Type Directors Club, international organization for the promotion of typography, established in 1956. In 1960, Beatrice Warde became its first female member.
Since its founding, the TDC has sponsored competitions, seminars, lectures and publications. In 1966, it planned a a field trip to London and Paris. Ismar David was among the 32 members who, with their families, participated. The TDC organized The Art and Science of Typography: An International Seminar of Typographic Design in 1958.
Bella Thannhauser Wirz, 1890–1980, medical doctor specializing in pediatrics and sports medicine.
The daughter of a successful manufacturer in Munich, Isabella Thannhauser attended primary school and a secondary school for girls on Luisenstraße. Private lessons enabled her to receive a diploma from a high school for boys, which cleared her path to study medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University. She married a fellow student Franz Wirz in 1917, the same year she received her license. Perhaps because she was married,1Munson, Kitty, Bella Thanhauser, accessed July 31, 1923. Kitty Munson has extensively chronicled her family history. Regarding Bella Thanhauser: “Once married, it was normal for a wife to stay home and take care of the house and children in those days so she did.” she worked as an unpaid assistant physician in the outpatient clinic of the Dr. von Haunerschen Kinderspital (Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital) until 1919.2Autenrieth, Andrea, Ärztinnen und Ärzte am Dr. von Haunerschen Kinderspital, die Opfer nationalsozialistischer Verfolgung wurden. Dissertation zum Erwerb des Doktorgrades der Medizin an der Medizinischen Fakultät der Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität zu München, 2012, p. 51. Her daughter, Liselotte (later Alisa) was born the following year. Dr. Wirz managed an infant welfare clinic in Munich until 1928. She divorced in 1928. After more unpaid work at the Städtische Kinderklinik (Municipal Children’s Clinic) in Düsseldorf for 2 years, she moved with her daughter to Berlin, where, between November 1929 and April 29, 1930, she worked under Heinrich Finkelstein, a pioneer in pediatric nutrition. She attended the Sozialhygenische Akademie (Academy of Social Hygiene) and assisted at the Reichsanstalt zur Bekämpfung der Säuglingssterblichkeit (Reich Institute to Combat Infant Mortality) before starting a practice as pediatrician in the Berlin district of Tegel.3 Bella Thannhauser / AEIK00141, Dokumentation Ärztinnen im Kaiserreich“, Institut für Geschichte der Medizin und Ethik in der Medizin, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, accessed July 31, 2023. Mother and daughter were forced to leave Germany after the institution of laws revoking the right of Jewish doctors to register with statutory health insurance bodies, effectively making it impossible for Jews to practice medicine. In 1933, the pair emigrated to Palestine. On April 4, 1942, Dr. Wirz’ sister, Josepha,4Josepha Thannhauser/981227, Das Bundesarchive Gedenkbuch, Victims of the Persecution of Jews under the National Socialist Tyranny in Germany 1933 – 1945. Accessed July31, 2023. a concert violinist, was deported to Piaski. Three months later, the Wirz sisters’ mother committed suicide in Munich.5 Lina Karolina Thannhauser/981230, ibid.
Dr. Wirz had a long career in Jerusalem in family, as well as sports, medicine. (She was herself a member of a synchronized swim team.) Around 1936, she moved to an apartment in 8 Keren Kayemet Street in Rehavia. Ismar David rented studio space from her in the basement of the building. He lived in 8 KKL Street with Dr. Wirz and her daughter from the late 1930s until he spent a year and a half working for the Bonds of Israel in the United States and, ultimately emigrated in 1952. Dr. Wirz maintained the studio and its contents for some time after David’s departure and we have her family to thank for the safekeeping of various documents and artifacts.
Hermon Café, retaurant at 10 Keren Kayemet Street, 1938–1984.
