John Tinney McCutcheon Collection

MU Ellis Special Collections Comic Collection 7

368 original cartoons; 25 reproductions

Scope and Contents

The majority of the items in this collection are original pen and ink cartoons drawn for the Chicago Tribune from 1903 to 1944. These editorial cartoons focus on social issues, economics, politics, and both World Wars. The collection includes cartoons on the Great Depression and several presidential races, as well as a number of cartoons that are of particular interest to the history of Missouri. The collection also contains illustrations drawn for Cosmopolitan from 1912 to 1926, many of which accompanied the humorous stories by George Ade in his collection entitled Fables in Slang. Reproductions of some of McCutcheon’s more popular cartoons, and some original pen and ink drawings painted with watercolor are also included in the collection.

The collection will be of interest to researchers of American political history, early twentieth-century social attitudes, the World Wars, economic concerns, the history of American journalism, and related topics.

Provenance

The collection was donated by McCutcheon’s widow, Evelyn Shaw McCutcheon, in 1955. Past University President Elmer Ellis was instrumental in acquiring the collection.

Restrictions on Access

The collection is not catalogued. The collection is available to all researchers, although in their present state, the cartoons are fragile and offer only limited access. Permission to publish or reproduce any of these image files must be received from the Head of Special Collections, and in cases in which copyright still applies, from the estate of John Tinney McCutcheon and the Chicago Tribune.

Biographical Note

John Tinney McCutcheon (1870-1949) is often referred to as “the Dean of Cartoonists” and is best known for his political and satirical work. Born on a small farm near Lafayette, Indiana, McCutcheon went on to graduate from Purdue University in 1889. His career as a cartoonist and journalist began at the Chicago Morning News in 1895, but the bulk of his career (1903-1946) was spent at the Chicago Tribune. McCutcheon traveled widely, often serving as a correspondent during his journeys. He was embedded with the U.S.S. McCulloch in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War and witnessed the Battle of Manila, and he also reported on events in South Africa and Europe during World War I.

McCutcheon’s cartoons provided commentary on presidential races, national politics, societal changes and economic hardships. He was particularly strong in his support for Theodore Roosevelt’s attempt at a third term as President and found in him an ample supply of material for his work in the Tribune. McCutcheon also published illustrations for several books by George Ade, a fellow Indianan and Purdue graduate whose humorous “fables” were widely popular from the turn of the century through the 1930s. In addition to lecturing throughout the U.S., McCutcheon was a speaker at MU during Journalism Week in 1939. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1931 for the cartoon “A Wise Economist Asks a Question.”

McCutcheon married Evelyn Shaw in 1917. After his death in 1949, Mrs. McCutcheon distributed his original drawings to several institutions in the Midwest, and also helped to publish his autobiography, Drawn from Memory (New York, 1950).

Collection Inventory and Key

Except for the Miscellaneous group, each drawing and reproduction has been assigned a unique number. There are four series of numbers:

• Original pen and ink cartoons done for the Chicago Tribune (numbers 1 - 324)
• Original pen and ink drawings done for Cosmopolitan (numbers C1 to C19)
• Original pen and ink drawings with coloring done by watercolor (numbers W1 to W25)
• Reproductions. These are in a variety of media, including newsprint (Numbers R1 to R24)

All numbered cartoons except the Cosmopolitan series have been assigned a broad subject code. They are:

ECONOMICS – Business, monetary, labor/management issues and problems, and other economic situations

NATURE – Usually weather conditions or seasons of the year

SOCIETY – Scenes or opinions about purely social events and issues. Personal and family relationships, social commentary. Includes the St. Louis World’s Fair of 1904.

WORLD – International events and world politics not directly related to the World Wars.

WWI – Events and comments about the events leading up to and during World War I

POST-WWI – Depictions of and opinions about the direct political, economic and social aftermath of World War I.

PRE-WWII – Events directly related to the outbreak of World War II

WWII – Events during WWII directly related to the war

MIXED – These have more than one panel, with the subjects of the panels falling into more than one of the other categories