The typeface Elli was named to honor Eleanor Garvey, Houghton Library’s famed and much-loved Curator of Printing and Graphic Arts at Harvard University.

For Elli’s 1990 retirement, Bill Bentinck-Smith commissioned Jean Evans to design a “digitized calligraphic font to reproduce the hand-lettering Jean has done for Houghton invitations over the years.”

Elli, the person, and the Houghton Library enjoyed private use of this typeface until Font Bureau adapted it for general use in 1993. More…

Please note that this calligraphic typeface is not based on handwriting by Eleanor Garvey as previously described.