Ismar David papers
Collection Scope and Content Note
The Ismar David papers contain correspondence, personal
papers, photographs, writings, artwork, and publications that
document the life and career of the graphic artist and architectural
designer. The collection spans the dates of 1939-1995,
with the bulk of the material covering the years 1952-1990.
Series I. Papers, (Boxes 1-12), begins with Correspondence,
which contains mixed personal and professional correspondence. Personal correspondence includes letters and cards to and from personal friends, colleagues, and students. Of these
the most extensive files are those for Rollo and Alice Silver,
Beatrice Ward, Lili Cassel and Erich Wronker, and Jeanyee Wong.
Professional correspondence includes letters to and from
publishers, art directors , authors, corporate clients, publications,
associations, institutions, and other professional acquaintances.
Many letters pertain to project arrangements or production. The
artwork and samples for the commissioned projects is arranged
in Series III. Professional ephemera is filed here as well.
Correspondence is arranged in alphabetical order, then chronologically
within the folders.
Personal Papers and Memorabilia contains assorted records and
memorabilia of Ismar David’s life, and ephemera related to association
memberships and awards, typography, and calligraphy,
among other subjects. David’s immigration papers are filed in
this section, as is a rendering of David’s initials by Herman Zapf
(1974). It is unknown why David owned the two Type Directors
Club Annual Award medallions (1975) bearing the name of
Edward Ronthaler, who was associated with Houghton Mifflin
Company. Likewise no explanation exists for David’s ownership
of the Kaiser-Frazer automobile nameplate, identified using a
photograph in the catalog for Israel Exposition for State of Israel
Bonds (1952), for which David designed displays. Personal Papers
& Memorabilia is filed alphabetically by subject.
Writings and Teaching Materials is divided into two sections—
Workshops and Miscellaneous—and includes David’s handwritten
and typewritten notes for workshops and lectures about
alphabets and letterforms, as well as writing about his work and
artistic style. Writings also includes a book review of Ben Shahn
(ca. 1972). A set of lecture slides is filed here, as are large sheets
of kraft paper covered with Hebrew and Roman lettering which
David is known to have used in workshops and lectures. All
handwritten and typed writings which were included in the
archive are attributed to Ismar David, unless another author is
known. Both sections of are arranged chronologically, with
undated miscellaneous entries filed after dated ones.
Photographs is composed of images of Ismar David in personal
and professional settings. The mix of snapshots and professional
photographs shows David on vacation, in lecture and workshop
settings, on project sites, and working in his studio, among other
places. Also filed here is a studio portrait of Hortense Mendel
David, Ismar’s first wife, taken by A. Newmann. Photographs in
this segment are arranged alphabetically by principal subject.
Pictures of commissioned and personal works are filed in their
respective project folders in Series III and IV.
Series II. Publicity, (Boxes 13–14), begins with Articles, which
holds clippings and photocopies of biographical sketches, profiles,
mentions, and brief articles about Ismar David and his work.
They are arranged chronologically by publication date. The Ismar
David Number of Italix (1978) provides one of the best overviews
of David’s career as an artist.
Book Reviews contains clippings or photocopies of reviews of
Ismar David’s instructional work, Our Calligraphic Heritage: The
Geyer Studio Writing Book. The reviews appeared in publications
including Fine Print and Communication Arts, and are offered by noted figures including Herman Zapf, Herb Lubalin, Paul Standard,
and Donald Jackson.
Exhibitions contains announcements for solo and group exhibitions
in which Ismar David’s work appeared. The subseries also
contains correspondence related to exhibitions, as well as press
releases, catalogs, and clippings or photocopies of media coverage.
David’s first exhibition in the United States was a one-man show
in 1953 at the Jewish Museum in New York, NY, under the auspices
of The Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 1970, he had a
solo exhibit of his 58 drawings for The Psalms sponsored by B’nai
B’rith in Washington, D.C. In addition, David had work in three
American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) shows, including the
1973 Fifty Books of the Year show (The Psalms). Entries in this
subseries are arranged chronologically to provide an overview of
Ismar David’s exhibit history.
Films contains one entry,“The Work of Ismar David.” Filed here is
a photocopy of the script for the 30-minute documentary film
produced in 1983 by Harold Yardlan of the Geyer Studio. This
version of the script reveals handwritten edits made by Ismar
David. A large portion of the documentary focuses on his work at
Pinelawn Memorial Park.
Series III. Commissioned Works, (Boxes 15–71), begins with
Corporate, which holds original sketches, drawings, and mechanical
artwork; films; photo-engraved printing blocks; two and
three-dimensional samples and printed pieces; models; and
photographic documentation of work created for corporate
clients. Correspondence pertaining to commissioned works is
filed in the respective client folders in Series I Correspondence.
