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Chapter
5 - History of Illustration Among America’s Major Newspapers
by Chronicle writer John Bonner
New York
Press
It has been the experience of the New York Press that no single
department is of more value or pleases its readers more than it art
department. The gradual development of this department to what the Press
considers its high state of efficiency has seemed to gratify the readers
of the Press, who have watched its improvement and have let the
management of the paper know from time to time that its efforts in the
direction were thoroughly appreciated.
Its subscribers have become so accustomed to high-class illustrations
depicting the news of the day – pictures of buildings, scenes and
prominent people for the moment in the public eye – that they are quick
to notice any falling off in the character of the Press’ art work or any
marked diminution of the amount of that work furnished to them daily.
During the recent political campaign the Press found the aid of its art
department particularly valuable in preparing its readers in graphic
pictorial form the basic principles and chief issues involved in that
great political contest.
Readers watched with the keenest interest from day to day for the sharp
introspective political cartoons drawn by W. H. Shandler and Clare
Angell, and the Press mails were burdened with letters, mainly of
communication, but now and then of denunciation, when some illustration
of the artist struck home with particular force.
A little feature of the Press in the name of a daily series of
cartoons, which was called “The Boy’s Schoolmaster,” seemed to be
watched with particular zest, and the Press received compensation for
the privilege of reproducing that series in all parts of the Nation.
This development illustrates the value of a well-equipped art department
to a modern newspaper of wide circulation and influence.
The aim of the Press in its art department is not so much to produce a
vast representation of pictures for its readers, but to have a small,
well disciplined wholly effective force, composed of artwork of a high
order of ability. In the Sunday edition the Press gives its readers a
generous quantity of art work and maintains it quality.
In Charge of the staff of artists who leads the Press in its endeavors
is W. W. Lyon, who has general oversight of the department. His work is
necessarily largely executive , but he finds time to do general
illustrating, making a specialty of portraits.
W. H. Shueller, who graduated from commercial life into art work by way
of a course of study at the National Academy of Design, devotes his
attention almost entirely to political cartoons. His drawings of this
kind are unusually of a serious nature, not going to the extreme of
caricature and comicality.
Clare Angell’s forte is the comic cartoon and caricature. He does much
general news illustration, handling mainly subjects which permit of a
farcical treatment.
W. G. Wood excels in marine pictures. His drawings of war ships, naval
fleets going through their maneuvers, Yacht races and similar affairs
have been highly successful and attracted much attention. His pictures
are striking from their note of action and from the excellent water
effects which they show.
C. F. Underwood, who is now in Paris continuing his art studies, has not
severed his connection with the Press, but constantly sends excellent
sketches from the French capital and illustrations of a general nature.
Although a very young man he has developed unusual skill in newspaper
illustration, his best work being in character sketches, fiction
illustration, and portraits. His pictures in the “Chronicle’s”
Exhibition of Newspaper Art Works will illustrate the high character of
his ability.
No reference to the member’s of the Press’ art staff would be adequate
without conspicuous mention of the work of Miss Aspell. Most of her time
and talents are devoted to fashion drawings, but her work in sot of the
“fashion-late” order. She strives with eminent success to give life and
animation to the ladies and gentlemen and boys and girls whom she
pictures as wearing clothes of the latest and most fashionable cut. Miss
Aspell does not confine herself, however, to fashion work, but furnishes
the public with extremely clever illustrations on various topics of
social life and character.
Leslie W. Lee, who devotes most of his energies to the drawing of
figures and costumes, has his time largely taken up with depicting
actors and actresses and various scenes from plays which are for the
time before the public. He has prepared himself for this work by much
study of the costumes of different periods and countries. Before going
into newspaper work Lee studied with Carroll Beckwith, Kenyon Cox and G.
De Forrest Brush at the Art Students’ League, and later at the Academy
of Design.
D. F. Thompson, whose specialty is quaint illustrations and character
pictures for special stories, mainly of an odd and novel nature, began
work as a lithograph artist and continued in that seven years before
going to New York. That training prepared him well in practical
knowledge of newspaper art work.
