Westvaco Inspirations for Printers, No. 96

Launched in 1925 by the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company, Westvaco Inspirations for Printers served as a premier promotional house organ showcasing paper stocks, ink capabilities, and diverse printing processes. Before Bradbury Thompson’s modernist art direction began in 1939, issues from the mid-1930s (like this one) functioned primarily as rich, eclectic trade anthologies. Rather than avant-garde typographic experimentation, these layouts prioritized traditional, commercial letterpress and offset lithography arrangements. While the covers are often off-puttingly unremarkable (although this one has a nice illustration by T.M. Cleland), inside they are loaded with contemporary advertising reproductions, classic engravings, and varied artistic styles to visually demonstrate technical print fidelity and paper performance for a nationwide audience of trade professionals. A neat thing from the collection of Steve Heller.