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    <title>Fourth of July in use</title>
    <link>https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/135704/fourth-of-july</link>
    <description>Fourth of July in use. A phototype adaptation of a brush script alphabet shown by lettering artist Charles P. Bluemlein in 1944 as Mr Ronald G Sheppards. Shown by Photo-Lettering as Penobscot Brush Script [PLINC 1950] and later as Fourth of July Bold [PLINC 1960] .

Mrs Sheppards (Sudtipos, 2004, used for sample), Kolinsky Sable SG (Spiece Graphics, 2004, less direct), and Bluelmin Ronald (Intellecta Design, 2012, poor quality, auto-traced w/ highly limited character set) are digital interpretations of the same model.</description>
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    <copyright>Copyright 2026 , FontsInUse.com LLC</copyright>
    <pubDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 10:51:46 +0000</pubDate>
    <lastBuildDate>Sun, 08 Mar 2026 10:51:46 +0000</lastBuildDate>
    <ttl>3600</ttl>
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      <title><![CDATA[Nature’s Divine – In the Beginning album art]]></title>
      <link>https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Contributed by <a href="/contributors/12/florian-hardwig">Florian Hardwig</a><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/143/142036/upto-700xauto/60e1aa65/Nature%E2%80%99s-Divine.jpeg"/></a><br/><br/><i><b>Source:&nbsp;<span class="fiu-attribution__sourceUrl"><a href="https://www.ebay.com/itm/Natures-Divine-In-The-Beginning-vinyl-LP-1979-Funk-Soul-Ex-/282414815082" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.ebay.com</a></span>&nbsp;</b><span><span class="fiu-attribution__credits fiu-text--captioning">therecordden42</span>. </span><span>License: <span class="fiu-attribution__license">All Rights Reserved</span><span>. </span></span></i><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/135704/fourth-of-july"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/samples/8/7002/440/4/5f293218/fourth-of-july.png"/></a><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/1160/univers"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/renders/13/1160/400/4/69a36883/univers.png"/></a><br/><br/><p>In 2004, Argentinian type foundry <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/foundry/94/sudtipos" data-entity-code-id="94" data-entity-code-type="Foundry">Sudtipos</a> released <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/6281/mrs-sheppards" data-entity-code-id="6281" data-entity-code-type="TypeEntity">Mrs Sheppards</a> by <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/130/alejandro-paul" data-entity-code-id="130" data-entity-code-type="TypeDesigner">Alejandro Paul</a>. In the same year, <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/foundry/140/spiece-graphics" data-entity-code-id="140" data-entity-code-type="Foundry">Spiece Graphics</a> issued <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/22329/kolinsky-sable-sg" data-entity-code-id="22329" data-entity-code-type="TypeEntity">Kolinsky Sable SG</a> by <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/197/jim-spiece" data-entity-code-id="197" data-entity-code-type="TypeDesigner">Jim Spiece</a>. The underlying design is much older, though: It originated with <a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/type_designers/609/charles-p-bluemlein" data-entity-code-id="609" data-entity-code-type="TypeDesigner">Charles P. Bluemlein</a> (1891–1944), a lettering artist from New York, and is shown in <cite>Script and Manuscript Lettering</cite> as one of thirty-two script alphabets. This booklet was published by the <a href="http://www.higginsinks.com/about-us">Higgins Ink Company</a> of Brooklyn in the 1940s, in order to promote their inks. From the book’s introduction (<a href="http://www.myfonts.com/person/Charles_P_Bluemlein/">via MyFonts</a>):</p>

<blockquote>
<p>For years Mr. Bluemlein would ask friends and acquaintances for their signatures. He carefully studied the most outstanding of these seeking unusual manipulations of the pen and relationship of lines and curves which gave them character. Sometimes a single letter would be the key to a complete alphabet. Mr. Bluemlein interpreted the signatures, changed, organized and embellished them into a series of 32 script alphabets. He did this by projecting the signatures to a large size thus enabling him to pick out the character notes.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The script alphabet titled <cite>Mr. Ronald G. Sheppards</cite> was made into a typeface long before 2004: Photo-Lettering adopted it for phototypesetting. Their version is called <strong><a target="_self" class="entity-link" href="https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/135704/fourth-of-july" data-entity-code-id="135704" data-entity-code-type="TypeEntity">Fourth of July</a></strong>, and is shown in the <cite>Alphabet Thesaurus</cite>, vol. 1 from 1960. [Edit: it was earlier shown under the name <cite>Penobscot Brush Script</cite>, <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stewf/52990856190/in/album-72177720309209606/">see their 1950 catalog</a>.]</p>

<p>It’s probably this version that was used for the cover of the only album release by Nature’s Divine from 1979. The 10-member funk/soul group with roots in Detroit had a Top 10 R&amp;B hit with “<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX17qEigsHo">I Just Can’t Control Myself</a>”.</p>

<p>[<a href="http://www.discogs.com/Natures-Divine-In-The-Beginning/master/666002">More info on Discogs</a>]</p><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/143/142074/upto-700xauto/60e1ade4/CharlesPBluemlein-1944--MrRonaldGSheppards.jpeg"/></a><br/><br/><i><b>Source:&nbsp;<span class="fiu-attribution__sourceUrl"><a href="http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-51052.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">luc.devroye.org</a></span>&nbsp;</b><span><span class="fiu-attribution__credits fiu-text--captioning">Image via Luc Devroye</span>. </span><span>License: <span class="fiu-attribution__license">All Rights Reserved</span><span>. </span></span></i><br/><br/><p>Charles Bluemlein’s script alphabet as shown in the 1944 edition of <cite>Script and Manuscript Lettering</cite>, titled <cite>Mr. Ronald G. Sheppards</cite>.</p><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/143/142075/upto-700xauto/60e1b1c1/Nature%25u2019s-Divine.jpeg"/></a><br/><br/><i><span><span class="fiu-attribution__is-own">Photo:&nbsp;<a href="https://fontsinuse.com/contributors/12/florian-hardwig">Florian Hardwig</a></span>. </span><span>License: <span class="fiu-attribution__license"><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span><span>. </span></span></i><br/><br/><p>From top to bottom:<br />
1. The album title, probably set in PLINC’s Fourth of July.<br />
2. A resetting using Mrs Sheppards by Sudtipos. Note the curved descender in <strong>g</strong>.<br />
3. A resetting using Kolinsky Sable Two by Spiece Graphics. This interpretation of Bluemlein’s design takes more liberties. It’s less inclined and dynamic, and has a few unconvincing connections.</p><br/><a href="https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art"><img src="https://assets.fontsinuse.com/static/use-media-items/143/142035/upto-700xauto/60e1b0a8/683426_1.jpeg"/></a><br/><br/><i><b>Source:&nbsp;<span class="fiu-attribution__sourceUrl"><a href="https://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-683426" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.hhv.de</a></span>&nbsp;</b><span><span class="fiu-attribution__credits fiu-text--captioning">HHV</span>. </span><span>License: <span class="fiu-attribution__license">All Rights Reserved</span><span>. </span></span></i><br/><br/><p>Back cover.</p><br/><br/>This post was originally published at <a href="https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art">Fonts In Use</a><hr/>]]></description>
      <guid>https://fontsinuse.com/uses/34729/nature-s-divine-in-the-beginning-album-art</guid>
      <pubDate>Sun, 04 Jul 2021 13:06:28 +0000</pubDate>
      <author>Florian Hardwig</author>
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