Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

Typo published on front page for more than a century -- oops

OLD: 'I'

NEW: 'J'

The Journal of Aug. 21, 1955, confessed to what may have been the worst typographical error in newspaper history:

For more than a century, at the top of Page One, The Journal had been misspelling the name of the newspaper.

The Journal had been calling itself the Iournal, because of confusion with the fancy Old English letters used in the paper's nameplate.

The error began April 29, 1848, when the paper adopted the fancy lettering for its nameplate. At that time, the old-fashioned version of the alphabet did not include the letter J, so the editors then might be excused for substituting the I. However, by the late 1890s, the letter J was added to the set, but The Journal kept using the I.

It was not until June 21, 1955, that anyone noticed, when two sharp-eyed readers -- Leroy F. Kelley, of North Attleboro, and Leonard Cullingworth, of Norton, Mass. -- wrote to the paper.

Journal editors hired calligrapher John Howard Benson, of Newport, to research the issue and ultimately draw a new nameplate. At the end of its 1955 confession, The Journal proclaimed: "As of today, 'Journal' will be spelled with a 'J.' "