Treasures and Musings @ Modern Graphic History Library

Thrill Seekers Exhibit Now Available Online

Remember that exhibit we mentioned a few weeks ago? Well, in case you aren't able to visit Olin Library, you can now view Thrill Seekers: The Rise of Men's Magazines online.

Like the in-person exhibit, the digital companion features the original artwork, tear sheets, and whole issues of mid-century magazines like Esquire, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, as well as lesser-known pulp fiction titles and girlie magazines. The exhibit draws on several of MGHL's collections and includes items like Robert Andrew Parker's illustrations for Vladimir Nabokov's fiction, Al Parker's take on the Monaco Grand Prix, 1930's ads from Esquire, Robert Weaver's illustrations for James Bond stories, and Ernest Trova's version of the Playboy bunny. The digital exhibit contains over 60 images -- some of which we weren't able to include in the in-person exhibit -- as well as a few additional features like recommending reading and relevant digital resources.

Below is one of our favorites -- an original Robert Andrew Parker watercolor for a Nabokov story that appeared in a 1965 issue of Playboy. To see more, check out Thrill Seekers online.

MGHL's Exhibit Thrill Seekers at Olin Library

MGHL's exhibit Thrill Seekers: The Rise of Men's Magazines opens today at Washington University's Olin Library. The exhibit charts the growth of men's magazines from the 1940s to the 1960s, and highlights original artwork, tear sheets, and whole issues of Esquire, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, and Fortune, as well as pulp fiction and girlie magazines. Artists featured include Al Parker, Robert Weaver, Ernest Trova, and Robert Andrew Parker, among others. The exhibit will be on display in the Ginkgo Reading Room and Grand Staircase Lobby until January 4, 2013. A digital version of the exhibit is forthcoming, but in the meantime, you can check out a few highlights below.

This Stetson hat advertisement, illustrated by Edwin Georgi, appeared in the June 1939 issue of Esquire

1950 issue of the pulp magazine Adventure

1966 issue of Debonair

 August 1957 cover of Fortune by Robert Andrew Parker

This article, illustrated by Robert Weaver, appeared in the April 1959 issue of Esquire

The December 1979 issue of Playboy featured this three-panel "Do It Yourself" insert by Ernest Trova

Race, Ethnicity, & Identity at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide for anyone interested in researching race and ethnicity in the Modern Graphic History Library's collections. It provides an overview of what kind of materials and images we have and how to find them, relevant digital image collections, and recommended books. The guide draws from four different collections and highlights relevant original artwork, magazines, tear sheets, children's books, comic books, graphic novels, and zines.

A few images, along with more information about the collections represented in the guide, are included below. Check out the Race, Ethnicity, and Identity at MGHL research guide to see more, and don't forget to take a look at our recent guides about Advertisements and Women in Popular Culture if you haven't already.

Illustration from the Robert Weaver Collection. Weaver was dedicated to capturing the changing social and cultural climate of his times, and this collection is particularly strong in mid-century depictions of African Americans.

Illustration from A Great Miracle Happened There: A Chanukah Story, part of the Robert Andrew Parker Collection. Parker has illustrated over 40 children's books, several of which deal with race and ethnicity. The collection contains original artwork as well as published books.

The above comic is part of the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection which is comprised of thousands of comic books, predominantly published between 1960 and 2000. The collection contains a particularly strong selection of titles featuring African American super heroes and protagonists. This collection also includes graphic novels, magazines, and zines dealing with race and ethnicity.

Illustration by Stevan Dohanos, from the Charles Craver Collection. This collection contains hundreds of tear sheets of illustrated fiction, nonfiction, and advertisements from the 1930s to the 1950s by dozens of important mid-century illustrators. A list of illustrators relevant to researchers of race and ethnicity is available on the Craver page of the research guide.

Illustration Conference 7 Recap

This past June, Wash U. faculty member and illustrator John Hendrix served as President of the 7th Illustration Conference held in Providence, RI.  We thought that it would be a perfect
opportunity to support the conference and attend as exhibitors.  It couldn’t have been more successful or enjoyable!  We met so many creative, friendly people, and were able to promote the MGHL to a whole new group of educators and practitioners.

The opening ceremonies featured a moving keynote speech by Hendrix that you can read here. 

Hendrix from the balcony.

It also included dancing alien puppets, accompanied by the What Cheer Brigade marching band.

The conference was like nothing I had ever been to before.  Here I am at our exhibit table.  And below is Head of Special Collections Anne Posega.  Our logo-ed Sharpies were a big hit with conference-goers.

One of the highlights for me was the Rhode Show Bazaar – a juried portfolio showcase and marketplace.  Not only did we have a chance to see and buy some fantastic work, but we also saw many Wash U. alums who were accepted into the bazaar.  I didn’t have my camera with me, unfortunately.  You should definitely check out their work:

• Chiara Andriole
• Laura Beckman
• Michael Hirshon
• Susannah Lohr
• Morgan Schweitzer
• Sam Washburn

The Sponsor Salon - where we were located - was packed during the session breaks, but I did get a chance to snap a few pictures of the crowd. 

