June 27, 2018
Vintage editorial cartoons by Oregon’s Howard Fisher in UW Libraries exhibit ‘Captured in Ink’
“Captured in Ink: Historical Cartoons and Caricatures” is a UW Libraries Special Collections exhibit in the Allen Library South Basement. The exhibit features recently acquired drawings by Howard Fisher, an editorial cartoonist for the Oregon Journal, a Portland newspaper that folded in 1982, as well as many other historical drawings.Dennis Wise
A new college graduate wonders as war brews: “Where do we go from here?” A boy at a school desk is taunted by the baseball, bat and mitt he can’t play with. The grim reaper sits astride a sedan on a winding mountain road pointing forward amid warnings — even from a nearby cow — to “Be Careful!”
These are drawings by an editorial cartoonist named Howard Fisher (1890-1962), who worked and drew for decades for the Oregon Journal, a Portland newspaper that folded in 1982. They are featured in a UW Libraries Special Collections exhibit called “Captured in Ink: Historical Cartoons and Caricatures.” The display is in Special Collections in the Allen Library South basement.
The exhibit was created by Lisa Oberg, associate director of Special Collections and its History of Science and Medicine curator. The images came to the UW after Nicolette Bromberg, UW Libraries visual materials curator, was contacted by an antiquarian dealer who had acquired some of Fisher’s work. Special Collections then purchased 440 Fisher editorial drawings, a wide selection of which are featured in “Captured in Ink.”
“He did over 9,000 in his career,” Oberg said. “The Newseum and other places with political collections have some, but I think now we probably have one of the largest collection of his work.”
Fisher’s drawings were not, however, all light cultural observations; many were sharp, even chilling in tone, especially as World War II approached:
- A jackbooted Adolf Hitler hikes toward a “new world order” up a hillside littered with broken bodies named for the countries he has conquered. The title: “His Rise to Power”
- A car labeled “the third term” with Franklin Roosevelt at the wheel speeds down a slick highway (similar to the “Be Careful!” spot) with oily lettering: “The road to totalitarianism.” A penciled headline at the top clarifies: “As Tom Dewey sees it.” Dewey was defeated by FDR for the presidency in 1944 (and again by Harry Truman in 1948).
- In a 1937 reference to World War I, a darkly seductive figure labeled “WAR” with a death’s head lures a young American man to her room saying, “Come on in, I’ll treat you right. I used to know your daddy.”
Images in the exhibit also reveal some of Fisher’s process. A few are only pencil sketches, but hint of the full drawing to come. Many of the drawings, some of Oberg’s favorites, show where the artist used white-out to clarify edges and make it camera-ready. And Fisher, like many in his trade, had as a signature character a tiny cartoon beaver reacting to the image from the lower corners of some images.
Oberg gathered other historical cartoons as well for the exhibit, and will change these occasionally during the run. These include:
- Small color caricatures of celebrities of the early 20th century from the original Vanity Fair magazine — Madame Curie, Charles Darwin, Oliver Wendell Holmes and more.
- Drawings by John “Dok” Hager, an early 20th century cartoonist for the Seattle Times, of a character called Umbrella Man, whose hat indicated the weather that day.
- Some of the very first political cartoons, of a strutting, pompous Napoleon. Many hand-colored, these came from French and English publications of the late 1700s, though some were individually created etchings.
- Along one wall, blown-up caricatures of famous Seattle locals from decades back (women were typically featured only on the arm of a man, Oberg notes)
- A small display on the theme of wartime cartooning, called “Drawn to War.”
“I find it’s incredibly timely,” Oberg said, noting an editorial cartoonist in Pittsburgh who was recently fired over his views expressed in ink.
A quote from the Newseum posted in bold letters near the door sums up the role of the editorial cartoonist well, Oberg said.
It reads: “A good editorial cartoonist can produce smiles at the nation’s breakfast tables and, at the same time, screams around the White House. That’s the point of cartooning: to tickle those who agree with you, torture those who don’t, and maybe sway the remainder.”
“Captured in Ink: Historical Cartoons and Caricatures,” reflecting the long and proud tradition of criticism via pen and ink, will be on display through Oct. 19.
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For more information, contact Oberg at 206-543-7492 or lisanne@uw.edu.
Tag(s): Lisa Oberg • Nicolette Bromberg • UW Libraries
