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| Remington Portable Model 5 |
A fantastic donation was recently given to the archives by Anne Oppermann, former secretary to Norman Rockwell. Anne was also the daughter of Ejner Handberg, the designer and builder of Rockwell's Stockbridge studio.
She worked as Rockwell's typist during the years 1957 to 1961, responding to his significant amount of fan mail. Here in the archives, we have many thousands of fan letters that Rockwell received during the course of his career. Anne estimated that Rockwell was sent approximately 20 fan letters per week, with a large spike in numbers during those weeks when one of his Post covers was published.
This typewriter was actually given to Anne by Rockwell in order for her to complete this task. Although she didn't begin working for him until the late 1950's, this typwriter - a Reminington Portable Model 5 - was already an "antique," having been made between the years 1932 and 1939. At that time, it carried a hefty price tag of $65. In today's dollars, that would be about $1090. I think it was probably worth it because nearly 80 years later, it still works!
