Hats keep you warm, provide cooling shade, are revealing, concealing, and sometimes purely decorative. A hat usually provides the finishing touch to a person’s dress, complementing an ensemble and unifying the appearance. Whatever their purpose, a hat reveals something about its wearer: their sense of style, purpose, activity, or class. Illustrations that include hats allow

        Howard Chandler Christy (1872-1952)The Bookman, Feb. No., 1895Advertising posterDelaware Art Museum, gift of Helen Farr Sloan, 1993-132 The literary magazine The Bookman began publication in February 1895. Produced by the New York publishers Dodd, Mead and Company, The Bookman* was a compilation of articles, book and author news, book reviews, and

  William Glackens (1870-1938) She wheeled about and stamped her foot. “Silence pigs!” she screamed. Story illustration for “The Play’s the Thing” by Albert W. Vorse in Scribner’s Magazine, v. 26 (Aug. 1899): 171. Wash, Gouache, and Chinese White Collection of the Society of Illustrators, 039.002       In the Society of Illustrators permanent

Henri Toulouse-­‐Lautrec (1864-­‐1901) Moulin Rogue: La Goulue, 1891 Advertising illustration for the Bal du Moulin Rogue, Paris Color Lithographic Poster   In 1891 Henri Toulouse-­‐Lautrec created a series of promotional posters commissioned by the Bal du Moulin Rouge as advertisements for the dance hall. In the poster seen here, Lautrec limited himself to line and

Robots are now a real part of our world: automobiles are constructed at least in part by robotic devices; home-focused robotic devices vacuum our carpets and clean our floors; and other robots are being developed to make our lives easier.  So, where and when did the idea of robots become a part of our culture

Jules Guérin (1866-1946) A Bit of Broadway: The cavernous maws beneath those blazing boards nightly suck in throngs of amusement seekers Story illustration for “The Lights and the Stars of Broadway” by John Corbin, in Scribner’s Magazine (February 1905) : p. 133.   Here we are again at the dark of the year: days are

Charley Harper (1922-2007) Gregor Mendel Transferring Pollen from One Flower to Another, 1961 Illustration in The Giant Golden Book of Biology (Golden Press, 1961) In Charley Harper’s Gregor Mendel Transferring Pollen from One Flower to Another created to illustrate the portion of the Book of Biology text that deals with DNA, genetics, and inherited traits,

J. C. Leyendecker (1874-1951) Thanksgiving Number Cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post (November 21, 1908)   Artists may sometimes choose to revisit a particular theme they’ve worked on before. When they do it is interesting to see what they choose to keep the same in a composition and what they decide to change. Illustration

    Georges Barbier (1882-1932) L’Amérique, 1920 Illustration from a 1920 calendar In the late teens and 1920s the French illustrator and designer Georges Barbier produced series of images that were used to decorate annual calendars.* One series focused on the seasons, another on the continents around the world. The image Barbier created to represent

Maybe you’re like me and when you think of the 20th century illustrator Cushman Parker, you think of the myriad of advertising illustrations he created in the teens and 20s of cherry cheeked children enjoying a variety of Beech-Nut products.*       Cushman Parker  (1881-1940) Beech Nut Advertisement,  c. 1920 Advertising illustration for Beech