Creator: Raymond Lufkin, Illustrator and Designer

Raymond Haskell Lufkin was born on January 29, 1897, in Salem, Massachusetts, according to his Massachusetts Birth Record (at Ancestry.com), his World War II draft card, Something About the Author, Volume 38, and Family Search. His parents were Joseph G. Lufkin and Amanda D. Low, both Massachusetts natives.

1900 U.S. Federal Census recorded the Lufkin family in Boston, Massachusetts at 112 Fowler Street. Lufkin had an older brother, Richard, and a younger sister, Annie. Their father was a traveling salesman. 

Something About the Author said Lufkin was nine years old when his first published work, a prize-winning pen and ink drawing, appeared in the Boston Herald (probably in the children’s section called Boston Herald Junior).

The household gained two members in the 1910 census: Lufkin’s brother, Eben, and paternal grandmother, Sarah, a widow. They resided at 222 Harvard Street in Boston.

Lufkin’s art training was at the New School of Design in Boston. The Boston Register and Business Directory 1918, listed Lufkin in the Designers category. His address was 29 Central, room 57. 

Lufkin was a student at Boston University’s College of Business Administration. The university published a World War I record of many of its students. Lufkin was a private who served at various times from November14, 1917 to January 4, 1919. The Bostonia, December 1920, has the same information. Illustrators of Children’s Books. 1946–1956 (1958) said “While serving in World War I he was given many a ride in Army training planes in Tennessee and Texas in return for drawing sketches of the various pilots.” In Design & Paper, number ten, 1942, George F. Trenholm said

… At the present he is absorbed in an evening course in airplane design and mathematics, his interest in the subject carrying over from U.S. Army Air Corps courses in 1917–18 at Pratt Institute, Kelley Field and St. Paul. …

During his service Lufkin submitted cartoons and jokes to Judge which published several of them: September 28, 1918, October 5, 1918, October 19, 1918, November 16, 1918, November 30, 1918, and December 14, 1918. 

In the 1920 census Lufkin and his siblings lived with their parents in Boston at 11 Grace Street. Lufkin was a designer in the advertising trade. Later that year, Lufkin married Adaline E. Lynch on December 16 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 1922 Minneapolis, Minnesota city directory listed Lufkin’s home address as apartment 18,  70 South 12th Street. The 1922 St. Paul, Minnesota city directory (below) said he was an artist at Brown & Bigelow, a publishing company. At some point Lufkin returned to Boston.

The 1924 Boston city directory listed Lufkin at 110 Warren Street in Brighton. He was an advertising artist and partner in Herrick & Lufkin, located at 80 Boylston Street, room 822, in Boston. He was also listed at the same address in the City of Boston Residents, April 1, 1924. 

Advertising Arts & Crafts

Lee & Kirby, 1924

According to the 1926 Medford, Massachusetts city directory, commercial artist Lufkin was a resident at 12 Ash Street. In 1927 and 1928 his address was 17 Winter Street. 

The 1930 census recorded Lufkin, his wife, a daughter and two sons in Wellesley, Massachusetts on Parker Road. His house was valued at nine thousand dollars. Lufkin was a self-employed advertising artist. Boston directories for 1930 and 1931 said Lufkin maintained his studio at 80 Boylston Street. The 1933 Wellesley directory (below) said his address was 16 Parker Road. In 1933 Lufkin moved again. 

PM, Number 34, 1937 (below), featured the work of Lufkin and said “he studied with Vesper Lincoln George, Philip Hale, Vojecht Preissig, Bridgeman and Harvey Dunn.” In Boston he had worked with advertising agencies and printers such as BBDO and Barta Press. According to PM, in 1933 Lufkin went to New York City and was a free-lancer at Hal Marchbanks’ office where he designed, among other work, three calendars, from 1934 to 1936, for the Marchbanks Press. Lufkin and his family resided in Tarrytown, New York. 

PM, number 36, 1938, featured Lufkin’s scratchboard portraits of Norman Munder, Will Bradley, Thomas Cleland, Frederic Goudy, and Bruce Rogers.

