Tom Hanks Loves Typewriters — And A LI Exhibit Displays His Collection

SAG HARBOR, NY — Beloved actor Tom Hanks is sharing something he cares about deeply with the world — his cherished collection of typewriters.

Hanks is a well-known collector, with reportedly hundreds marking his years' long love affair with typewriters, a veritable window into the past.

And now, Hanks has offered up a sampling of his collection for an exhibition, "Some of Tom’s Typewriters," set to take place at The Church, a center for art, creativity, and community located at 48 Madison Street in Sag Harbor.

The event opens Saturday and will feature 35 typewriters from Tom Hanks’ extensive collection.

"Hand-selected by Hanks, these typewriters showcase the history of the device, its evolution, and cultural significance. Hanks will record an audio guide to the show," a representative of The Church said.

Renowned creative director Simon Doonan designed the exhibition, transforming The Church’s unique space into a striking and immersive visual display.

The show opens with a reception on January 11 and runs through March 10, offering visitors an in-depth look at the design, innovation, and history of the iconic machines.

"These machines, strange, complex, but also ridiculously simple — have so much to teach us about history and culture. My goal is to spotlight their charm, engineering majesty, and social significance," Doonan said.

Hanks has shared his love of typewriters, reportedly wrapping them with love and a handwritten note and sending them to typewriter shops around the country and the world, ABC News reported. He even wrote a book of short stories, an homage to the art form, "Uncommon Type," NPR said.

In an interview with NPR, Hanks said: "There is something I find reassuring, comforting, dazzling in that here is a very specific apparatus that is meant to do one thing, and it does it perfectly. And that one thing is to translate the thoughts in your head down to paper. Now, that means everything from a shopping list to James Joyce's Ulysses. Short of carving words into stone with a hammer and chisel, not much is more permanent than a paragraph or a sentence or a love letter or a story typed on paper."

For additional information on the exhibit, click here.