DONALD JACKSON
Donald Jackson fell in love with curlicues and fancy letters when he was a child, and at 13 years old he gained a scholarship to art college where he specialized in writing, illuminating, lettering, and designer bookbinding. At the age of 20, after a post graduate year at London’s Central School of Arts and Crafts, Jackson was appointed a Visiting Lecturer at Camberwell College of Art.
Within six years, he was appointed as a Scribe to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown Office at the House of Lords where he was responsible for the creation of official state documents, a positon he held for just shy or 50 years. During his time at the Crown Office, Donald and was chosen to take part in the Victoria and Albert Museum’s first international calligraphy show after the war.
Since 1969 Jackson lectured and taught extensively in the United States and elsewhere. In 1976/77 he was a Distinguished Visiting Professor of Art at California State University Los Angeles.
In 1981 he co-produced and presented the film series Alphabet; the Story of Writing, televised in over 30 countries, and authored the book The Story of Writing, since translated into six languages.
At Saint John’s University he co-founded, (with Jo White) The Calligraphy Connection, the first in the series of annual international calligraphy conferences still held each year in the US.
Between 1988 and 1991, his 30-year retrospective exhibition, Painting with Words, toured America, Europe, Scandinavia, and Hong Kong.
In 1998, he was engaged, by Saint John’s Abbey and University as Artistic Director of The Saint John’s Bible as well as the creation of the limited edition, full-sized, fine art Heritage Edition of The Saint John’s Bible. Donald is an elected Fellow and past chairman of the Society of Scribes and Illuminators and past Master of the 650-year-old Guild of Scriveners in the City of London.
As Senior Illuminator to her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II’s Crown Office, Jackson was awarded the medal of the Royal Victorian Order, (MVO) in 1985, and in 2016, he was invested with a Papal Knighthood in the Order of Saint Gregory the Great for services to religious art.
Jackson and his wife, Mabel live and work in the Scriptorium, a converted blacksmith’s workshop in Monmouth, Wales.