E. B. Warner is the staff photographer, and in that place gives
valuable aid to all the other artists on the staff. Besides the
photographic work, he serves in a way as librarian of the art
department, having charge of the indexing and filing of photographs,
portraits, scenes and illustrations of all descriptions, as well as the
drawings of the other members of the staff.
F. A. Bussing, the most recent acquisition fo the Press’ art
department, came into newspaper business from the architectural
profession, which he found too mechanical for his tastes. He began his
newspaper career by furnishing illustrations to various comic papers. On
the Press staff he devotes his time to general work.
Chicago
Tribune
Until about the middle of the eighties illustrations were infrequent
exceptions in the columns of the Chicago Tribune, and the character of
the work did not tempt the management to increase their number. It was
not until the close of 1885 that illustrations became a regular feature
of that paper. An art department was established at that time and chalk
plates were relied upon for most of the cuts, which were largely
reproductions of portraits. However, more ambitious illustrations,
including representations of events of the day and scenes from
unfamiliar phases of life soon began to appear.
Chalk plates were almost wholly abandoned within the next two years and
zinc-etching jobbing establishments were relied upon for the mechanical
work. The delays, uncertainties as to whether work would be done, the
necessity of holding he paper for the needed cuts, and the inferior
character of the work in some cases soon determined the Tribune either
to abandon the art department or to establish an independent etching
plant. The latter alternative was adopted in 1889, Louis Racicot who is
now foreman of the etching room, being one of the first assistants.
Since this time the number of Sunday editions has multiplied, and there
has been a steady improvement in both the drawing and the mechanical
work.
In December 1887, Harold B. Heaton, who had studied at the St. Louis
School of Fine Arts and had a year’s experience in drawing for the old
Missouri Republican, was engaged as artist. He has been with the Tribune
continuously since then, with the exception of several months spent some
years ago in sketching in Southern Europe. Heaton studied with the
intention of devoting himself to high art, but found newspaper work more
remunerative. For a short time he had two co-laborers, but they were
released and for a year and a half he had the entire burden of the work.
During the World’s Fair year the number of artists employed varied
between five and six, but the force was reduced after the exposition and
now numbers four. The amount of space devoted to illustrations has
steadily increased and the character of the work has improved. Larger
pictures more carefully executed, rather than numerous small ones
hurriedly done, is the motto of the present management.
Heaton has for a number of years devoted himself almost exclusively to
cartoons. He originated the treating of current events in a strip of
cartoons or pen pictures of “events of the week,” which has subsequently
been adopted by almost every paper in Chicago and many others throughout
the country.
In February last Heaton held the first exhibition of newspaper drawings
ever held in Chicago, and it was successful both in point of attendance
an of sales.
G. A. Coffin and Albert L Levering, formerly in the department of the
Tribune are now employed by a New York daily newspaper. Coffin was with
the Tribune for more than four years. He executed the series of
reproductions of the battle-ships and cruisers of the United States
Navy, which appeared in the Sunday Tribune last year.
Augustus O'Shaughnessy, Robert Carter and Ralph T. Shultz with Heaton
comprise the artists’ staff at present. O’Shaughnessy studied art at the
Christian Brother’s College in St. Joseph, Mo. and gained his first
experience in newspaper work in Pueblo and Kansas City. He has been with
the Tribune two years.
Carter and Shultz attended the Chicago Art Institute. Carter has worked
in Detroit and in San Francisco.
The etching plant is under the management of Louis Racicot, assisted by
Theodore Shultz and Frederick Busse. Racicot has been employed almost
continuously by the Tribune for eight years. The etching plant is
complete in all its equipment and the paper is never dependent for any
of its work upon outside assistance.
Chicago
Times Herald
Not so many years ago a certain great editor – now dead of a certain
great Chicago newspaper – also dead – had a violent aversion to the use
of illustrations in the columns of his journal. Among his employees was
a young man connected with the advertising department who aspired to be
an artist. He found occasional chances to indulge his ambition, and
contributed largely to the pleasure of his associates with cleverly
drawn portraits. Some of these pictures were sketches of advertisers,
and some of them were used to embellish the columns controlled by the
business manager. Most of the portraits, however, went to adorn the
walls of the counting-room with the aid of pics and the paste pot.
