On this day, April 28, 1885, Howard Everett Smith was born in West Windham, New Hampshire. He studied at the Art Students League in New York, with Howard Pyle in Wilmington, Delaware, and at The Boston Museum of Fine Arts School. Smith’s illustrations appeared in Scribner’s, Harper’s Monthly, and in the Ladies Home Journal.
On this day, April 27, 1988, illustrator Jon Whitcomb died in Menlo Park, California. Whitcomb majored in English and studied at Ohio Wesleyan University and Ohio State University. As a student he began drawing illustrations for student publications and after found work making advertising illustrations. After joining the Cooper Studio in New York Whitcomb became known
On this day, April 26, 1902, Vernon Simeon Plemion Grant was born in Coleridge, Nebraska. Grant studied art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Early in his career he landed the job of creating the gnome-like mascots for Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. He also created advertising illustrations for General Electric, Gillette, and Hershey’s and
On this day, April 25, 1996, graphic designer and illustrator Saul Bass died in Los Angeles, California. Bass studied at the Art Students League in New York and attended night classes at Brooklyn College. In the 1940s Bass began working in Hollywood doing work for film ads and eventually he also created film title sequences and
On this day, April 24, 1913, The Woolworth Building in New York was opened. Designed by architect Cass Gilbert, this rental prospectus with illustrated drawing of the skyscraper was offered with the comment that this soon to be opened building was the “Highest Building in the World.”
On this day, April 23, 1926, illustrator and artist Joseph Pennell died in New York City. Pennell first studied art in Philadelphia and then went to Europe to complete his education. A friend of James McNeill Whistler, Pennell also made his home in London. With war looming in the teens, Pennell returned to the U.S. and
On this day, April 22, 1968, Ernest Nordli died in San Francisco, California. Nordli worked for Disney as a production artist, also for Warner Brothers, and then he returned to Disney. He worked on Dumbo, Fantasia and later on Sleeping Beauty, and on One Hundred and One Dalmatians including the background drawing style on this movie.
On this day, April 21, 1959, cartoonist Tim Jacobus was born in New Jersey. He began drawing in high school and has since become known for creating the covers to all the issues (67) of R. L. Stone's series Goosebumps until the series' cancellation.
On this day, April 20, 1968, comic strip artist Rudolph Dirks died in New York City. In 1897 Dirks created The Katzenjammer Kids for the New York Journal. In 1914 Dirks moved to work for Pulitzer's New York World where he produced Hans and Fritz and then The Captain and the Kids.
On this day, April 19, 1873, Charles M. Lefferts was born in New York City. After serving in the New York National Guard and then the federal army, Lefferts retired in 1921. The rest of his life Lefferts spent studying the uniforms of the American Revolution And making illustrations of those uniforms.