In 1938, a pair of German emigrés named Reiner and Scharf opened the café on the ground floor of 10 Keren Kayemet Street in the Rehavia neighborhood, just two doors away from Ismar David’s studio. The café was a favorite meeting place for intellectuals, artists and Zionist leaders, among them: David Ben Gurion and his wife Paula, Menachem Ussishkin, Itzhak Shenhar, Shlomo Zemach and Aharon Appelfeld. Local kids went there for ice cream. Charlotte Stein was a regular. Gabi Rosenthal and Ismar David, too. People in the neighborhood joked about the radio journalists who frequented the place. They’d have a bite to eat, eavesdrop on the politicians, and leave on the hour to make their broadcasts at the station nearby.1Much of the information above comes from the Malon Information Center.
Gabriella Rosenthal, 1913–1975, Israeli illustrator, cartoonist, author, art teacher, and tour guide.
Munich born Gabriella Rosenthal emigrated to Palestine in 1935 with her husband at that time, Schalom Ben-Chorin, a distant cousin of Bella Thannhauser Wirz. Her humane and witty watercolor and ink work appeared weekly (Fridays) in the Palestine, now Jerusalem, Post under the rubric Palestine People. She illustrated several books and a Megillat Esther and has written and published in four languages: English, German, Arabic and Hebrew.
Gabi posted this card on December 29, 1950, while on vacation in Lugano, Switzerland. The card arrived in Jerusalem on January 24, 1951, nearly a month later. Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose, as they say.
Master! Do you know what I got from my brother and his sister? A yellow silk paisley scarf!
So, if I am nice in the future, then it is really thanks to your most special charms. (Minus that I must know perhaps what it costs.)
Here, even the sausages wear little ballet skirts and silk sashes around their enormous waists. And the sparrows eat only what comes from pure buttercake.
[The little bird says, “Pooh! Blue Band.” (Blue Band was an Israeli margarine brand.)]
But I’m nevertheless coming back soon to this shitty home and am already looking forward to when the two of us, in yellow silk, will be complaining in Hermon [café in the Rosh Rehavia neighborhood of Jerusalem] on the Medine [in Israel]. So long, with a nice kiss to the ladies.
Your Gabi
The mysterious Gabi would also seem to be the author of this little comic strip.
From Mother to Daughter….
“That one there? My child, don’t let looks fool you—it’s completely dried out—and you won’t know it until it’s too late!”
“No, that one is way too green! Don’t touch it, the woman can’t stand it!”
“And that on the left over there, Mama?”
“Trust an experienced woman, darling—the one to the right, true, it’s not very big, but weight alone doesn’t do it. If you listen to your mother: that one has what it takes!”
Manufacturers of engraving machines in Bad Homburg, Germany, 1920–1981
According to the Science Museum Group the history of the company is as follows:
1920 – foundation of Kampf to manufacture of slitting and rewinding machines for the paper converting industry;
1959 – foundation of subsidiary Dohrer Maschinenbau GmbH in Dohr/Cochem-Mosel;
1981 – foundation of Kampf Machinery Corporation (KMC) in Nashville, United States; acquisition of the Kampf-Group by Jagenberg AG, Düsseldorf;
2003 – acquisition of Jagenberg AG by Kleinewefers Beteiligungs-GmbH, Krefeld;
2004 – foundation of Kampf (Shanghai) Machinery in China;
2009 – foundation of Kampf Machinery India in Baroda/India
(service and spare parts)
2011 – Kampf Schneid- und Wickeltechnik GmbH & Co. KG
Representatives of the firm wrote to Ismar David on May 16, 1952, as he prepared to return to Israel, after finishing his work for the Bonds of Israel.
Dear Mr. David,
Dr. Spitzer, Jerusalem, informed us that you would like to spend some days in our workshops, being trained on the Special Engraving Machine Type B III/M/R-St that we delivered to Dr. Spitzer.
We would very much like to train you on the above named machine and would be pleased if you would visit us for this purpose in the near future. Please let us know in advance the day you intend to arrive, so that we can make the appropriate provisions.
Looking forward to your reply and to welcoming you,
Sincerely,
MICHAEL KÄMPF KG
Machinenfabrik
Pinelawn Memorial Park, nondenominational cemetery in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York. founded by William H. Locke, Jr. in 1902.
