Bert Zahn – Illustrator, Author, Educator. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Zahn pioneered graphic arts development and training.

Bert Zahn led an exciting life. As a young man, he learned sign-painting techniques. During World II, Zahn joined the US Navy and taught screenprinting to military personnel as a fast and efficient process for printing posters and signs in English for the troops in foreign countries. After the war, Zahn settled in Bedford, Ohio, where he managed the graphics art division of Glidden Corporation.

His textbook, “Silk Screen Methods of Reproduction — for Sign Painters, Card Writers, Display Men, Furniture Decorators, Novelty Manufacturers, Glass Etchers, and For Domestic Use” (ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000YDX1H2), written in 1935, was the bible for those in screenprinting. The book was published by Frederick J. Drake & Company of Chicago, Illinois, and went through several revisions and subsequent printings.

Bert is unique in that his work is in two museums. His work is exhibited in the Bedford Museum in Bedford, Ohio, and another in the Metropolitan Museum.  The Metropolitan Museum of Art Research Centers, located at 1000 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, since its founding in 1870, has offered object-based study using a collection that spans 5,000 years of world history.

Zahn is a 1973 inductee into the Academy of Screen and Digital Print Technologies (ASDPT)

In the photo below, Bert Zahn (left) teaches screenprinting to Pfc. Francis Thomas (right).