On this day, August 6, 1918, Charles Banks Wilson was born in Springdale, Arkansas. After studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Wilson apprenticed as an illustrator at the Chicago Tribune. Wilson illustrated a history textbooks used by Oklahoma schools and also a variety of classic story books. He went on to paint
On this day, August 5, 1902, illustrator and writer Robert Bright was born in Sandwich, Massachusetts. He studied at Princeton University. Bright was the creator of the Georgie series of stories about a shy ghost who lives in an attic. He created the character and his first Georgie story was published in 1944 and the last
On this day, August 4, 1976, illustrator Alvan “Hap” Hadley died in Los Angeles, California. Hap Hadley specialized in black and white illustrations and in illustrating movie posters for Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. His movie posters were typically caricatured faces of the actors with over-sized heads.
On this day, August 2, 1912, pulp artist Raphael Jerard Norman Astarita was born in Brooklyn, New York. Astarita never graduated high school and never formally studied art, self-training instead. Early on Astarita worked for comic books. During WWII he joined the U. S. Naval Reserve. After the war his work began to appear in pulp
On this day, August 1, 1914, Edd (Edward Daniel) Cartier was born in North Bergen, New Jersey. Cartier studied at Pratt Institute and while still a student he received his first illustrating assignments from Street & Smith publishers. He served in WWII and upon his return to the U. S., Cartier again studied at Pratt. He
On this day, July 31, 1860, artist and naturalist Mary Vaux Walcott was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In 1925 the Smithsonian published some 400 of her illustrations of wild flowers and their description in a 5-volume book, North American Wild Flowers.
On this day, July 30, 2013, illustrator and op ed editorial illustrator Jean-Claude Suares died in Englewood, New Jersey. After emigrating to New York Suares attended Pratt Institute briefly before joining the Army. In Vietnam he did a stint on Stars and Stripes the Army newspaper. He worked for various publications and in 1970 was involved
On this day, July 29, 1971, painter, sculptor, and illustrator Federico Castellón died in New York City. Castellón emigrated with his family to the United States when he was a child. Largely self-taught, Castellón studied the art in New York’s museums. In the late 30s he began to create illustrations for work as Poe’s “The Masque of
On this day, August 3, 1945, illustrator and artist C. Warde Traver died in New York City. He studied at The University of Michigan, the Detroit School of Art, and at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Traver created illustrations for a broad range of magazines from The Saturday Evening Post to Physical Culture and Love
On this day, July 28, 1918, pulp illustrator Chester Bloom was born in Regina, Canada. Bloom and his family moved to New York City in 1939. Even as he began created work for pulp magazines, Bloom studied at the Art Students League in New York. He served in the U. S. Army in WWII working