Alfred Locke, son of Pinelawn’s founder, first engaged Ismar David in 1964, on the recommendation of Leon Shipper, another cemetery owner. The commission was a small mausoleum building, featuring John Donne’s Meditation XVII, which begins “No man is an island entire of itself…” David’s subsequent association with the Locke family and Pinelawn Memorial Park lasted for more than 30 years and involved planning the grounds and roads, designing large mausoleum complexes and features for ground burial areas, as well as graphics for promotion and advertising.
“The policy of Pinelawn is and always will be, to make it as beautiful and as tasteful as possible. Not merely by giving careful attention to all lawns, roads, foliage and flowers, and individual memorials but by developing a comprehensive park plan adapted to the size and resources of Pinelawn … by which the beauty of each part will be designed to contribute to the beauty of the whole, thereby enhancing the dignity and solemnity of the entire park.” From Pinelawn’s original brochure in 1902
Jan Van Krimpen, 1892–1958, typographer, book designer and type designer.
Not one to either criticize or praise his peers, Ismar David did express admiration for Jan Van Krimpen. Of special interest: Van Krimpen devised a plan for a multi-style, multi weight family of typefaces, called Romulus, before the war. It was never realized. The Roman and sloped Roman were produced in several sizes. A sans serif was cut but never issued.
Van Krimpen studied at the academy of art at The Hague. He received a commission from the Dutch post office to draw the lettering for a special commemorative stamp to be printed by the prominent firm of Enschedé in 1923. The success of the design led Enschedé to invite him to design a new typeface for the firm. The typeface he produced, Lutetia (the Roman name for Paris), was the official lettering for an exhibition of Dutch art in Paris in 1927, and its reception led to his lifelong association with the firm. His types became well known in the United States through the Limited Editions Club and in England through the Nonesuch Press.
Elly Gross, 1921–2014, Israeli graphic designer, lettering artist, painter, sculptor and teacher.
Born in Austria Elly Gross immigrated to Jerusalem in 1939 and studied at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design. In the following years she continued to study sculpture, silkscreen printing and painting. During her career she designed a wide range of Hebrew book covers, magazines and publications, posters and corporate identities.
Gross and David were both members of the Jerusalem Group of Commercial Artists and collaborated on design projects. However, very little is known about these ventures.
Zvi Narkiss, 1921–2010, type and graphic designer.
Born in Romania, Zvi Narkiss immigrated to Jerusalem in 1944. He studied in the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design and served as chief designer in the IDF training aids unit. He was a member of the Jerusalem Group of Commercial Artists. In 1955, he opened his studio and designed a variety of posters, stamps, bank notes and Hebrew typefaces. In an article1The article is included in A Letter is Forever, a collection of articles dedicated to the design of the Hebrew letter, published by the Ministry of Education, the Division of Torah Culture, the Publications Department in collaboration with the Jewish Art Association, Jerusalem, 1984. about his type design process he mentioned:
“Compared to manuscripts, the old and new Hebrew typefaces I knew, seemed to me motionless, rhythmless, and lacking consistency. However, I must note, there was one exception: David Hebrew, a typeface I fell in love with at first sight”.
A group of commercial artists who lived near each other and informally consulted or collaborated with each other.
Established in 1935, in light of a significant development in the fields of advertising in Jerusalem. Among the members of the association were experienced graphic artists that emigrated from Europe. In November 1949, the Jerusalem branch of the group participated and won a competition for the design of Jerusalem’s city emblem. On three design proposals the artists signed collectively: Francisca Baruch, Emanuel Grau, Ismar David, Elly Gross, Zvi Narkiss and Eliyahu Koren.1Elly Gross: Letters and Ornaments, National Library of Israel Exhibition Catalog, edited by Gil Weissblei, 2012, page 78.
According to a short profile in Publishers’ Weekly in March 24, 1951, Ismar David had served as its president.