Raymond F. Daboll Ephemera Collection- Oak Park Public Library

Raymond F. DaBoll was one of America’s foremost calligraphers. His work spans a variety of formats. Throughout out his career he designed for Oak Park institutions.

DaBoll was born in 1892 in Clyde, New York. As a junior in high school DaBoll won first prize in an art contest sponsored by the Rochester Training School for Teachers. He then dropped out of high school and began to study art at the Rochester Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute (later known as the Rochester Institute of Technology). He graduated from the Institute in 1912.

After graduation, DaBoll moved to Chicago and continued his studies at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Academy of Art, He also worked for famed typographer Oswald Cooper as well as various Chicago advertising agencies, where he developed an interest in lettering.

DaBoll began working as a freelance artist in 1929. He created an assortment of works ranging from magazine advertisements in the Saturday Evening Post and National Geographic, to book covers to end papers to newspaper mastheads. It was also during his time that he became one of the founding members of the Society of Typographic Arts.

DaBoll and his family moved to Newark, Arkansas in 1952. DaBoll continued to produce art, most notably, creating the design for the Arkansas Industrial Commission (later renamed the Arkansas Economic Development Commission)’s Award of Distinction.

DaBoll also wrote poetry, which he incorporated into his calligraphy works. Additionally, he used his calligraphy skills to collaborate on a book with his wife called Recollections of the Lyceum and Chautauqua, which chronicled her career as a touring soprano singer. Raymond F. DaBoll died in 1982.