Bartle was a designer of book covers and also provided decorations for the interior of some books. His first name is only known by the first initial, "W".
He resided at one point in the Morris K. Jessup house, located on 111 East 19th Street in New York City.
He applied for a passport in 1897, where he listed his occupation as "Stenographer & Designer". His passport application shows that he was born in Oxford, New York on July 23, 1867.
He died in 1916, and was buried in a cemetery in New York.