| 1868 | Born in Boston, July 10, son of a cartoonist on a Lynn daily newspaper. |
| 1874 | First finger in the “pi”—on being presented a box of characters brought home by his father for a small printing press Will bought with his own savings as a delivery boy. |
| 1877 | Moves to Ishpeming, a mining town in northern Michigan. |
| 1880 | A job (with a salary of $3 a week) as a printer’s devil, with the Iron Agitator (later Iron Ore). |
| 1885 | Foreman with Iron Ore at a man’s wages, $15 a week. |
| 1886 | To Chicago—and an art department apprenticeship with Rand McNally—sweeping, dusting, running errands, grinding tempera ... at $3 a week. |
| 1887 | With Knight & Leonard, Chicago’s leading fine printers, as a full-fledged designer at a salary of $21, and then $24 a week. |
| 1889 | Free-lancing in Chicago; studio in the Caxton Building. |
| 1890 | To Geneva, Ill., and first recognition through covers for Harper’s Weekly; posters for Stone & Kimball’s Chap Book; cover designs for the Inland Printer (perhaps the first magazine covers ever to be changed monthly). |
| 1890 | The creation of a widely copied type face named “Bradley” by ATF. |
| 1893 | An exhibition at the Chicago World’s Fair. |
| 1895 | To Springfield, Mass., the launching of his Wayside Press, “At the Sign of the Dandelion,” and plans for publication of Bradley: His Book ... his love for Caslon and the beginning of a new Caslon era as a result. |
| 1895 | The initial Bradley-designed paper sample book for Strathmore. |
| 1896 | Exhibits at Boston Arts and Crafts; Colonial typography attracts national attention. |
| 1897 | Caslon types on Strathmore Deckle Edge Papers prove successful; Bradley’s plant is expanded and moved to a loft in the Strathmore mill at Mittineague. |
| 1898 | Merges business with University Press, Boston. Opens design and art service in New York; specialty, bicycle catalogs. |
| 1900 | Mr. Bok, editor of Ladies’ Home Journal, commissions a series of eight full pages of house interiors for the Journal. A roman and italic face, used later for Peter Poodle, Toy Maker to the King, is designed for American Type Founders. While recovering from illness, Castle Perilous is written, later serialized in Collier’s with Bradley illustrations. |
| 1902 | Collier’s Weekly appears with Bradley cover (July 4). |
| 1903 | Heads campaign of type display and publicity for American Type Founders. |
| 1904 | Writing and designing Chap Books for American Type Founders; setting typographic style for decades. |
| 1906 | Writes and illustrates Peter Poodle, Toymaker to the King for Dodd Mead. |
| 1907 | Art Editor of Collier’s. Introduces new technique in coordinating make-up, art direction and typography. Holiday number becomes collectors’ item. |
| 1910-15 | Simultaneous art editorship of Good Housekeeping, Metropolitan, Success, Pearson’s, National Post. Revises typographic make-up of Christian Science Monitor ... beginning of a series of stories later published as Wonderbox Stories. |
| 1915-17 | Art supervision of motion picture serials for William Randolph Hearst, including Patria, starring Irene Castle. |
| 1918-20 | Writing and directing motion pictures independently. Production of Moongold, a Pierrot pantomime shot against black velvet, using properties but no sets, shown at the Criterion Theater in Times Square, New York. |
| 1920 | Back to Mr. Hearst as art and typography supervisor for Hearst magazines, newspapers, motion pictures, and the introduction, in Cosmopolitan, of many typographic innovations. |
| 1923 | Writes Spoils, a play in free verse for Hearst’s International. |
| 1926 | Restyles Delineator and Sunday magazine section of New York Herald Tribune (not This Week). |
| 1927 | Harper & Bros. publish Launcelot and the Ladies. |
| 1930 | Final, but far from inactive, retirement. |
| 1931 | Serves on AIGA “Fifty Books of the Year” jury; delivers address at exhibition opening, New York Public Library. |
| 1950 | Rounce and Coffin Club of Los Angeles award, October 28, for “Distinguished Contributions to Fine Printing,” at preview of Huntington Library exhibition, “Will Bradley: His Work.” |
| 1953 | New type ornaments (used at chapter-openings in the present book) designed for American Type Founders. |
| 1954 | Completion of a new paper specimen in Strathmore’s Distinguished Designers Series, almost sixty years after his first sample book for Strathmore. Introduced at University Club luncheon in New York, March 25. |
| 1954 | Award of gold medal by the American Institute of Graphic Arts at Annual meeting, May 19. |
