[a check made out to and endorsed by Victor Hammer]

When we were coming up as young printers, for some reason we travelled in a circle of people who loved the Austrian-born American painter, sculptor, printer, and typographer Victor Hammer. You’ll largely know him as the designer of American Uncial, a face you’re likely to see above an Irish pub or a bumper sticker that reads “Pohg muh hoin.” But Hammer was actually pretty accomplished. Apparently he was running around with Samuel E. Murray before Murray became a noteworthy antiquarian bookseller. In December 1941, Murray owed Hammer $2.75 (or $59.24 in today’s money) and neither had Venmo. Murray wrote Hammer this check drawn on a bank in Aurora, New York, when Hammer was teaching at Wells College. Presumably there was no need to tell Hammer not to spend it all in one place, because there is nowhere to spend money in Aurora, New York. Anyway, Hammer endorsed the check on the back with his signature, deposited it with his phone, and then laboriously punched holes in the check to remind himself not to deposit it again. An interesting artifact from the old days.