Creating with Paint, 1967, with illustrations by Peter Landa

Can you bear more Caruso Roxy? Here’s another Use of it – it’ll be the last one from my side for a while, promised.

It’s my personal favorite: a series of creative activity books, authored by Grace Mintonye and James E. Seidelman and published by Crowell-Collier Press in New York from 1967 on. The titles pair all-caps Roxy with lowercase Barclay, and are embedded in gorgeous, topical jacket designs. The interiors – not shown here – are beautifully designed, too. If you’re into crafts and/or this mid-century aesthetic, make sure to browse your thrift store for a copy.

Creating Mosaics, 1967 (second printing from 1969), with illustrations by Harriet Sherman

Creating with Paper, 1967, with illustrations by Marjorie Borgos Blumenkopf

Creating with Clay, 1967 (second printing from 1970), with illustrations by Robert William Hinds

Creating with Wood, 1969, with illustrations by Lynn Sweat

Creating with Papiermache, 1971, with illustrations by Christine Randall. This title uses the Light weight of Roxy.

Shopping Cart Art, 1970, with illustrations by Kaye Sherry. This one was handled differently, probably because of the longer title: caps from Roxy Light are paired with lowercase letters from Gonzales El Royal. The “Creating” part was dropped as well.

Lords of the Earth is the title of Jules Loh’s history of the Navajo, published in 1971 by Crowell-Collier Press with a foreword by Peter MacDonald, Chairman or the Navajo Tribal Council.

For the jacket design, Walter Harper combined stacked and interlocked Trooper Roman with equally tight-spaced caps from News Gothic and a photograph of Tsé Bii’Ndzisgaii – Monument Valley. The interior design is uncredited. It uses Neuland licht with Futura Light for the title page and chapter beginnings. The text typeface is Rudolph Ruzicka’s Primer.

The dimensional caps of Sans Serif Shaded are contrasted with Commercial Script for the jacket of a book about the State of Franklin, published in 1968 by Crowell-Collier Press in their “America in the making” series. Sans Seif Shaded is used with mirrored AKA sign painters’ quotes. From the book:

Here is the fascinating account of how the “lost state” of Franklin was formed – its military and diplomatic attempts to gain independence, its heroes and villains, the remarkable achievements of its eleven-year history – and the events that led to Franklin’s admission to the Union as a part of Tennessee.

Read more about this episode of U.S. history on Atlas Obscura.