Roman Lettering – Ontario Government Instructional Booklet, 1927

In 1927 the Ontario Department of Education produced this very professional manual on lettering. Two future Group of Seven artists, Frank (Franklin) Carmichael and Arthur Lismer, were involved in its preparation. Fourteen years earlier, another Group of Seven founder, J. E. H. MacDonald, had written a lettering manual for the Shaw School in Toronto. Carmichael began his career by pinstriping carriages at his father’s carriage works in Orillia, Ontario. For many years he worked as a letterer, designer and illustrator before devoting himself fully to painting.

The original members of the Group of Seven met when they were employed as commercial artists at the Toronto engraving firm of Grip Ltd. During the first half of the 20th century, Grip was home to many of Canada’s leading designers and illustrators. After undergoing several transformations and name changes, what remained of the company was eventually absorbed into The Laird Group in the late 1980s. Like so many pre-digital firms, the Laird Group no longer exists.

Both the typography and the typesetting in this manual are more accomplished than was typical for the time, leading us to believe it may have been set at the newly formed Toronto typesetting firm of Cooper & Beatty. All the typefaces used in the manual were part of their library. From the earliest days of the trade, typesetters vied to get lucrative government work and Cooper & Beatty were no exception.
– Rod McDonald