Carl Regehr papers, 1959-1983

Old Resource ID was CRegehr

Carl Regehr grew up in a Mennonite community on the eastern plains of Colorado. After graduating high school in the 1930s, he left his home to work as a stock boy at Woolworth's in Sterling, Colorado. Regehr lived frugally, saving most of his income so that he could pay for an education at Woodbury College in Los Angeles. Inspired by instructors such as Si Vanderlaan, Regehr became more interested in art. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1940, Regehr served for five years, first in the infantry and then as a bombardier-navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps where he flew in bombers over Germany.

Carl Regehr returned to the United States and attended Denver University before taking a job an offset printing establishment, Kistler's, and later with Hoflund-Schmidt Typographic Service. His evolving interests gravitated toward design after becoming a non-resident member of the Society of Typographic Arts and correspondence with the Chicago design community. After a seven year stint with Burt Ray Studios in Chicago, Regehr established his own design firm in 1959 with clients that included the Mayor's Committee for Economic and Cultural Development of Chicago. He helped to develop the concept for Chicago Magazine and his firm provided special advertising, marketing, and "corporate identity" services for a wide variety of clients in government, academia, and the private sector.

The Carl Regehr papers include design samples, programs, brochures, clippings, issues of periodicals, corporate manuals, speeches, stationary, envelopes, posters, a book jacket, and photographs.

Elaine Regehr donated these materials to the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992.

Carl Regehr papers, Special Collections and University Archives, University of Illinois at Chicago

• NamesRegehr, Carl -- Archives
• SubjectChicago Design History.