Treasures and Musings @ Modern Graphic History Library

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

Back to School Shopping with MGHL

Classes have begun, but do you have everything you need? Take a look at these advertisements -- you may see a few things you forgot. All images are from the Periodicals Collections or the Charles Craver Collection.

Blazers and loafers make "the perfect outfit." This Penaljo ad appeared in the September 1951 issue of the travel magazine Holiday.

As this 1951 ad (also from Holiday) notes, "no back-to-school wardrobe is complete without a Troy Robe!"

This article from the September 1929 issue of The Delineator gives an overview of what every young woman should take to college, including a tweed suit (Figure C) and a fur coat (Figure A).

This 1946 ad illustrated by Pete Hawley promises that a Jantzen girdle will "give the figure proper verve." We especially like the bulletin board in the background full of college-related ephemera, including a photo of a pipe-smoking boyfriend.

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.

Mario Cooper Illustrating Agatha Christie

During her lifetime, British mystery writer Agatha Christie published 66 detective novels. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s -- the peak of Christie's career -- in the U.S. these works often first appeared as serials in magazines like Collier's, The Saturday Evening Post, and Redbook, giving fans an opportunity to read and follow a story months before the book's publication.  While many artists illustrated her work, perhaps no illustrator collaborated with her more than Mario Cooper; by our count his illustrations accompany at least 8 of her novels that appeared in Collier's. Cooper's illustrations for Christie's fiction are striking, economical, and bring a bit of glamor to detective fiction. All of the images below are tear sheets from the Charles Craver Collection. To learn more about the collection or Mario Cooper, check out the collection's finding aid.

Cooper's first illustrations for Christie were Appointment with Death, which Collier's published in nine installments from August 28 to October 23, 1937. This novel, as all of the others in this post, feature Christie's best-known and most frequently used character, the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The amazing sky in the background of the first image reveals Cooper's expertise with watercolors; for many years he taught the medium, and from 1959 to 1986 was president of the American Watercolor Society.

Murder for Christmas (published in the UK as Hercule Poirot’s Christmas) followed Appointment with Death. It appeared in ten parts in Collier's from November 12, 1938 to January 14, 1939. This illustration (like the one below from The Patriotic Murders) has relatively few components, but the simple, if slightly off composition and bold color perfectly convey the tension in Christie's fiction.

Sad Cypress appeared in Collier's in ten parts from November 25, 1939 to January 27, 1940. Reviews of the novel ranged from modestly positive to lukewarm, perhaps the inevitable result of being the follow up to the wildly popular And Then There Were None, Christie's biggest success and the best-selling mystery of all time.

The Patriotic Murders (published under the name One Two, Buckle My Shoe in the UK) appeared in nine installments from August 3 to September 28, 1940.

The Center for the Humanities Comics Collection

We're excited to announce an amazing new addition to the MGHL collections: The Center for the Humanities Comics Collection. A transfer from Washington University's The Center for the Humanities, the collection contains thousands of comic books, as well as pulp magazines, graphic novels, manga, zines, and reference materials.

While the majority of the collection is superhero titles published by Marvel and DC during the second half of the twentieth century, the collection contains comics published from the 1940's to the 2000's by a variety of mainstream and independent publishers. Many genres are represented as well, including war comics, erotic comics, horror comics, adventure comics, romance comics, and alternative and underground comics. The collection contains a particularly strong selection of titles featuring African American protagonists and female superheroes.

To learn more about the Center for the Humanities Comics Collection, take a look at the finding aid.

Check out a few of the first highlights from the collection below.

 Detective Comics, No 292, 1957

Jumbo Comics No 97, 1947

Although Jumbo Comics was anthology, most of the issues during its run from 1938 to 1953 featured Sheena, Queen of the Jungle on the cover (most often wielding a weapon and in the midst of an attack or fight).  In 1937, Sheena -- more or less a female version of Tarzan -- was the first female character to have her own comic book title.

Black Lightning No 3, 1977

Black Lightning -- with the curious backstory of once having been an Olympic athlete and a high school principal -- was one of the earliest African American superheroes to appear in DC comics. While the original series only ran from 1977 to 1978, in subsequent years Black Lightning continued to be revived in other DC titles such as Outsiders and Justice League of America.

Catwoman No 18, 1995

Classics Illustrated No 33, 1948

Classics Illustrated, which ran from 1941 to 1971, featured adaptations of literary classics with the intent of introducing "reluctant" young readers to "great literature." The cover of this Sherlock Holmes issue features references to two of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous works about the detective -- A Study in Scarlet and The Hound of the Baskervilles.

 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, 1978 

This one-shot comic was part of the larger trend in the late 1970s of real life stars making "guest appearances" in Superman comics. Intended to be published in 1977 while Muhammad Ali was reigning World Heavyweight Champion, the comic experienced delays that pushed publication to the following year when Ali lost the title. If you look closely, you'll see that the wrap-around cover by comic book artist Neal Adams features an audience of DC characters and real life celebrities. For a full view and detailed list, check out the Wikipedia entry about the issue.

A Look at John Gannam’s Pacific Balanced Sheets Advertisements

This week's post was written by MGHL's student worker Kara Gordon. Kara is helping us digitize tear sheets in the Charles Craver Collection and came across a series of Balanced Pacific Sheets ads illustrated by John Gannam. To learn more about Gannam, check out the Charles Craver Collection finding aid.