One day the great editor paid an unexpected visit to the counting-room
and saw the art exhibition. His brows contracted and strange mutterings
came from his lips. He glared at each of the clerks in turn and finally
thundered forth:
Who drew these pictures?”
“I drew them,” meekly responded the amateur artist, “but I – “
”Well you can draw your salary now,” was the awful suggestion of the
great editor, “and be quick as you can about it.”
Those were the days when the art of newspaper illustration was in its
very infancy. The great editor was Wilbur F. Storey, the man who made
the Chicago Times what is was and left its name to be linked with that
of the Herald when the two papers were consolidated. The policy which he
proclaimed so vigorously on the occasion referred to has no place to-day
in the management of the Chicago Times Herald. No newspaper in the
United States, perhaps in the world, makes a better and freer use of
illustration. Its editor and publisher, H. H. Kohisnat, is a firm and
enthusiastic believer in the value of pictorial art in journalism. He
has made it a noteworthy feature of his paper by sparing no expense in
securing the best artistic talent and the perfection of mechanical
equipment second to none at the command of a daily newspaper.
Typographically considered the Times-Herald is notable for its
clear-cut appearance. Experience has taught the lesson to all publishers
that, lacking in the proper regard for such details as ink, paper, press
work, stereotyping and etching, an artist may draw ever so well and
achieve nothing but his labor for his pains. His genius may be of the
highest order, his ideas may be strikingly original and yet, without
these essentials behind him, his efforts will be failures.
Since the days when the chalk plate and the block of boxwood were the
only vehicles at the command of the daily newspaper for enlivening its
pages – or generally speaking the reverse – the field for artistic work
has broadened beyond all expectations, New processes have been developed
which , in their application in newspaper illustration, invite the most
ambitious efforts of the artist and the engraver.
All of these important requirements are bountifully supplied by the
Times-Herald. From its model pressroom in the basement to the splendidly
appointed etching plant and artists’ room on the fifth floor, there is
no task too difficult for them to undertake with an assurance of
success. Each is encouraged to do his best by the knowledge that his
effort will receive the most conscientious treatment from the time it
leaves his hands until it is transferred to the printed page.
In the “Chronicle’s” exhibition will be found a few characteristic
examples of the work of the Times-Herald artists. The large portraits by
H. Von Hofstein show wherein he particularly excels as a newspaper
illustrator. The fidelity and skill with which he traces the lineaments
of prominent men of the times have made him famous. Some of his work has
attracted the attention of the whole country, the most notable instance
of this kind being afforded during the last National Democratic
Convention.
On the morning of the day when William Jennings Bryan became the
nominee of his party the Times-Herald appeared with a magnificent
portrait of Mr. Bryan on its first page. It was hailed with delight by
the Bryan followers and an extra edition had to be printed to supply the
demand for the picture alone. Thousands of those pictures were worn in
the hats of the delegates when the convention was called to order, and
it is no exaggeration to say that they exercised a tremendous effect in
hastening Mr. Bryans’ nomination. Portraits of William McKinley, Garret
A. Hobart and other men of national reputation have also added to Mr.
von Hofstein’s fame as a newspaper artist.
Harry O. Landers occupies a field in which he has few rivals among
newspaper artists. One must search the pages of a high-class magazine to
find examples of decorative designing from which to make comparisons
with his work in this line for the Times-Herald. His poem illustrations
head and tall pieces and borders show great delicacy and striking
originality, without any apparent striving for the grotesque effects of
the Beardsley school. Mr. Landers’ pen is also responsible for the
excellent portraits which appear on the page devoted to the drama.
Isaac Morgan has achieved an enviable distinction as an “assignment”
artist, probably the most difficult place to fill on a metropolitan
newspaper since it calls for the widest range of talent. Formerly
connected with the Republic of St. Louis, his work at the time of the
cyclone which struck that city was so far above the ordinary to receive
the highest compliments from his professional brethren. Since joining
the Times-Herald staff Morgan has contributed many strikingly original
examples of his skill with pen and ink, especially in the illustration
of stories.