A large portion of David’s corporate work is book jacket and cover
design, and often includes identity-mark design for client
publishers. Book illustration comprises another considerable
portion of corporate commissions. Some projects filed here
include the design of interior and exterior elements of a book. The
dust jackets and illustrations that David created in the 1960s for a
series of small volumes on religious themes for the Fleming H.
Revell Company provide an example of this type of commission.
Lettering and calligraphy—with illustration, or without—account
for another large share of David’s corporate commissions. The
subseries holds lettering work for both two and three-dimensional
objects from certificates, greeting cards, and advertisements to
commemorative medals, stone monuments, and crystal goblets.
Files for the Union of American Hebrew Congregations hold work
for a large volume of certificate projects; and entries for the
United Jewish Appeal present the design of several commemorative
medallions.
Corporate Commissions also contains identity mark projects that
Ismar David undertook for entities other than publishing houses,
including Bell Telephone Laboratories, the Brotherhood Synagogue,
Continental Forest Industries, the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, and the
World Trade Institute.A selection of nine trademarks was combined
for presentation by David, and the item resides in the World Trade
Institute folder. Files for the trademark projects usually contain
sketches, drawings and mechanical art, but not printed exemplars.
The Museum of Modern Art is one exception to this trend.
The subseries also includes architectural design for memorial
parks and synagogues. Work for long-term client Pinelawn
Memorial Park is represented by a wide range of materials,
including small-scale plan drawings, large-scale lettering for
stone inscriptions on rolled pieces of kraft paper, renderings, and
hand-built models of architectural features, as well as photographs
of completed features.
Corporate Commissions is arranged in alphabetical order by client.
Within client listings, projects may be classified by intent, such as
Book Projects, Broadsides or Corporate Identity.Within Book
Projects, entries are arranged in alphabetical order by author.
A Government Commissions subseries follows that for Corporate
Commissions. It contains work commissioned by the State of
Israel and represents a small segment of the total commissioned
works. The work is classified by intent—Citations, Currency,
Painting, Postage Stamps, and Posters—and the materials filed
here include original artwork, proofs, printed samples, and photographic
documentation of completed projects. Only snap shots of
the painting and posters—created to address issues from national
security to resource conservation in the new nation of Israel—are
filed here. Samples are housed at Yeshiva University, New York,NY.
Private Commissions is the final subseries of Series III and holds
works created by Ismar David for private clients. Original and
mechanical artwork, proofs, photo-engraved printing blocks,
blueprints, and printed samples are filed here for projects including
bookplates, broadsides, greeting cards, maps,memorial markers,
and wedding invitations. The subseries contains the work for
Ismar David’s contribution to Donald E. Knuth’s book 3:16 Bible
Texts Illuminated. Entries in Private Commissions are arranged in
alphabetical order by client.
Series IV. Personal and Unidentified Works, (Boxes 72–81), begins
with the subseries Personal Work, which contains Ismar David’s
personal, non-commissioned work.Materials include original and
mechanical artwork, film, photo-engraved printing blocks, printed
samples, and photographic documentation. The bulk of his personal
work falls into the following classifications: broadsides; business
items; greeting cards; keepsakes; three-dimensional objects; travel
sketches; and type design. Greeting cards, by far the largest category
with over 42 entries, are arranged chronologically. Undated
cards fall before dated ones, and they are arranged in a rough
chronological order based on circumstantial evidence. The cards,
which almost exclusively offer season’s and new year greetings,
vary widely in lettering and illustration style as well as format.
Only artwork and photographs are filed here for three-dimensional
object projects, such as the Elijah bowl and Judaica and
Jewish ritual objects.
Unidentified Work concludes Series IV. Excluding four finished
products, this subseries contains principally artwork for projects
of unknown origin. Files are classified by intent that was determined
using either information provided with the archive or
other knowledge and evidence.
Series V. Financial Records (Boxes 86–88), contains Ismar David’s
unprocessed financial records.
Dates
- Creation: 1938 - 1996
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1952 - 1990
Creator
- David, Ismar (Person)
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open to researchers.
Biographical Note
Ismar David, considered one of the few graphic designers, illustrators,
and calligraphers of international reputation, was a
German-born graphic artist who practiced the first third of his
professional career in Jerusalem and the remainder in New
York City. He is noted for his brilliant work in Hebrew and
Latin calligraphy, lettering, and type design, as well as for his
distinctive linear style of illustration. David liked to say that the
hand is the most marvelous tool if properly trained, and his
own handwork supports this conviction.
