Home / Typewriters / Corona, 1913, N°3
Typewriters
Modello: n.3
Nazione: USA
Nome: Corona
Corona N°3, 1913, USA

The Corona 3 was one of the most successful machines in typewriter history, with more than 600,000 machines built and sold over a period of almost 30 years.

In 1886, Lyman C. Smith and his brothers Wilbert, Monroe, and Hurlbut founded the Smith Premier Typewriter Company.
In 1906, New York City's Rose Typewriter Company launched the first successful portable typewriter. They were bought by Smith in 1909 and renamed the Standard Typewriter Company. In order to promote the use of the typewriter, the company initially offered typing services at the company headquarters.

With the success of their Corona model, the Standard Typewriter Company was renamed again and became the Corona Typewriter Company. Smith Corona was founded when LC Smith & Bros merged with Corona Typewriter in 1926. During the Second World War, typewriter production shifted to various military weapons and parts.

Fun fact: the Corona n.3 was also used by Ernest Hemingway, one of the most famous writers of the 20th century.
It is said that Hadley Richardson herself (his fiancee and later wife) gave it to him on July 21st, 1921 for his birthday.
It was useful for him the following year while attending the Greek-Turkish war as a reporter, so he could easily write for the “Toronto Star” newspaper with his Corona. The shape allowed it to be store in a bag comfortably. Compact and light, the Corona number 3 “was not just a typewriter but it has personality” he wrote.
The Corona will be stolen though, with all the documents, during a trip to Switzerland, at the Gare de Lyon station, in Paris, and never found again. An episode that signed Hemingway's life, so much so that he wrote it a poetry.