Ray Nash (February 27, 1905May 21, 1982) was an American graphic arts historian and expert on calligraphy and the history of printing.

Biography

Nash was born in Oregon and was a 1928 graduate of the University of Oregon. He was an art instructor at the New School in New York. In 1937 he began a long association with Dartmouth College as a lecturer; he received a graduate degree there in 1949 (along with an M.A. from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1947), was a professor of art in 1949, Director of Publications in 1960, and a professor emeritus in 1970. Nash ran the Graphic Arts Workshop at Dartmouth from 1937 until 1970. In 1945, Nash designed a new railroad schedule for the Boston & Maine Railroad featuring legible typography and cartoon illustrators to decipher the previously confusing data. From 1953 to 1965, Nash was co-editor with Roderick Stinehour of ''Printing & Graphic Arts'', a journal devoted to typography and printing and printed by the Stinehour Press in Lunenberg, Vermont. Nash was awarded the AIGA medal in 1956. According to the ''New York Times'', "He lectured on at Oxford University in 1965, was an authority on handwriting and the author of several books on calligraphy and printing. He was an officer of the Order of Leopold from the Belgian Government and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Society of Antiquaries of London." Nash was an advisor to the

Plantin-Moretus Museum The Plantin-Moretus Museum ( nl, Plantin-Moretusmuseum) is a printing museum in Antwerp, Belgium which focuses on the work of the 16th-century printers Christophe Plantin and Jan Moretus. It is located in their former residence and printing establ ...

in Antwerp.

Works

* Nash, Ray and Rugg, Harold Goddard, ''Pioneer printing at Dartmouth'' in issue 46 of ''Keepsake of the Columbiad Club'', published by George T. Bailey, Hanover, 40 pages, 1941. * Nash, Ray,

Rollo G. Silver Rollo Gabriel Silver (June 27, 1909September 20, 1989) was an American literary historian. Silver was born on June 27, 1909, in New York City, to Anna (Newman) and Stanley Gabriel Silver. He attended Brown University, graduating in 1931. He then ...

, and Roderick D. Stinehour, ed. ''Notes on Printing & Graphic Arts'', Stinehour Press, 1953. * Nash, Ray, ''Printing as an Art'', Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1955. * Nash, Ray, editor, ''Calligraphy and Printing in the Sixteenth Century'', Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp, 1964. * Nash, Ray, ''American Penmanship 1800-1850. A history of writing and a bibliography of copybooks from Jenkins to Spencer'', American Antiquarian Society, 1969. * Nash, Ray, ''Education in the Graphic Arts'', Boston Public Library, Boston, MA, 1969. * Nash, Ray and Nicolete Gray, ''Nineteenth Century Ornamented Typefaces'', Faber & Faber, 1976.

Bibliography

* Guide to the Papers of Ray Nash, Dartmouth College – Biography of Nash * Eisenman, Alvin, ''Ray Nash: His Students and His Legacy'', ''Print'', Nov/Dec90, Vol. 44 Issue 6, p. 140.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nash, Ray AIGA medalists American calligraphers American art historians 1982 deaths 1905 births Harvard University alumni University of Oregon alumni