E. M. Brotts is another clever assignment artist, who excels, however,
in the portraiture of women and things relating to the fashion
department. His faithful delineation of costumes makes him a most
valuable specialist.
E. F. Batchelder is a cartoonist whose original ideas and broad grasp
of current events have been demonstrated through the newspapers for
several years. During the recent campaign his clever pen was responsible
for many of the most telling cartoons published in the daily papers.
Some of the best were widely copied, foreign as well as domestic
journals paying him this compliment.
Detroit
Evening News
The Detroit Evening News has never attempted to solve the problem of
the ultimate function of pictorial art in journalism. The progress of
newspaper illustration has been watched with much interest, because it
is an entertaining study and because the much-abused newspaper “cut” has
most evidently come to stay.
The pictorial art department of the News was established in the days
when the chalk plate was the vehicle of expression and the artist and
the stereotyper collaborated to produce strange and mystic shapes. Crude
and libelous as this sort of work was it unquestionably appealed to the
public, although the reason will probably never be known until the sting
is extracted from death and the grave has given up it secrets. With the
advent of the zinc etching, it has been the aim of the Detroit Evening
News to make its pictorial art work explanatory, so far as possible, of
the other matter in the paper. It has never believed that newspaper
illustration was something in itself, a department which should be
maintained independently of the news departments, and that its work was
of such character that no excuse was required. It is true that this is
not the theory of the “new journalism,” which interprets the mission of
the newspaper to be the publication of matter that will fill the
interstices created by the irregular forms of the cuts.
Five bright young men now constitute the staff of the News art
department. Nearly all of them were educated in Detroit. The
illustrations for the News and the Sunday News-Tribune are made by them.
The department is under general charge of Fred Liepziger, who has as his
assistants Joseph L. Kraemer, Fred C. Nash, A. G. Allen, and Irving R.
Bacon. Leipziger, who has been employed on the News some three or four
years, devotes the greater part of his time to cartoons and political
sketches. He has shown a real talent for marine and animal sketches and
has produced many cartoons. Nash, although scarcely 21 years of age,
gives promise of being one of the best newspaper portrait artists in the
country. Some excellent portrait work has also been done by Allen and
Bacon.
From the work of the artists in its employ the News is convinced that
newspaper illustration will make more rapid strides in the next decade
than it has in the past. The men who are doing the work are ambitious
and studious. They evince a disposition to keep out of ruts and to
create rather than copy.
The
Washington Post
The national capital offers an especially fine field for cartoon work
and the Washington Post, under its present management, has made a
specialty of good-natured political pictures that have been copied all
over the country. The late George Y. Cofflin gave the Post a reputation
in this line, and the Post in turn gave Cofflin wide fame. Senators and
Representatives, as well as visitors to Washington in the past six
years, all have pleasant recollections of Cofflin’s work. He was a
genius as a cartoonist, and repeatedly during the later years of his
life declined flattering offers to devote himself wholly to picture
making in New York. He was for many years in the Government service,
holding a responsible clerkship in the Treasury. His cartoons,
originally made as a pastime, finally yielded him a good salary, and his
work was in constant demand. Mr. Cofflin was a classic scholar, and the
only criticism ever heard of his later pictures was that the wit at
times was lost to any but the scholarly reader.
The Post files furnish a graphic history in pictures of national
political events in recent years. During the last campaign Cofflin,
though then an invalid, was at his best Chairman Mark Hanna paid him the
compliment of saying that his pictures of him were the best printed in
the country, and the chairman secured proofs of all of them to be
preserved as souvenirs of the great silver fight. Some two years ago
Cofflin ran a series of pictures modeled after historical paintings, and
entitled them “Masterpieces of Modern Art.” They made a great hit in
Washington. His death in November last, although not unexpected, was
widely deplored. He was 46 years of age.