In the late 1930s Lufkin moved to New Jersey. The 1940 census said Lufkin lived in Tenafly, New Jersey at 124 West Clinton Avenue in Tenafly and was a Tarrytown, New York resident in 1935. The self-employed designer and illustrator owned his Tenafly house which was valued at $6,500.  

On April 26, 1942, Lufkin signed his World War II draft card. He was described as five feet six inches, 152 pounds, with grown eyes and blonde hair. The card included his business address, 225 Varick Street, New York, New York, which was address of the printing firm, William E. Rudge’s Sons. Sometime earlier Lufkin produced a moving announcement. He was not listed in the Manhattan directories from 1942 to 1944. 

Also in 1942, he was a member of the Salmagundi Club. 

Design & Paper, Number 10, circa 1942, showcased some of Lufkin’s illustrations. 

Something About the Author said Lufkin designed war bond posters for the Treasury Department and created military maps. 

The Reader’s Digest, April 1944, cover featured Easter eggs decorated by 34 artists including Lufkin. 

Manhattan city directories from 1945 to 1949 said Lufkin had an office at 130 West 42nd Street. The Manhattan directories in the 1950s and 1960s listed his Tenafly address and phone number. 

Lufkin’s address in the 1950 census said “116”, instead of 124, West Clinton Avenue, Tenafly, New Jersey. He was a commercial artist working in commercial printing. The census said he worked 55 hours the previous week. 

From 1934 to 1962, Lufkin was a non-resident member of The Society of Printers. 

Lufkin advertised in Publishers’ Weekly.

October 14, 1947

November 1, 1947

December 6, 1947

Lufkin’s most widely seen work was the 1947 Christmas Seal. He was a speaker at the Christmas Seal luncheon in Brooklyn. 

Chicago Draugas, December 8, 1947

According to the 1950 census, Lufkin, his wife and son were Tenafly, New Jersey residents at 116 West Clinton Avenue. Lufkin was a commercial artist in the printing industry. 

Lufkin retired to Florida where he passed away on December 10, 1978, in Saint Petersburg. An obituary was published in the Asbury Park Press (New Jersey), December 17, 1978.

St. Petersburg, Fla.—Raymond Lufkin, 79, a former resident of Freehold, N.J., died here Dec. 10 at a local hospital. Mr. Lufkin was an artist who had designed and illustrated many books, advertising booklets and other published works. He had moved here nine months ago from Freehold, N.J. He was a member of the Society of Illustrators. Surviving are a son, Dudley D., here, and three grandchildren. The National Cremation Society was in charge of arrangements. 

Books and Pamphlets with Illustrations by Lufkin

The Boroughmonger

R.H. Mottram

Dust Jacket

Little, Brown, and Company, 1929

Ood-le-uk Wanderer

Alice Alison Life and Margaret Johansen

Little 1930

Jimmy Goes to War

Leslie W Quirk

Little Brown and Co., 1931

Moccasin Trail: The Story of a Boy Who Took the Trail with Kit Carson

Reed Fulton

Doubleday, 1931

All Aces

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

Fighting Aces

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

Under Sea Heroes

Captain Samuel Taylor Moore

McLoughlin Brothers, Inc., 1932

The Snakeblood Ruby

Samuel Scoville, Jr.

Dodd, Mead, & Co., 1932

 

Big Flight

Francis and Katherine Drake

Dust Jacket

Little, Brown, and Company, 1934

In 1937, a book about the building at 40 Wall Street was published. It was described in American Printer, May 1937. 

Wall Street Buys a Book

You probably never will print a book like this. It measures 20 x 26 inches over all. It weighs 20 pounds. It’s bound in what at first sight appear to be quarterinch-thick sheets of plate glass. And it was printed in an edition of 12 copies. But whether you do or not, the fact that such a book WAS printed should be cause for rejoicing to you and to every other printer, for it shows that once again there is a market for fine printing—that an opportunity exists today such as you have not had since pre-depression times to sell the best you are capable of producing.

William E. Rudge’s Sons, New York, was the organization that printed the job—and not only printed it but designed it, planned it, wrote it, and, in cooperation with the client, developed a procedure for presenting it. Its purpose was to help Starrett Brothers and Eken, builders and managers of the Manhattan Co. building at 40 Wall Street, present the story of that building to corporation executives and directors and other major prospects for office space—present [text missing]

Obviously, something more than “just printing” was called for, and the giant size, unusual binding, restrained typography, brief text, and 17 large photographic illustrations, one of them in full color—they are actual photographic prints mounted in, not reproductions—were all planned and worked out with these very practical ends in view. 

Plexiglas, an “unbreakable thermoplastic exactly resembling plate glass,” was used for the first time in the binding, which was done by Russell-Rutter Co. Text in Garamond. Printed in two colors on Strathmore Rhododendron Cover, white. Scratchboard drawings in text by Raymond Lufkin. 

Another description of the book is at the Guide to the Records of HRH Construction, under the Container List, Series I. Office Files, 1929-1958, Folder 1. Six illustrations from the book are shown in Steven Heller’s Print post, “The Straight and Narrow”. 

Black Land White Land: A Reggie Fortune Novel

H. C. Bailey

Dust Jacket

Doubleday, Doran, 1937

Medieval Days and Ways

Gertrude Hartman

Macmillan, 1937

Treasure Mountain

Eric Philbrook Kelly

Macmillan, 1937

The Inexhaustibility of the Subject of Christmas: A Holiday Dissertation

Leigh Hunt

William Bradford Press, 1937

A Merry Christmas Book of Christmas Facts and Fancies

Alfred C Hottes

Publishing Printing Co., 1938

The Book of Hugh and Nancy

Eric Milner-White and Eleanor Shipley Duckett

Macmillan Co., 1938

The Year Is a Round Thing

Helen Ebeltoft Davis

Musson, 1938

At the Sign of the Golden Compass

E.P. Kelly

Macmillan, 1938

40 Wall Street: Designed for Working

William E. Rudge’s Sons, 1940

Magic Tunnel: A Story of Old New York

Caroline Dwight Emerson

McClelland, 1940

Shattuck Cadet

B. J. Chute

Macmillan, 1940

Yukon Holidays

Felice Fieldhouse

Longmans, Green and Co., 1940

Building an Empire

Louise Lamprey

Frederick A. Stokes, 1941

Difficult Decade: 1931–1941

Fiduciary Trust Company of New York

William E. Rudge’s Sons, 1941

A Greeting to Frederic W. Goudy from All the Typophiles

1941

Nobody's Vineyard

H. C. Bailey

Dust Jacket

Doubleday, Doran and Co., Inc., 1942

Man of Molokai: The Life of Father Damien

Ann Roos

Lippincott, 1943

Here Is Africa

Ellen and Attilio Gatti

Map

Charles Scribners, 1943

Here Is Alaska

Evelyn Stefansson

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1943

Straight Up

Henry B. Lent

Macmillan, 1944

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin

Peter Pauper Press, 1945

Here Is India

Jean Kennedy

Map

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1945

California Pageant

Robert G. Cleland

Knopf, 1946

Wild Waters

Lewis S. Miner

J. Messner, Inc., 1946

 

Hawaii’s Queen, Liliuokalani

Adrienne Stone

Messner, 1947

A Saga of Commerce

The Staff of C. Tennant, Sons & Co., of New York

1947

The Story of the Bible People

Muriel Streibert Curtis

Macmillan, 1947

Turkey, Old and New

Selma Ekrem

Map

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947

The Story of the Negro

Arna Bontemps

Knopf, 1948

An Adaptation of The Story of Our Lady’s Juggler

Thomas J. McCabe

Privately printed, 1951

Terra, An Allegory

Faber Birren

Philosophical Library, 1953

The Unconsidered

Faber Birren

Citadel Press, 1955

We Were There with the California Forty-Niners

Stephen Holt

Grosset & Dunlap, 1956

Mary McLeod Bethune

Emma Gelders Sterne

Alfred A. Knopf, 1957

Ships Come and Go

Marie Elizabeth Smith

Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1957

Through Golden Windows: Adventures Here and There

Jeanne Hale

E.M. Hale, 1958

page 310: The Explorer by Katherine Shippen

Through Golden Windows: Stories of Early America

Nora Ernestine Reust and Jeanne Hale

E.M. Hale, 1958

page 314: The Sons of Daniel Boone by Cyril Clemens

The Picture History of America

Alexander Van Rensselaer

Doubleday, 1961

Tenafly, 1894–1969

Virginia T. Mosley

Tenafly 75th Jubilee Committee, 1969

Further Viewing

Letterology, Raymond Lufkin, Letter S

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Creator: Percy Grassby, Designer, Engraver and Calligrapher

Percy Alfred Elisha Grassby was born on July 12, 1882, in Dunstable, [Bedfordshire], England. His full name was transcribed in the Manitoba, Marriage Index, 1881–1937 at Ancestry.com. Grassby’s birth information was on his World War II draft card. 

On May 19, 1902, Grassby was aboard the ship Numidian when it sailed from Liverpool, England and arrived in Montreal, Canada. His occupation was artisan. 

Grassby was counted in the 1906 Canada Census of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta which was enumerated beginning June 24, 1906. The surname was misspelled “Grasby”. Grassby was in his older brother’s household; Arthur was married and had a daughter. The census said Grassby immigrated in 1903 but it was 1902. 

On August 3, 1906, Grassby married Lillian May Strong in Deloraine, Manitoba, Canada. 

Ancestry.com has an Index to Alien Case Files. Grassby crossed the Canadian border into the U. S. on September 20, 1906. The port of entry was not recorded. 

Grassby’s first child was born on November 13, 1906 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (The Social Security Death Index said she was born May 24, 1906.) In the U.S. censuses, her name was Florence and sometime later she was known as Fiona.

Minnesota Prints and Printmakers, 1900–1945 (2009) profiled Grassby and said 

… He left Canada by 1907 for Grand Rapids, Michigan, but paused in Minnesota for a few years. In 1909 he produced a set of eleven etchings and one drypoint of Twin Cities scenes, mostly of the area around Theodore Wirth Park, Bassett Creek, and the lake known at the time as Keegan’s Lake (today, Theodore Wirth Lake). …

The Twentieth Annual Report of the Minneapolis Public Library for the Year Ending December 31, 1909 (1910) said “We purchased this year a set of etchings done by Mr. Percy Grassby, a Minneapolis etcher”. 

By 1911, Grassby was a Grand Rapids, Michigan resident. In the 1911 city directory Grassby lived at 328 Turner and was a designer at the James Bayne Company. (James A. Bayne was the president of the company of commercial photographers, engravers and printers, located at 378–384 North Front). The 1912 directory listed Grassby at 105 Ann NE and employed at the James Bayne company. He was not in the 1913 directory, but the American Art Annual Volume 10 (1913) had this entry: “Grassby, Percy, 167 Anne St., Grand Rapids, Mich. (P.)” 

In 1912 Grassby went through Canada to sail to England. A passenger list said Grassby was a designer who departed Montreal and arrived in Liverpool, England on August 11, 1912. The date of his return to Canada is not known. 

Grassby and his wife filled out immigration cards on November 30, 1914 at Newport, Vermont. Grassby said he visited Boston, Massachusetts from October 3, 1913 to October 19, 1913. 

The December 1914 passenger list included Grassby and his wife on lines five and six. Their destination was Boston. 

Grassby’s work was featured in the article, “Notes on Some Canadian Etchers”, in The Studio, January 15, 1915 and  International Studio, February 1915. 

The work of Mr. Precy [sic] Grassby is as yet not well known in Canada. Although by birth an old-countryman, he has made Canada his home. His work is more unusual than any of the others of this group, as may be seen by the reproductions. Indeed, it has a delightfully medieval flavour, the same as is imparted by an antique bit of porcelain or tapestry. But its chief charm is its distinctiveness. Even an unskilled eye could pick it out from among many others, and, good or bad, that always is a point in its favour. Should he remain in Canada and exhibit freely, his work is likely to have an influence on etching in the Dominion.

The Printing Art, March 1915, published six pages of Grassby’s wood engravings. 

The New York Tribune, November 8, 1915, reported the American Institute of Graphic Arts exhibition of engravings. 

Famous Prints in Art Exhibit

Engravings on Display at Club Attracting Much Attention. 

The exhibition of American wood engraving, under the auspices of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, which opened on Wednesday last at the National Arts Club, 15 Gramercy Park, for ten days, is attracting much attention by reason of the variety and importance of the prints shown. ...

... Fourteen of Rudolph’s Ruzicka’s pictures, a series of views of New York streets, are shown by permission of the Grolier Club, of this city, and his Fountains of Paul Rome are shown by permission of Mrs. Charles MacVeagh. The individual engravers exhibiting are Herbert M. Baer, Frederick T. Chapman, William Baxter Closson, Timothy Cole, Elizabeth Colwell, Arthur W. Dow, Percy Grassby, Edna Boies Hopkins, Mrs. W. M. Ivins, jr., Allen Lewis, Howard McCormick, V. Preissig, Stephen G. Putnam, Rudolph Ruzicka, William G. Watt and Henry Wolf. ...

Grassby’s decoration was reproduced in The Printing Art, December 1915. 

The 1916 Boston city directory said Grassby, a designer, resided in Waverley and occupied room 25 at 26 Lime Street. Grassby was also listed in the business directory. The tenants of 26 Lime Street included artists, designers, illustrators, jewelry manufactures, metal workers, sculptors, and silversmiths. One notable person was W.A. Dwiggins. The 1917 Boston directory said Grassby resided in Lexington. The 1922 Lexington directory said he lived on Concord near Waltham. 

The Inland Printer, June 1916, reproduced Grassby’s stationery for J. J. Birmingham. 

The Printing Art, August 1917, showed Grassby’s design for the Japan Paper Company of New York.

On April 12, 1918, Grassby signed his World War I draft card. His address was Concord Avenue in Lexington, Massachusetts. The typographic designer was described as slender, medium build with brown hair and gray eyes. 

Grassby was mentioned in Arts & Decoration, August 1919. 

The 1920 United States Census counted Grassby, his wife, daughter, Florence, and son, George (1915–1982), in Lexington on Concord Avenue. Grassby was a self-employed designer working in the printing trade.

Grassby’s wife and children were on the following sheet.

Grassby’s portrait of Benjamin Franklin for a calendar was shown in The American Printer, March 5, 1920. 

The American Printer, June 5, 1920, article, “American Typography at Its Best”, cited two works by Grassby: “One Hundred Years of progress,” a booklet designed byPercy Grassby, illustrated by F. Crouse and printed by the Caxton Press, Cleveland; … “Design and Layout,” by Percy Grassby and the Franklin Printing Company; … 

Grassby was mentioned in Arts & Decoration, August 1921, and Scribner’s Magazine, November 1921. Three Grassby engravings were included in the Annual of Advertising Art in the United States 1921: Etched Portrait, Wood Engraved Portrait and Benjamin Franklin. 

The New York Herald, May 28, 1922, said Grassby had a woodcut in New York Public Library exhibition. 

Art News, December 15, 1923, covered the Brooklyn Society of Etchers exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Grassby’s work was noted. 

Grassby was mentioned in American Graphic Art (1924). 

The mention of posters recalls other uses to which the wood-block has been put. Book-plates form an interesting specialty, cultivated by Ruzicka, George W. Plank, A. Allen Lewis, and W. F. Hopson, the art of the last-named long since clarified into a sure and calm taste and craftsmanship. Holiday cards for individuals embody happy conceits by Ruzicka, Lewis, and F. T. Chapman, and the art has been felicitously applied to commercial purposes by Murphy, Chapman, Percy A. Grassby, Ruzicka, and C. B. Falls.

The Boston Herald, November 18, 1928, reported the fire at Grassby’s studio.

In 1930, Grassby had two more children, Dorothy (1921–2019) and Roger (1926–2012). Florence was an artist. The family’s address was unchanged. 

The Goodspeed’s Book Shop advertisement appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, May 3, 1930. 

According to the 1940 census, Grassby, his wife and two youngest children were Lexington residents at 311 Concord Avenue. Grassby’s home was valued at $7,000. 

Grassby signed his World War II draft card on April 27, 1942. His home address was 11 1/2 Revere Street, in Boston. Grassby’s studio was at 21 Hale Street. Grassby’s description was five feet six inches, 145 pounds, with gray eyes and hair. 

The Boston directories from 1942 to 1957 said Grassby’s address was 11 1/2 Revere Street. True List of Persons Seventeen Years of Age or Older Residing in the Town of Arlington, Massachusetts, January 1, 1958, listed Grassby, his wife and son at 31 Dartmouth Street. 

Grassby was included in Paul Standard’s book, Calligraphy’s Flowering, Decay & Restoration: With Hints for Its Wider Use Today (1947). 

Up Boston way, besides Dwiggins, one should mention Percy Grassby, who is better known for his woodengraved portraits and landscapes. But like a good master, Grassby is also a spirited calligraphic engraver in all styles.

Grassby’s wife, Lillian, passed away February 11, 1965. At some point Grassby moved to New York state to be close to his daughter Fiona Sinclair, an artist and instructor in Ossining. The Daily News, (Tarrytown, New York), May 1, 1952, profiled her.

… Mrs. Sinclair is the daughter of Percy Alfred Grassby, internationally known engraver, etcher and illustrator. She studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, at Columbia University, at Slades [Slade School of Fine Art] in London and portraiture under F. Bosely. Her paintings have been exhibited at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, at the Jackson Galleries in Jackson, Mississippi; at Chatham Hall in Chatham, Virginia at Cooperstown, New York; and at the Junior Service League here at Tarrytown. Mrs. Sinclair has been in the teaching field for 15 years. She is presently Art Director at the New York School the Deaf In White Plains. She is well recognized in the water color field as well as in landscapes and in gouache. She maintains a studio in Ossining and specializes in pastel portraits of the younger set. She is considered by critics outstanding in her Americana studies.

The Evening News (Beacon, New York), August 1, 1972, wrote about Fiona Grassby Banta’s (formerly Sinclair) students exhibition. 

Watercolors Displayed

Poughkeepsie—The dining room at St. Francis Hopsital will feature an exhibit of watercolors by students of the Studio School of Art during August. 

The Director, Fiona Grassby Banta, a well-known aquarellist, opened her studio to teach aspiring students watercolors in all forms. Mrs Banta has studied in America and England and hat recently returned from a painting trip along California and Mexican coast in preparation for several one-man shows this coming winter and spring.

The Studio School of Art is located on Diddell Rood in Wappingers Falls. The exhibit at St. Francis will include works of both junior and adult classes. 

Grassby passed away on August 30, 1973, in Poughkeepsie, New York. The Social Security Death Index said his last residence was Millbrook, New York. The following day an obituary appeared in the Boston Globe. 

Grassby—In Poughkeepsie, N.Y., formerly of Lexington, Aug. 30, Percy A., beloved husband of the late Lillian M. (Strong) Grassby; father of George K. and Roger A. of Marlboro, Mrs. Edward Banter [sic] of Wappingers Falls, New York, Mrs. William Dwyer of Puyallup, Washington. Private services in the Walsh Funeral Home, 20 High St., Waltham, at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers donations should be made to the Heart Fund, Beacon St., Boston, Mass.

Grassby was laid to rest at the Newton Cemetery. 

The Poughkeepsie Journal, April 9, 1987, published Fiona’s obituary. She passed away on April 4 and was laid to rest at Newton Cemetery. (The Social Security Death Index said she died June 1, 1985.)

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(Updated November 7, 2022. Next post on Monday: Comic Book Trademarks, Part 14)