150 pages of white out. I just can’t bring myself to do it.”