Clifford K. Berryman, who is now doing the cartoons for the Post – and
showing much cleverness – has been with the Post for several years. He
has until the last three months confined his work largely to sketches
from lie in Washington and the usual newspaper illustrations. His
free-hand likenesses are marvelously accurate. In dealing with public
men he has the advantage of cartoonists in other cities in that he sees
the statesmen as the appear daily in real life, besides having the
advantage of a valuable collection of photographs obtained during the
six years’ service with the Post. While comparatively a novice at
cartooning, his pictures thus far have shown sufficient merit to warrant
the prediction of a bright future in this line for him. His work is
extensively copied already. Mr. Berryman is not yet 30 years old.
The Post aims to use only good pictures and rarely handles anything
from the syndicates. Its portraits are especially well done and this
work has for years been in the hand of J. Harry Cunningham, who is
particularly talented in this direction. His newspaper portraits are
believed not to be excelled by those of any other artist. He has also
done some good architectural drawings.
Some of the drawings of the late Mr. Cofflin and work of Berryman and
Cunningham are included in the “Chornicle’s” exhibit.
Rocky
Mountain News
The work of Albert Wilbur Steele, the artist of the Rocky Mountain
News, possesses a clearness and sharp accentuation that appeals at once
to the reader by forcible lines. Using the chalk plate Steele has been
compelled to apply himself more assiduously to the cultivation of finer
artistic work in drawing than if he were engaged where the
photo-engraving process is in more general use. In inventing character
and originating method of treatment Steele was without a single aid,
having been thrown into the newspaper art when it was in its infancy and
when he was only a __ at cartooning. It all came about in a way that
reflects the hand of fate in directing lives.
After the marriage of Steele, in 1884, to Miss Anne Crary, daughter of
the later Dr. R. F. Crary, editor of the California Christian Advocate,
the young couple chose California as their home. They engaged in
ranching near Jelon?, Monterey County, but after six months retired from
the pursuit. Mrs. Steele did not lie ranching life. San Jose was next
tried in a futile effort to secure for Steele any kind of employment. He
did succeed in obtaining work assisting paper-hangers and was afterward
engaged as bookkeeper in a small store. After six months Steele
concluded that his star of destiny was to be found east of the Rocky
mountain range. He journeyed home and then was employed in his father’s
grocery store for five years. The artist was in the young man, for he
pursued his studies of all objects in such a fashion that it fitted him
perfectly for his real sphere. He spent his evenings at home or with
friends penciling and attempting good outline work, and by constant
practice developed the latent spark of genius.
The late Colonel John Arkins, proprietor of the Rocky Mountain News,
accidentllly saw some of Steele’s sketches and at once recognized
material for a good newspaper artist. He offered Steele a permanency.
His work has been phenomenal. He is a pleasant companion to his
associates and is greatly liked by his colleagues.
Steele was born at Malden, Rareau ? county, Ill., June 18, 1862, and
has passed through the public schools until the eighth grade was
reached, when he chose to seek a more active life. He first studied
surveying in the field with United States deputy land surveyors, and
spent five years until he attained his majority with the chain and
theodolite.
Philadelphia Public Ledger
The Philadelphia Public Ledger began to print illustrations in April
1892, although it was almost a year later before the installation of its
present plant.
In common with nearly every daily newspaper that begins to insert
illustrations among its news items, the Ledger at the start, and for
nearly ten months after, had it cuts drawn and made at a commercial
photo-engraver’s instead of in its own office. There are many reasons
why this soon came to find disfavor. The principal objection to this
method, and a serious one to a modern newspaper, was the inability to
have illustrations made as wanted. All work had to be done in the
daytime or else prepared at a cost out of all proportion to its worth.
Another objection was the failure to secure satisfactory work owing to
the absence of the supervision that would diminish such a contingency.
At first illustrations were necessarily used more sparingly than at the
present time, although it has been from the start the Ledger’s policy to
use illustration that illustrate rather than to print pictures for their
own sake or to “fill up” the pages of the paper. Almost constant lack of
space has made the latter reason an obsolete one, and in such pictorial
embellishments as are used the effort is always made to insure
illustration rather than decoration, although in this line it is
occasionally found that there are legitimate calls for purely ornamental
“cuts” – headings, which add to the typographical appearance of the
page, being an instance.
