Of diplomacy, that is. I’d never heard of White House Calligraphers before, yet today various news outlets are crowing over the fact that the chief White House Calligrapher holds a Top Secret clearance – while Jared Kushner, the President’s son-in-law and lead on many important diplomatic missions, has lost his.
CNN has a nice history on the office, but here’s a site by the former chief White House Calligrapher Rick Paulus, showing some distinguished examples of his work:
I had the honor and the good fortune to serve as the chief calligrapher of The White House during the administrations of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Unfortunately, as a result of being on the front-end of the digital revolution in the calligraphy office, the digital record of my work is quite small. The volume of work created in the White House calligraphy office is staggering, and the calligraphers who are employed there serve not only as calligraphers, but also graphic artists, production artists, and custodians of White House forms of address and social etiquette. Their work plays a significant role in setting the stage for diplomacy and all White House entertaining.