Ismar David was born in Breslau, Germany (now Wroclaw,
Poland) on August 27, 1910. At the age of fourteen, he left
school to apprentice as a house painter and varnisher. After
receiving his journeyman papers, however, he returned to
study decorative painting at the Arts and Crafts School of Berlin-
Charlottenberg, where many of the finest book craftsmen of
the first part of the century taught and studied. Hans Orlowski
and Johannes Boeland were among his teachers.
In 1932, at the age of twenty-one, Ismar David entered and won
an international competition sponsored by the Jewish National
Fund for the design of its honorary Golden Book. He traveled
to Jerusalem to supervise the execution of the project, and he
settled there for the next twenty years and established a studio
for interior and graphic design. In addition to receiving a
broad range of commissions from private industry, David
accepted commissions from national institutions and the state
government for design projects including posters, postage
stamps, and currency.
During his residence in Jerusalem, Ismar David made one of
his most important contributions to twentieth century graphic
design with the conception and development of an innovative
family of Hebrew typefaces. His interest in developing Hebrew
types that would be in harmony with the modern spirit and
would help to transform Hebrew into an everyday
language eventually lead to David Hebrew. This unshaded and
unserifed type design was cast for machine composition in
1954 by the Intertype Corporation and was later available on
the Photon machine. In 1984, the Stempel type foundry
commissioned David to rerender David Hebrew with diacritical
marks for digital composition. To this day David Hebrew is
widely used and much copied. The light appearance of David
Hebrew makes it well suited for setting poetry. It is also favored
for use in exhibition catalogs, finely printed books, and Israeli
newspaper supplements.
Before moving permanently to the United States, Ismar David
made several visits to New York City. His first trip, in 1939, was
to work on the Palestine Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair.
In 1947, he traveled to New York to study printing methods.
With the help of Dr. Robert Leslie, he returned in 1951 to make
arrangements with the Intertype Corporation for the casting of
David Hebrew. And finally in 1952, David visited New York to
design and install an industrial exhibition for Bonds for Israel.
Ismar David emigrated to the United States in 1953, and on
June 3rd of that year, married Hortense Mendel. Ismar had met
Hortense, an associate of Robert Leslie, at the Composing
Room, during his 1951 trip to New York to show Intertype his
Hebrew alphabets. The two spent six years together before
Hortense died on October 9, 1960.
Upon his arrival in New York City in 1953, Ismar David established
a design studio and began teaching Latin calligraphy at
Cooper Union and Pratt Institute. He had expected the bulk of
his commissions to come from designing decorative elements
for synagogues, however, he found his mainstay work in the
1950’s, 60’s, and early 70’s in the publishing industry. David
worked steadily as a designer for leading American publishers
including Alfred A. Knopf; Atlantic, Little Brown; Ballantine
Books; Fleming H. Revell; Harper and Row; Harry Abrams;
Houghton Mifflin Company; J.B. Lippincott Company; McGraw-
Hill; Pocket Books; Random House; Thomas Y. Crowell; and
Viking Press, among others. In a short span, he designed book
jackets or covers for more than 200 books.
Ismar David remained a free-lance artist throughout his career.
In addition to steady work in cover design, calligraphy, and
lettering, Ismar David earned commissions for book illustration
and developed the style of illustration for which he is best
remembered—a style characterized by striking patterns of
lines. This distinctive linear style was particularly well suited
for the Limited Edition Club’s 1971 publication of Pascal’s Les
Pensées, for which David created a dozen full-page, hypnotic
color-illustrations—pre-separated in the tradition of printmaking—
as well as ornamental tailpieces, and text frames. As
would become his custom, Ismar’s conceptions in vivid
oranges, greens, purples, blues, and golds were meant to
accompany the thoughts of the author, not to illustrate them
literally. His 58 illustrations for the Union of American Hebrew
Congregation’s 1973 bilingual edition of The Psalms followed
the same non-literal approach. For this project, which David
considered his most personal work, he combined his ideas
about illustration and type and book design, and his efforts
were recognized by The American Institute of Graphic Arts
(AIGA) with a 1973 “Fifty Books of the Year” distinction. Both
Les Pensées and The Psalms proved to be very popular among
collectors, and they stand as two of his best efforts in book illustrations.
