February 20, 2000 An unusual collection of fonts with an unusual story... The name Cobb Shinn goes back to the turn of the century. There are many sites on the net for post card collectors which feature some of his illustrations on humorous cards of the 1900's-1920's. By the early 1950's, the Cobb Shinn Company of Indianapolis, Indiana offered for sale to printers and advertisers stock cuts and electrotypes of both illustrations and photographs. For a nominal fee, you were supplied with the cut and therefor the license to use it in all forms of print media. This was the predecessor to today's modern clip art CD-Rom libraries. I came into possession of a sales catalog from circa 1950-51, with many images printed on glossy paper. There was no copyright notice on any of the pages, just a disclaimer advising that unauthorized use was prohibited. Having recognized many of the images as those found in a Dover Clip Art Book, as well as a Formatt Clip Art Book, I contacted both of the publishers about copyright information on the artwork. To the best of their knowledge, they alleged the art was now in the public domain. Obviously, Cobb Shinn has been out of business for quite some time. In fact, years ago, I had purchased a small clip art collection (from an older woman running a small company her late husband started) which also had some of the Cobb Shinn art. A web search yielded no current results showing any successor to the original company, and I have not been able to verify any current assignment of rights to the artwork. With this in mind, I scanned and created these fonts of Cobb Shinn Stock Cuts. They are offered from this page as Freeware, with no restriction attached to them. NOTE TO ANYONE THINKING OF OFFERING THESE FONTS AT THEIR ARCHIVE SITE: Do so AT YOUR OWN RISK. You accept any and all liability (express or implied) for any actions which may result from a third party proving legitimate ownership to the artwork contained herein, and seeking any remedy or action against you for posting said fonts.