Jett Morton, a native of Morgantown, West Virginia, began collecting typewriters around the age of seven. After touring the office of local accountant Herman Price, which housed hundreds of antique typewriters, Morton was gifted the machine that began Price’s collection, a Corona No. 3 typewriter. Morton began attending typewriter collector meetings. He also contributed to multiple issues of ETCetera – Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association.

In May 2009, Morton's collection was featured in The Dominion Post. By this time, Morton’s collection had grown to 91 typewriters, many of which were acquired at yard sales, flea markets, antique malls, and estate sales. This article was subsequently published in the Charleston Daily Mail (now the Charleston Gazette-Mail). It was also published by the Associated Press (AP). In December 2009, an article written about Morton’s collection was featured in AntiqueWeek Magazine.[5]

In 2011, Morton published The Oliver Typewriter Company: Machines and History, a history of The Oliver Typewriter Company. That same year, Morton was interviewed by local television station WBOY-TV about his collection. At this time, his collection consisted of 220 typewriters.[7]

In 2012, Morton appeared in The Typewriter (in the 21st Century), a documentary film directed by award-winning filmmaker Christopher Lockett.[8]

In 2016, Morton made a cameo in California Typewriter, a documentary film directed by Doug Nichol, featuring Tom Hanks, John Mayer, David McCullough, and Sam Shepard.

From August 2020 to May 2021, Morton displayed a portion of his typewriter collection, then consisting of 300 machines, in an exhibit through the West Virginia University Art in the Libraries program.

Once his collection reached somewhere between 300 to 350 typewriters, Morton began tailoring his collection toward the Oliver typewriter brand. He already had several rare Oliver typewriters and liked their design. In March 2021, after selling some of his other machines, Morton’s collection housed 54 Oliver typewriters. His Oliver collection was featured in a story published by West Virginia Public Broadcasting.[11]