Oswald Bruce Cooper Papers, 1903-1953

1946 gift of Bertsch & Cooper; some supplementary materials by 1987 gift of R. Lloyd Smith and by 2006 gift of the Briggs and Marian DaBoll Family Trust.

The Oswald Bruce Cooper Papers are open for research in the Special Collections Reading Room; 1 box at a time (Priority III).

The Oswald Bruce Cooper Papers are the physical property of the Newberry Library. Copyright may belong to the authors or their legal heirs or assigns. For permission to publish or reproduce any materials from this collection, contact the Roger and Julie Baskes Department of Special Collections.

Oswald Bruce Cooper Papers, The John M. Wing Foundation on the History of Printing, The Newberry Library, Chicago.

James M. Wells, 1955; Barbara Modisett, 1988; Robert Williams, 2011-2012.

Chicago lettering artist, advertising and type designer.

Oswald Bruce Cooper (1879-1940) was one of the leading figures in American type design in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Mount Gilead, Ohio and raised in Coffeyville, Kansas, Cooper left high school to work as a printer’s apprentice and took correspondence courses in art. He came to Chicago in 1899 and studied at the Frank Holme School, where he also taught. Upon Holme’s death in 1903, Cooper took over the affairs of the school, personally fulfilling the terms of its outstanding tuition contracts. In 1904, he partnered with Fred S. Bertsch in a lettering studio which, under the name Bertsch & Cooper, continued in business into the 1950s. In 1914 they added typesetting to their business. Their advertisements for clients like Marshall Field & Co. appeared widely in local print media, including the Chicago Daily News; the firm also had wider exposure through Chicago-based clients who advertised nationally. Oswald Cooper’s greatest influence was as the designer of a series of types for Barnhart Brothers & Spindler (the Chicago affiliate of the American Type Founders Co.). Those evidenced in the surviving papers are: Cooper Old Style (released 1919-1924); Cooper Black (1921); Cooper Black Italic (1922); Cooper Highlight (1922); Cooper Old Style Italic (1924); Cooper Black Condensed (1926); Dietz Text (ca. 1927); Pompeian Cursive (1927); Boul Mich (1928-1929?); Cooper Fullface/Modern (1928-1929); and Cooper Fullface/Modern Italic (1928-1929). Cooper also designed an undated (and unreleased) sans serif; and in 1926-1927 Barnhart Bros. issued a series of “Ornaments, borders and screamers,” a set of Christmas ornaments, and some ornamental initials by Cooper. Cooper Black became the largest selling single type face in the late 1920s and 1930s; it was the subject of a precedent-setting copyright lawsuit in 1926-1928. Cooper was a founding member of the 27 Chicago Designers and the Society of Typographic Arts, which produced a retrospective tribute to him, The Book of Oz Cooper, in 1949. Cooper died on December 17, 1940.

Art work for Cooper’s type designs; art work, proofs, and tear sheets for advertisements; correspondence with a few clients, most importantly Richard N. McArthur of Barnhart Brothers & Spindler.

Limited amounts of biographical information and printed ephemera by other designers are present. There is also a file on the 1926-1928 copyright lawsuit and Cooper’s testimony before Congress on the originality of typefaces.

Papers are organized in the following series:

Series 1: Type Designs, 1919-1953 Boxes 1-2, 6-8 Series 2: Design Work, 1908-1938 Boxes 2-4, 8-9, 11-12 Series 3: Bertsch & Cooper, 1916-1949 Boxes 4-5, 9-12 Series 4: Biographical Materials, 1919-1936 Boxes 5, 9, 11 Series 5: Ephemera, 1903-1934 Boxes 5, 8-9, 12 Appendix: Materials removed from the Raymond F. DaBoll Papers, 1930-1949 Boxes 10-12

• Names
  • Barnhart Brothers & Spindler.
  • Bertsch & Cooper.
  • Chicago Daily News, Inc.
  • Cooper, Oswald Bruce, 1879-1940
  • Marshall Field & Company.
  • McArthur, Richard N.
  • Union League Club of Chicago.
• Subject
  • Advertising -- Illinois -- Chicago -- Design
  • Advertising layout and typography
  • Calligraphy -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Chicago
  • Copyright -- Art -- United States
  • Design protection
  • Manuscripts, American -- Illinois -- Chicago
  • Printing History and Book Arts