Phelps County, Mo., museum brings new life to old typewriters
ROLLA, MO. – The term “museum” usually refers to a place of dry and dusty items from the past that no longer support life in the modern world. As such, perhaps it is the wrong word for the Clickety-Clack Typewriter Museum of Rolla, Mo., operated by Shane and Amanda Byrne. Their “museum” is a dynamic part of the Phelps County Museum, infused with a lively history and run by the couple.
Many struggle with what to do after retiring, but not Shane. After 30 years with the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense as a fire marshal, traveling the world, including several years at the Norfolk Navy Shipyard in Virginia, he returned to his native Rolla to marry the girl who grew up across the street from his parent’s home. The two have worked together for the past six years, bringing many more than a century-old typewriters back to life in the 21st century.
“Here we have a portable Corona and an Erika,” Shane explained during an impromptu tour. “They were the original portable typewriters, the very types that Ernest Hemingway used as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War. Here is an 1898 model, the kind used by the poet Robert Frost, and this one is the type used by President Woodrow Wilson in the first part of the last century. You can see how the arrangement of the letters on the keyboard changed between the two to give us the arrangement we use today.”
His enthusiasm for the machinery in his new hobby has now turned into a second career and is boundless. Amanda is no less excited, as she points out other typewriters rarely seen in the U.S.
“This is a typewriter that uses the Cyrillic alphabet,” Amanda said as she waved her hand over a green-keyed model featuring the letters and symbols used in the Russian, Bulgarian and Ukrainian languages. Amanda has a degree from the University of Missouri at Rolla, now the Missouri University of Science and Technology, with a minor in Russian, a language that has fascinated her since childhood.
They began collecting typewriters from around the world during the pandemic, with their first purchase from Louisiana, a 1953 Royal Quiet Deluxe, and things took off from there. In short order, they realized they needed a bigger space for their collection, which currently numbers 700 to 800 machines. They estimate there are still more than 100 typewriters at their house. Shane cleans and refurbishes most machines to get them back into working order before displaying them. They also sell selected models to new customers, especially younger ones.
“Unlike computer use, a typewriter involves all the senses,” Amanda explained. “There is the sense of touch, the fingers on the keys, and the finger strength it takes to strike each key, which is different with each machine. Hearing the keys hit the paper, seeing each key leaving its imprint of the individual letter on the paper, the smell of the ink, and when whatever is being typed is finished, you have a paper, something to take away in your hand. Several kids who have come with their classes have been surprised when we hand them what they have typed as something to take home. ‘You mean I can keep this?’ they say. Typing is a different practice than the computers the kids are accustomed to today.”
“Part of the enjoyment of all of this, too, is the chance to hear the different families’ stories when they bring us another typewriter,” Steve said. “This Understrike model, for instance, probably weighs 50 pounds and was found in a barn. And over here is a Braille machine, a typewriter that prints in Braille.”
After Steve left the Army, the Byrnes bought part of their collection from Verne Trampe who had Jones Typewriter in St. Louis since 1964.That is where they also picked up a few antique adding machines and a vintage change machine.
“This one was designed to make change with two-bit pieces, to make change for a nickel,” Shane chuckled. “One of these adding machines was in use in a post office in a little town where the post office and the museum were housed together in the same building.”
“The Burroughs company that had made adding machines for years wanted to get into the typewriter business and did so for a short while when they made this one, but they didn’t stay with typewriters for long,” Shane said.
Clickety-Clack Typewriters in open Thursdays and Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and by appointment. The museum can also be found on Facebook and Instagram.