Though he never lost interest in graphics, much of David’s
energy in the latter part of his career was devoted to architectural
design and decoration. Perhaps his most important work
in this field was produced during a thirty-year association with
Pinelawn Memorial Park in Farmingdale, NY. Beginning in
1965, he planned the layout of the park, including fountains and
other features; he also designed mausoleums and other
building complexes, and their interiors. He also lettered
numerous inscriptions for wall decorations and architectural
features in the park. Proof of Ismar David’s uninterrupted
connection with graphics came in 1991, when in collaboration
with calligrapher and partner Helen Brandshaft, he designed
and illustrated a bilingual version of The Book of Jonah,
published by the Chiswick Press in a limited edition.
Teaching was another constant element in Ismar David’s career.
In addition to instructing at the Cooper Union and Pratt
Institute, he gave lectures and conducted workshops on Latin
and Hebrew calligraphy over the years. Eventually he distilled
his well-tested teaching materials and summarized his views
on the historical, aesthetic, and technical aspects of the Latin
alphabet into Our Calligraphic Heritage: The Geyer Studio
Writing Book. The three-part work of text, alphabet folders, and
compositions, encased in a box designed to function as an
easel, was published in a limited edition in 1979 by the Geyer
Studio—a professional calligraphy studio for whom David
worked as a contractor from the late 1960’s through the early
1980’s. David produced the Hebrew counterpart to Our
Calligraphic Heritage with the 1990 publication of The Hebrew
Letter: Calligraphic Variations. This instructional work
includes a text and alphabet charts, and is a writing book in the
tradition of European writing books. In both works, David
fuses the rich historical background of the calligraphic arts
with practical and aesthetic aspects of the art of writing in the
twentieth century.
In the early 1990's, Ismar David continued to take on select
commissions for graphic design; however, he also expressed his
personal interest in three-dimensional form with the creation
of such objects as a folding baby cradle and a paper Elijah’s cup
and folding seder plate. Before he died on February 26, 1996, in
New York City, Ismar David produced his 1996 greeting card—
the last in a forty-odd-year series that traces the evolution of
his lettering and illustration styles, and the constant influence
of biblical themes.
Chronology
- 1924
- David leaves school to apprentice as a house painter
- 1928
- Begins study of decorative painting at Arts and Crafts Schoolof Berlin-Charlottenberg
- 1930
- Father dies
- 1931
- Wins Jewish National Fund competition for thedesign of honorary Golden Book
- 1932
- Travels to Jerusalem to execute Golden Book project
- 1932
- Emigrates to Jerusalem and opens a studio for interior and graphic design
- 1939
- Mother and sister go from Germany to Shanghai, where theyremain until World War II ends, then re-unite with David inJerusalem
- 1947
- Visits United States to study printing methods
- 1951
- Goes to New York City to design and install industrial exhibitions for Bonds for Israel
- 1951
- Travels to New York City to finalize arrangements for David Hebrew with Intertype Corporation
- 1953
- Emigrates to America and opens design studio in New York City
- 1953
- Begins 16-year stint as instructor of Latin alphabet calligraphy at Cooper Union
- 1953
- Begins 3-year stint as instructor of Latin alphabet calligraphy at Pratt Institute
- 03 June 1953
- Marries Hortense Mendel
- 1954
- Intertype Corporation issues David Hebrew for machinecomposition
- 1955
- The Jewish Museum (New York, NY) exhibits David’s designwork
- 1956
- Represents the United States in the internationaldesign project Liber Librorum
- 09 October 1960
- Hortense Mendel David dies
- 1960
- Publication of S.Y.Agnon’s A Stray Dog marks first booklengthuse of David Hebrew
- 17 October 1962
- Marries Dorothy Hoffman
- 1965
- Begins 30-year association with Pinelawn Memorial Park(Farmingdale, NY) as architectural designer
- 1966
- Attends Type Directors Club meeting in London
- May 1967
- Completes John Donne inscription for mausoleum atPinelawn Memorial Park
- 1969
- Begins to do contract work for the Geyer Studio, an arrangementthat would last for about fifteen years
- September 1970
- B’nai B’rith Klotznik Gallery (Washington, D.C.) exhibitsDavid’s drawings for The Psalms
- 1971
- Pascal’s Les Pensées published
- 1971
- Selected Drawings by Tully Filmus is highest scorer in Philadelphia Book Show
- 1973
- The Psalms published
- 1973
- The Psalms chosen for “Fifty Books of the Year” by American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)
- 06 March 1974
- Typophiles celebrate “Ismar David Day”
- October 1974
- Visits Israel with Typophiles
- December 1974
- AIGA Gallery (New York, NY) exhibits David’s work
- Winter 1978
- Italix publishes “The Ismar David Number”
- 1979
- Our Calligraphic Heritage published
- June 1981
- Conducts workshops at The Calligraphy Connection
- June 1982
- Conducts workshops at Philadelphia Conference on theCalligraphic Arts
- 1983
- Conducts workshops at Philadelphia Conference on the Calligraphic Arts
- 1983
- Calligraphy Idea Exchange publishes the "Ismar David Portfolio"
- 1984
- Stempel commissions David to re-render David Hebrewwith diacritical marks for digital composition
- June 1984
- Conducts workshops at The Calligraphy Connection
- 07 November 1986
- Dorothy David dies
- 1987
- Establishes ABCD Architectural and Graphic Studiowith Helen Brandshaft
- 1990
- The Hebrew Letter: Calligraphic Variations published
- 1991
- The Book of Jonah published
- 26 February 1996
- Ismar David dies in New York, NY
Extent
146 Linear Feet (13 manuscript boxes, 69 oversize boxes, 3 map drawers, 13 oversize rolls)
Language
English
Hebrew
German
Overview
Collection of materials from the calligrapher, type designer, graphic and architectural designer, illustrator, and educator Ismar David, including correspondence, photographs, teaching materials, and commisioned works.
System of Arrangement
Series I. Papers
Series II. Publicity and Writings about David
Series III. Commissioned Works
Series IV. Personal and Unidentified Works
Series V. Financial Records
Physical Location
Cary Graphic Arts Collection
Other Finding Aids
In addition to this finding aid, an inventory is available below. For more information, please contact the Cary Graphic Arts Collection.
Ismar David papers
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection came to the Cary Graphic Arts Collection from Helen Brandshaft, through a series of deposits over a two-year period, beginning in 1997.
Separated Materials
Books that came to the Cary Graphic Arts Collection with the David papers were removed and are housed separately; they include copies of books to which Ismar David contributed during his career, many of his reference books, and volumes that David collected for pleasure. The bibliography at the end of the finding aid lists books in the archive with Ismar David contributions, and it should be consulted in conjunction with other visual materials in the archive to gain a more complete sense of the artist’s work.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Susan Colodny, 2000.
Finding aid encoded by Megan Moltrup, February 2012.
Subject
- Random House (Firm) (Organization)
- United Jewish Appeal (Organization)
- McGraw-Hill Book Company (Organization)
- George Macy Companies, Inc (Organization)
- Fleming H. Revell Company (Organization)
- Harper & Row, Publishers (Organization)
- Geyer Studio (Organization)
- Standard, Paul (Person)
- Zapf, Hermann (Person)
- Warde, Beatrice (Person)
- Jewish Publication Society (Organization)
- Houghton Mifflin Company (Organization)
- World Publishing Company (Organization)
- Union of American Hebrew Congregations (Organization)
- Cassel-Wronker, Lili (Person)
- Harry N. Abrams, Inc (Organization)
- Intertype Corporation (Organization)
- J.B. Lippincott Company (Organization)
- Pinelawn Memorial Park (Babylon, N.Y.) (Organization)
- Jason Aronson, Inc (Organization)
- Thomas Y. Crowell, Publishers (Organization)
- Wong, Jeanyee (Person)
- Silver, Rollo G. (Rollo Gabriel) (Person)
Genre / Form
- Book jackets
- Broadsides (notices)
- Certificates
- Commercial art
- Drawings -- 20th century
- Drawings -- United States -- 20th century
- Dummies (printed matter)
- Greeting cards
- Illustrations
- Invitations
- Layouts (printer matter)
- Lettering (layout features)
- Letterings (processes)
- Models (representations)
- Stats (copies)
- Transfer type
- Type (composition equipment)
- Type specimens
- Typefaces (type forms)
Topical
- Architectual inscriptions -- United States -- 20th century
- Book design -- United States -- 20th century
- Book jackets -- United States -- 20th century
- Calligraphy -- United States -- 20th century
- Calligraphy, Hebrew
- Design
- Designers -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Graphic artists -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Graphic arts -- United States -- History -- 20th century
- Illustration of books -- United States -- 20th century
- Sepulchral monuments -- Lettering -- United States -- 20th century
- Trademarks
- Type designers
- Title
- Ismar David papers
- Status
- In Progress
- Subtitle
- Cary Special Collections
- Author
- Susan Colodny, Shani Avni
- Date
- 29 February 2012
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- English
- Edition statement
- First edition by Susan Colodny, 2000. Second edition encoded by Megan Moltrup, 29 February 2012. Third edition encoded by Arianna McQuillen, 30 October 2023; incomplete. Fourth edition encoded and edited by Shani Avni, [final date].
Repository Details
Part of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection Repository
