Not Dead But Sleepeth: A Study of Gravestone Lettering with Doug Clouse
Channel: The Cooper Union
Date: 2017-10-31

On Tuesday, February 17, 2015, Doug Clouse spoke about his research on lettering on nineteenth-century American gravestones and memorials. His work focuses on lettering in the Midwest, with particular attention paid to gravestones in and around Wichita, Kansas and the work of the marble company Kimmerle & Adams. The liveliness and variety of letterforms on memorials by Kimmerle & Adams and other Kansas firms reflect the ambition of pioneer settlers as well as the influence of print typography on inscriptional lettering. The ebullient mix of scripts, slab serifs, serifs, grotesques, and shadowed letters, the way lines of letters curve and angle, and the integration of letters with ornament recall the fancy print typography of the same period, the 1870s and 80s. Clouse looks closely at the letterforms and trace the materials, skills, technologies, and beliefs about death that coalesced to create this brief Midwestern flowering of lettering in marble.

This talk was part of Type@Cooper's Herb Lubalin Lecture Series at The Cooper Union. The recording was made possible by a generous sponsorship from Hoefler & Company. For more information about Type@Cooper, visit http://www.coopertype.org.