In 1894, Linn Boyd Benton finished a commission for a new text typeface with the American periodical, Century magazine. Century is typical of the neorenaissance movement in typography at the end of the 19th century.

Morris Fuller Benton drew a number of versions of the font for the font foundry, American Typefounders, and Century was later taken up by the firms Linotype, Intertype and Monotype.