Bruce Rogers

1870 - 1957

Bruce Rogers studied art at Purdue University in Indiana. He worked for a breif time as a newspaper and book illustrator before moving to Boston to become designer at Modern Art magazine. He joined the Riverside Press of the Houghton-Mifflin Co and worked there from 1896 to 1912. He is known as one of America's greatest book designers mostly through the many books designed after leaving Riverside Press. He was a consultant to the presses at Oxford University and Harvard. He designed the typeface Centaur, based on Jenson's 15th century roman face. The face first appeared in the magazine The Centaur and was originally designed for the Museum of Modern Art. His greatest work was done in England when he designed the Oxford Lecturn Bible, also set in Centaur.