On June 7, 1924, a crowd gathered at Milwaukee's Forest Home Cemetery for the unveiling of a new memorial at the gravesite of Christopher Latham Sholes, inventor of the typewriter and the QWERTY keyboard, An early form of crowdsourcing gathered donations to create the memorial. 

Forest Home Cemetery historian Brian Fette notes that Mayor Daniel Hoan presided over the dedication ceremony, which was also attended by Christopher's daughter, Lillian Sholes. 

This history is something that we're proud to celebrate at QWERTYFEST MKE, and part of our activities line-up for Sunday, June 23 (which is National Typewriter Day!) is a "QWERTY Journey" tour at Forest Home Cemetery, which we're offering at 11am and again at 2pm. The tour, led by Fette, not only visits the Sholes Memorial, but talks about other key figures in the invention of the typewriter and the publishing industry so you can learn about the enduring legacy of Milwaukee inventors and purveyors of the written word.

This unique tour was created specifically for QWERTYFEST MKE. Tickets for the tour are $15 and can be purchased here: QWERTYFEST MKE 2024 | Buy Tickets | Ticketbud

You can see a full QF schedule here: QWERTYFEST 2024 SCHEDULE - QWERTYFEST

SEE ALSO: Our roving reporter Ed Makowski talked to Brian Fette in advance of QWERTYFEST last year: "When Milwaukee was the Silicon Valley for Typewriters and more."

Molly Snyder wrote about women's typewriter history in "Women's complicated relationship with the typewriter is not black-and-white." 

Both articles published in QWERTY Quarterly #1 and OnMilwaukee.com.

Illustration by Nick Berg

Tom Hanks is an avid typewriter enthusiast who, since the 1970s, has been a passionate collector. Currently, he owns roughly 250 machines and continues to use them regularly.

Earlier today, QWERTYFEST MKE named Tom Hanks the official spokesperson of the three-day, Milwaukee-based event that celebrates the invention of the typewriter in Milwaukee 150 years ago.

Hanks has no clue of his new title or his prominent role in the world’s only typewriter festival.

“We’ve invited him multiple times through typewritten and digital letters and have not heard back, so it was pretty easy to name him spokesperson because he has no idea this is happening,” says co-organizer Molly Snyder.

As the unknowing spokesperson of QWERTYFEST, happening June 21-23 in Milwaukee, Hanks will be attributed with all sorts of quips he didn’t say. For example:

“QWERTYFEST MKE is the greatest festival of our times and everyone on the planet should consider attending.”

“QWERTYFEST MKE is more than a typewriter festival. It is a revolution of contemporary practices.”

“QWERTYFEST is poised to be the next New York World’s Fair – only based in Milwaukee.”

Tea Krulos, co-organizer of the event, agrees that Hanks is the perfect person to be the spokesperson for QWERTYFEST MKE.

“Hanks has played some really important roles in his life, but the one as spokesperson for QWERTYFEST is undoubtedly going to be his finest yet,” says Krulos. “Too bad he’ll never know about it.” 

If he knew about it, Hanks would probably tell you to check out the full QWERTYFEST MKE schedule and tickets here: QWERTYFEST 2024 SCHEDULE - QWERTYFEST