VIDEO: Historical typewriter restored for African American Museum

The old Remington Quiet-Riter clicks and clacks, at least as well as a 1950 typewriter can.

“I'm really surprised how well this turned out,” says Vern Steve, typewriter repairman. “There were a lot of words pounded through this machine.”

Those words were pounded out by Vernon Smith, a 1950 Coe College graduate who received the portable typewriter after graduation and used it to write his master's thesis at the University of Iowa. The typewriter was given to the African American Museum of Iowa in Cedar Rapids and then damaged when the museum took on water in the 2008 flood.

If you were to buy a similar typewriter now, you could pick one up for $35, Steve says.

“Some people would think that would be too high,” he adds.

That's not the point. Smith persevered against the odds, and his typewriter became a tool for success. He grew up in Cedar Rapids during the Great Depression, the son of a janitor and often the only black student in his classes at Garfield Elementary and Franklin High School. He once declined to join a black Boy Scout troop because he would have been the only member.

After Coe College, after his master's in organic chemistry, Smith was set to become a teacher at an African-American college in Virginia. Then polio struck.

For the next four years, Smith spent much of his time in an iron lung at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Both legs and one arm were permanently damaged. He would use a wheelchair the rest of his life.

About that time, David Steve, a teenager in Iowa City, also contracted polio. Both his legs and one arm were permanently damaged, so he wore metal leg braces and walked with heavy metal crutches. He sold office furniture and business machines. In 1972, he founded Steve's Typewriter.

“I just grew up in the business,” says Vern Steve, 39, who took over Steve's Business Machines after his father died seven years ago at 64. “I'd go to work with him, learn from him.”

In the 1970s, typewriters and adding machines had to be repaired. Now, only older customers, those who don't want to use computers, require repair services.

Still, Steve repairs 10 to 20 typewriters a month. He restores maybe three a year. Knowing the history behind this one, as well as the polio and first name connection, he was particularly meticulous.

After all, Smith, who died in 1999 at age 73, was a role model. He worked as a chemist at St. Luke's Hospital for 35 years and raised five children with his wife, Phoebe. He was active in the NAACP, the Civil Rights Commission and local PTA organizations. He helped form the Cedar Rapids Negro Civic Organization to provide scholarships for black students. He was “Handicapped Iowan of the Year” in 1971.

So Steve looked at the rusted striking keys on the typewriter and freed them. He straightened the moving parts and lubricated them. He replaced the ink ribbon. He degreased and polished the plastic key caps.

He did not, however, repaint Smith's typewriter. Instead, he left some bubbling paint, some rust, some of the wear inevitable after such heavy use. It looks exactly like the historical piece it is.

See and hear the Quiet-Riter at work: