Never Idle: The Tragically Short but Jam-Packed Life of Frank Holme
Lecture Series | This program is completed
A profusely illustrated talk by design historian Paul Shaw on the all-too brief but astoundingly busy life of Frank Holme (1868–1904) who was a Chicago newspaper artist, fine artist, proprietor of The Bandar Log Press, founder of the School of Illustration, author of Practical Lessons in Illustration, and member of the Palette and Chisel Club.
Holme gained renown as a newspaper artist for his illustrations of Chicago's infamous Luetgert murder trial that took place in 1897 and 1898. Holme also illustrated train wrecks and fires, football games and bicycle races; he drew portraits of celebrities of the stage, politicians, and the poor; he made cartoons about civic life in Chicago and national affairs.
Holme was at the center of the Palette and Chisel Club's activities from 1897 to 1900. He was responsible for the performances of Carmine, Il Janitore, and Cuba Libre, as well as such events as the Hobo Pink Tea, the Roman Night, the Harvest Home Musical, and the Salon de Refuse. His tongue-in-cheek sensibility set the tone for the Palette for years to come.
Today Holme may best be remembered as the founder of the School of Illustration in Chicago and the proprietor of The Bandar Log Press. The School of Illustration boasted a faculty that included John McCutcheon, J.C. Leyendecker, F.X. Leyendecker, Will Carqueville, F.W. Goudy, and several early members of the Palette and Chisel Club. Its students included Oswald Cooper and W.A. Dwiggins, both of whom, along with Goudy, went on to fame as type designers.
The books put out by the Bandar Log Press, between 1895 and Holme's death in 1904, are notable for their combination of atrocious typography and outstanding woodcut illustrations.
- The talk will take place at The Palette and Chisel Club located at 1012 North Dearborn Street in Chicago on Sunday, November 12 at 4 pm in our first-floor gallery. Wine & refreshments will be served.
Paul Shaw
Paul Shaw is a New York-based graphic designer, typographer and design historian. He has been assiduously researching the life and work of Frank Holme for the past four years, including laboriously transcribing his diaries. His interest in Holme is an outgrowth of his long-term project to write the definitive biography of W.A. Dwiggins, a student at the School of Illustration.
Paul is the author of Helvetica and the New York City Subway (2009), Philip Grushkin: A Designer’s Archive (2014), and Revival Type: Digital Typefaces Inspired by the past (2107); the editor of The Eternal Letter: Two Millennia of the Classical Roman Capital (2015); and the co-editor of Blackletter: Type and National Identity (1998).