Beatrice Warde |
1900 -1969
Warde, an American typographer and author, took an early interest in calligraphy. Which she pursued further by studying at Columbia University. This expanded her knowledge of the history of typography and printing. She worked as an assistant at the library of the American Type Founders Company from 1921 to 1925. In 1925 she immigrated with her husband, Frederic Warde, a typeface designer, to Europe where she wrote for the renowned trade journal, The Fleuron. In 1926 the journal published the finding of Warde’s research on the lineage of the typeface by Claude Garamond, in which she found that in some cases was wrongly attributed to him, when in fact it was the work of Jean Jannon of Sedan. The article was published under her pseudonym ‘Paul Beaujon.’ This decision was due to her husband also writing about typography and they didn’t want two Wardes contributing to the same topic. She couldn’t use her maiden name since her mother was also in the field of literature. Furthermore, at the time no one would have acknowledged that “a woman could know anything about printing, typography, and such as.” Her alter ego, Beaujon, was offered a position as an editor at the Monotype Recorder in 1927 on the basis of such writing, Beatrice Warde accepted the job. Her acceptance of this position was a great astonishment to executives and staff that were anticipating a man to arrive. By 1929 she had already earned a promotion to the role of publicity manager — a position she held until her retirement in 1960. She made this comment on her appointment: “They had never hired a woman in their place above the rank of secretary and had no idea how to deal with ‘her.’ But I got the job with the use of a secretary and part of a desk.” This statement illustrates how, despite the respect shown for her professional and personal qualities, she was always considered an outsider in the male-dominated world. Today she is known as the “First Lady of Typography”, having been one of the few women who made a name for themselves in typography prior to the computer age.
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