Oscar Ogg papers

Access and use

Location of collection:
University of Virginia, Special Collections Dept.
Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library
University of Virginia
P.O. Box 400110
160 McCormick Rd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22904-4110
Contact for questions and access:
POC: Brenda Gunn
Phone: (434) 924-1037
Phone: (434) 243-1776
Fax: (434) 924-4968
Restrictions:

This collection is open for research.

Preferred citation:

MSS 11995, Oscar Ogg papers (addition 4 and 5), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Summary

Extent:
.2 Cubic Feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

MSS 11995, Oscar Ogg papers (addition 4 and 5), Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia Library.

Background

Scope and content:

Addition 4 to MSS 11995 contains newspaper & advertisement clippings, periodicals (The Christmas Reader and The Committee for italic Handwriting Newsletter, book reviews by Oscar Ogg, book cover mock-ups, ink & water color drawings, illustrations of calligraphy, and correspondence. Included are "typofile" and italic scripts handwriting. There is personal information including Squire Ogg's grade school report on the human body & one piece of art, one small notebook, religious art, photographs and photograph albums.

Addition 5 to MSS 11995 Oscar Ogg papers contains five oversize items: a pencil graphic design sketch with a slogan on advertising in 1950 and the heart of America; a poster that chronicles some of the changes and developments with machines in the areas of papermaking, printing, type casting and setting, and stereotyping, along with a handwritten memorandum note from The New York Times Index; a print of selections from Orlando by Virginia Woolf; a print of a poem on yellow roses by an unknown author; and a print of a quote by Rabbi Liebman. Various artwork, photographs, clippings, and papers related to Oscar Ogg's work and family life. Articles about calligraphy and teaching children calligraphy.

Biographical / historical:

Oscar Ogg was an American writer and calligraher. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1908 and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1931. He worked for the Book-of-the-Month club and also studied, lectured on, and practiced calligraphy in New York. In 1946, his book The 26 Letters was published by Crowell. This was a history of the alphabet from Phoenician times to the present. Ogg developed typefaces and fonts still in use in the 21st century. He died in 1971 in Stamford, Connecticut.

Acquisition information:
This collection was a gift from Margaret Ogg to the Small Special Collections Library at the University of Virginia Library.