Attending a conference as exhibitors was something we had never done before, but I’m truly happy we did. We learned a lot and know that the next time will be even better!  Thank you, ICON7 coordinators and attendees, for making us feel so welcome and inspired.

Women in Pop Culture at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide about mid-century depictions of women in popular culture. Women as girlfriends, wives, single girls, mothers, homemakers, workers, consumers, rebels, femme fatales, even superheroes...they're all here. The guide provides an overview of what kind of materials and images we have in our collections and how to find them, recommended books, and an image gallery. It will be particularly helpful to users interested in 20th century ideas about gender roles, domesticity, consumerism, sexuality, and feminism. A few highlights are included below. Check out the Women in Popular Culture at MGHL research guide to see more.

Al Parker ad for American Airlines, from Ladies' Home Journal, September 1950

From the Al Parker Collection

Al Parker illustration for Ladies' Home Journal, August 1946

From the Al Parker Collection

Ladies' Home Journal, August 1912

From the Periodicals Collections

Wonder Woman #137

From the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection (A new collection we're currently preparing for public use. We'll have more information about it very soon!)

Edwin Georgi illustration from The Saturday Evening Post, December 1944

From the Charles Craver Collection

Double Exposure: Al Parker's Illustrations, from Model to Magazine

This week we've added a new online exhibit to our site: Double Exposure: Al Parker's Illustrations, from Model to Magazine. For mid-century illustrators, photography was a means of composing a scene, creating realism, and capturing certain effects -- such as light and shading -- which could not be obtained in other ways. Drawing from the wide range of materials within the Al Parker Collection, Double Exposure pairs Parker's illustrations for fiction in popular magazines with the photographs on which they're based, as well as an "in-between" image of the superimposed photograph on the illustration. The result is a fascinating look at Parker's creative process. Please check it out!

The Kaltenthaler Comics & Zines Collection Now Available

We're excited to announce that the Karl S. Kaltenthaler Comic Books and Zines Collection is now available for use. The collection contains over 1,000 comic books from spanning many genres and styles, including super-hero comics, war comics, horror comics, and alternative and underground titles. Some of the most influential comic book artists and writers of the late twentieth century are included, such as Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Neil Gaiman, Robert Crumb, Peter Bagge, and Daniel Clowes. The collection also contains zines, graphic novels, and magazines. To learn more about the collection and its contents, take a look at the finding aid, and check out a few highlights below.

Advertisements at the Modern Graphic History Library

We've created a new research guide about advertisements in the MGHL collections. The guide provides an overview of what kinds of advertisements are in our collections and how to find them, links to other digital image collections focused on advertisements, recommended books, and an image gallery showcasing items from our collections. We've included a few highlights from the gallery below. Please check out the Advertisements at MGHL research guide to see more.

Al Parker ad for American Airlines, May 1951, from the Al Parker Collection

Ad for Campbell's Soup, illustrator unknown, from the Charles Craver Collection

Earl Cordrey ad for Listerine from Ladies' Home Journal, May, 1946, from the Charles Craver Collection

Fred Mizen ad for Coca-Cola from Ladies' Home Journal, February 1925, from the Charles Craver Collection

Mario Ruben Cooper ad for Pontiac from the Saturday Evening Post, May 11, 1940, from the Charles Craver Collection

Ad for Van Camp's Pork and Beans from Ladies' Home Journal, December 1911, from the Periodicals Collections

New Jack Unruh Images in LUNA

You may remember our post last November announcing new acquistions to the Jack Unruh Collection. Since then, we've digitized many of these illustrations and have recently made them available online through our digital image database, LUNA. (You will need your WUSTL key to log in and browse the images. If you're not affiliated with Washington University and would like to see them, you can contact us for access.) Unruh is well known for his portraits, and his illustrations of actors, musicians, politicians, and other celebrities have appeared in Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, New York Magazine, and the late Premiere. We've highlighted a few of these finished portraits as well as sketches (all available in LUNA) below.

If you're interested in looking at more of Unruh's work, you can also check out this excellent online exhibit  about his artistic process that a practicum student created for us last year.

Buster Keaton

John F. Kennedy

Julia Louis-Drefyus

Bill Gates

Bob Dylan

Annabel Drazen Rosenbloom Collection

This week we're highlighting the Annabel Drazen Rosenbloom Collection, another collection related to Washington University's Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts that the Modern Graphic History Library recently received from the University Archives.

Rosenbloom received her BA from Washington University in St. Louis in 1936 and her MA in Art History in 1939. The photographs below were taken in 1937, while Rosenbloom was studying on scholarship at the Sorbonne, and capture the energy and beauty of a pre-war Europe through the eyes of a young American artist.The film went undeveloped for several decades until Rosenbloom rediscovered it when she took a photography class in 1979. In 1986, they were displayed in an exhibit on campus. To learn more about the collection, check out the finding aid.

Chartres Cathedral

Notre Dame

 

Sidewalk cafe in Paris

 

Bastille Day in Versailles

Venice

High tide at Mont Saint-Michel