Alston W. Purvis

Alston W. Purvis is an American graphic-design historian and chairman emeritus of the visual arts department at Boston University. His scholarly books chart the history of print and type, most notably A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, an encyclopaedic survey co-authored with Jan Tholenaar and collector Cees de Jong.

Purvis has written extensively on the pioneers of graphic design, including Swiss typography and the modern movement. His illustrated monographs on typeface history are standard references in design libraries and are prized for pairing vast archival treasures with precise historical context.