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Object Timeline

  • We acquired this object.

1973

  • Work on this object began.

2025

  • You found it!

Typing Elements, Correcting Selectric II, model 895, 1973

This is a Typing Elements. It was designed by Eliot Noyes and manufactured by International Business Machines Corp. (IBM).

This object is not part of the Cooper Hewitt's permanent collection. It has been able to spend time at the museum on loan from Robert Greenberg.

It is dated 1973. Its medium is aluminum, steel, molded plastic. It is a part of the department.

IBM’s Selectric typewriter revolutionized typing technology by improving the speed and flexibility of business and personal writing. Instead of the "basket" of individual type-bars that swung up to strike the ribbon and page in a traditional typewriter, the IBM Selectric had a circular device, covered with typographical characters, that pivoted to the correct position before striking. A modified version of the Selectric was incorporated into one of the first computer terminals, serving as the keyboard for the IBM System/360 computer in the 1960s.

It is credited Courtesy of Robert M. Greenberg.

Its dimensions are

H x diam. (typing ball: each): 3.8 cm (1 1/2 in.)

If you would like to cite this object in a Wikipedia article please use the following template:

<ref name=CH>{{cite web |url=https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/2318793312/ |title=Typing Elements, Correcting Selectric II, model 895, 1973 |author=Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum |accessdate=20 March 2025 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref>