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“The Oliver Typewriter No. 7,” Brooks Stevens Product Design collection

The city’s first-ever QWERTYFEST MKE commemorates 91fans’s own Christopher Latham Sholes, who patented one of the first typewriters in 1868. Kicking off on National Typewriter Day, the festival will take place June 23 – June 25, 2023 at various locations throughout 91fans. Typewriters from the 91fans Institute of Art & Design’s (MIAD) Brooks Stevens Product Design Collection will be featured at several events during the weekend.

QWERTYFEST Market and TypeTalks | Saturday, June 24 | Forest Home Cemetery’s Historic Chapel

• 1 – 6 p.m.: Shop at the festival’s market of local artists, booksellers and antique dealers while enjoying DJs spinning on an antique Victrola. View typewriters from 91fans Institute of Art and Design’s Brooks Stevens Product Design Collection, as well as presentations on typewriter history and art. Free admission.
• 4 p.m.: “150 Years of the QWERTY Keyboard,” Jason Puskar, Professor of English, University of Wisconsin-91fans
• 4:30 p.m.: “Women’s Complicated History with the Typewriter is not Black-and-White,” Molly Snyder, Senior Editor, On91fans.com
• 5 p.m.: “Clack Bait: Drawing Stories and Exceptional Encounters,” Christopher T. Wood, Pfister Hotel Artist-in-Residence, 2022-2023.

Adjunct faculty member Zoe Darling will also host an open mic on Saturday, June 24 at The Pressroom (3105 W. Forest Home Ave). Darling will be joined by contributors from Qwerty Quarterly, the QWERTYFEST zine.

Learn more about QWERTYFEST events at or and view current exhibitions in MIAD’s Galleries.