I can’t count the number of times that I’ve seen the illustration of a girl on a bed reading the comics section of the newspaper ("Gone Gal"). Whether it comes up in a classroom slideshow or on my tumblr dashboard, it is an iconic illustration, even 65 years after its original publication.

Life, September 27, 1948

I had no idea that it was an ad for bed sheets.

John Gannam actually did several illustrations for the Pacific Balanced Sheets campaign during the 1940's. Advertisements, unlike fiction, are property of a corporation, rather than the publication itself. In other words, you see the same advertisement pop up in several magazines. Such is the case with the "Fair Morning" illustration, which in 1946 appeared both in an April issue of Life and May issue of Ladies’ Home Journal.

Life, April 29, 1946

Ladies' Home Journal, May 1946

Aside from the obvious scale shift to fit the format of the magazines, there are other discrepancies between the printings of this illustration. Life’s version is slightly cropped, making the woman an even larger component of the composition. The text, because of the format size, is spread out over three lines rather than four, giving the illustration even more prominence on the page. The most noticeable difference, however, is the color. The version in Ladies’ Home Journal was printed with significantly more magenta than the one in Life. The result is two completely different color atmospheres: a cooler spring morning in Life, a warm summer in Ladies’ Home Journal, all because of the percentage of magenta used on the same illustration.

MGHL at NARA's Preservation Road Show

This week from July 10-12, the National Archives in St. Louis is hosting a Preservation Road Show. This event is free and open to the public and will include workshops, demonstrations, and a panel discussion all aimed at providing instruction and techniques to help you preserve your family or personal items, such as scrapbooks, photos, home movies, and the like. The Modern Graphic History Library will have a table on Thursday the 12th with information on preserving artwork and comic books. Check the flyer below for more details.

Because artwork can be particularly challenging to preserve, we wanted to share a few tips for dealing with acrylic paintings, which many people have at home:

• The soft paint of acrylic paintings attracts and holds dirt, making works suspectible to damage. To clean, place the painting on a padded surface and hold upright at an angle so the dust will fall away from the piece. Then, using a clean, soft, natural-hair artists’ brush, lightly dust the painting's surface (if there is no visible flaking).
• Store paintings in a cool place, and away from direct sunlight and dust. Avoid hanging art over a fireplace.

If you can't attend the event but are interested in learning more about the care, handling, and storage your personal collection, check out the Library of Congress page about preserving family treasures, the American Institute for Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works page on caring for your artwork, and the @ Your Library page about preserving comic books.

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.

Illustrator Spotlight: Harold von Schmidt

This week we're featuring the work of Harold von Schmidt, one of the most successful and important illustrators of the mid-twentieth century. The details of the illustrator's early life read almost like fiction: Born in California in 1893, von Schmidt was orphaned at age 5. After a year in an orphanage, he was taken in by his grandfather, a forty-niner whose stories helped instill in the artist a lifelong fascination with the Old West. Rugged and athletic, von Schmidt worked as a cowhand and lumberjack as a young man, and participated in the 1920 and 1924 U.S. Olympics as member of the rugby team. He studied at the California College of the Arts and the San Francisco Art Institute, but it wasn't until he moved to New York in 1924 to attend Grand Central Art School and studied with painter Harvey Dunn that his career began to take off.

His illustrations appeared in The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Cosmopolitan, and Sunset, most often accompanying Westerns or adventure stories. Although encouraged to do covers, Von Schmidt greatly preferred, and felt his work better suited to, interior illustrations that allowed him to create the kind of realistic action scenes for which he was known. In 1927 he relocated to Westport, Connecticut, where he lived the remainder of his life. In 1948 he became, along with Al Parker, one of the founding members Famous Artists School. (Von Schmidt's1949 Lesson Plan Book for the school is part of the Al Parker Collection.) During his lifetime, he received numerous awards, including induction into the Society of Illustators Hall of Fame in 1959 and the first gold medal from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in 1968. Tear sheets of von Schmidt's work can be found in the Charles Craver Collection.

If you're interested in seeing more of von Schmidt's work, check out Harold von Schmidt Draws and Paints the Old West or Willa Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop (von Schmidt spent two years working on the illustrations for the novel).

The Saturday Evening Post, April 30, 1938

The Saturday Evening Post, January 14, 1939

The Saturday Evening Post, June 18, 1938

Collier's, November 5, 1932

Illustration for mystery novel Dark Revenge which first appeared as an abridged version in The American, in June 1939, and then in book form as Mountain Cat the following month.

This Week in History: Al Parker's Induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame

While Al Parker received many awards and accolades throughout his career, perhaps none was as prestigous as his induction into the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, which happened 47 years ago this week. Given that the Society had only begun their Hall of Fame in 1958, it is particularly impressive that Parker was recognized for his body of work and influence on the field a mere 7 years later, joining the company of previous inductees such as Norman Rockwell and Harold von Schmidt. Below is the President's Dinner program, June 16, 1965 (the event at which Parker was honored), including the dinner menu, a brief introduction by then-President Carl Bobertz, and a paragraph about Parker.