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The Oxford Paper Company project was generated by Ed Kelly, top printing house salesman of Daniels Printing Company of Boston, in 1963. Oxford Paper Company had commissioned Herbert Matter, the well-known Yale professor and Swiss-born designer and photographer to develop a series of images of historical trade signs as displayed in either colonial American streets, or common in small towns and villages of Central Europe, with the purpose of associating the use of Oxford papers with various trades. I was asked to put these into a graphic framework to support the series. Although Matter had been asked to design the direct mail pieces, he preferred to just supply the photographs. I was chosen, because of my “Bauhaus” accent.

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It was also a time, when paper manufacturers gave awards to outstanding design and printing on their papers. The studio of Leverett A. Peters and Associates was commissioned the development of Oxford award certificate and portfolio, which I designed.

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A funny anecdote: When I was engaged by RISD to coordinate the graphic design graduate seminar for several years, I met Doug Scott, the school’s design historian. In a conversation about where I had worked and with whom, I told my story about Herbert Matter. Mr. Scott shook his head and without losing a beat, told me that I could not have, because Matter would not have agreed to work with me. Well, well, well . . . what now?

The Oxford Paper Company

In 1888, William Luke and three of his sons founded the Piedmont Pulp and Paper Company in West Piedmont, West Virginia, with the intention to produce wood pulp using the sulphite process. Over the next few years, they acquired more land in West Virginia and Maryland and constructed additional mills for manufacturing both wood pulp and paper. In 1897, the various operations were consolidated to form the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company. Over the 20th century the company acquired timberlands and mills in Pennsylvania, New York, Virginia, the Carolinas, Kentucky, Texas, and Brazil, often by purchasing smaller companies. In 1919, the company hired its first industrial forester, and over time expanded its forest management research. In 1929, the company opened a headquarters office in New York City. In 1969, West Virginia Pulp and Paper changed its name to Westvaco to represent its diversified interests; by then it was producing not only a wide range of pulp and paper products, but also many specialty chemicals derived from pulp and papermaking processes.

In 1967, Oxford Paper Company of Rumford and Mexico, Maine, was sold to Ethyl Corporation of Virginia that produced gas, chemicals and oil. In 1976, the Oxford paper mill in Rumford was sold to Boise Cascade. In 1996, the Rumford mill and accompanying woodlands were sold to the Mead Corporation of Dayton, Ohio.

In January 2002, Westvaco merged with the Mead Corporation, to form MeadWestvaco.

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