The Ledger’s department is contained in a suit of seven rooms,
including two darkrooms, one for the wet-plate process and one for
dry-plate developing, which is equipped in a model manner. In the latter
room, of course, all outdoor photography is finished. And here it might
not be out of place to remark that outdoor work is daily becoming more
important, as it is often possible to secure by photography better
results, where a really graphic record is wanted, than by sketching.
Then, again, it is often sheer waste of an artist’s time to send him to
sketch a building that can be successfully photographed, and the result,
even if not so artistic as one would desire, justifies the means
employed, for it is more faithful than could be obtained in any other
way.
Another desirability in newspaper illustration is speed, and while the
zinc process, which is employed by the Ledger, is not so rapid as the
chalk process, the results are infinitely better , and the differences
in time is infinitesimal. Copy has been received so late as 1:05 A.M.
and the cut made in time for the regular “mail” or the first edition,
the last page of which is due in the stereotype foundry not later than 2
o'clock. It is only fair to state that such cases are rare, and that
only a portrait would be attempted in so short a time.
A rather important feature of the Ledger’s art department, as with that
of every other great daily newspaper which illustrated, is the large
docketed collection of portraits and views, and the equally extensive
files of illustrated newspapers and magazines, American and foreign. The
clippings and photographs are arranged under a self-indexing system,
which system is used for the storage of cuts, such as may subsequently
be needed. These are stored in a room by themselves.
Of the machinery in use it is only necessary to say that it comprises
the latest appliances for the proper reproduction of newspaper cuts,
although there are included some of special manufacture and design, and
the arrangement of the machinery and of the plant in general embodies
many new features, and in this respect and in the amount of floor space
devoted to the uses of the department it is not too much to say that it
is believed to be a model.
Owing to the fact that the Ledger issues no Sunday edition the amount
of illustration needed is smaller than it would otherwise me because the
modern Sunday newspaper is largely a creature of the art department. The
principal artists employed are Frederic R. Gruger and John H. Weygrandt,
both of whom were students of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in
Philadelphia. The department is under the direction of Joseph Hackson,
who was also a student of the academy, and has been identified with
other departments of newspaper work.
Salt Lake
Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune has a fully equipped newspaper plant for zinc
etching. It is the only one operated by a newspaper between Chicago and
San Francisco, and was started on October 15th last, with Frank M. Day,
formerly of San Francisco, as artist.
Manager P. H. Lannath secured from Eastern houses the complete outfit
necessary to secure the best results, and the work has been eminently
satisfactory.
At the beginning of the present year, Alfred H. Dutten of Oakland,
Cal., was engaged as artist, and Day took charge of the process room.
The work turned out by them has been growing better day by day, and the
interest of the public in the paper’s new departure has been most
encouraging to the Tribune. This was particularly shown in the recent
Senatorial fight in the Utah Legislature, the Tribune’s daily cartoons
being as much a feature as its reports of the proceedings.
Before the Tribune opened its own plant, zinc etching was used in its
pictorial department. The work was done previously in several process
shops at Salt Lake City, and last summer Will Clawson, now of San
Francisco, became the Tribune’s artist.
The chalk-plate process had been used prior to 1896. Among the artists
who have been employed in this work during the last seven or eight years
were: J. W. B. Kantner, Will Watkins, E. J. Smith and C. B. Handy.
As early as 1876 the Salt Lake Tribune appreciated illustrations as a
strong feature of modern journalism. At that time it published several
cartoons of Brigham Young and his followers. They were but crude wood
cuts, but they were then looked upon with favor by the readers of the
paper and served every purpose for which they were intended.
With its present plant and working force, the Tribune is devoting
attention to political cartoons, portrait work, society illustrations,
and special articles of local interest, profusely illustrated, and the
art department is gradually becoming one of the features of the
inter-mountain journal, which has nearly passed it twenty-sixth year.
The
Evening Standard, New Bedford, Mass.
Edmund D. Ashley, leading artist of the New Bedford Evening Standard is
one of the foremost chalk plate artists of the East. Although but 26
years of age, Ashley is already the possessor of an enviable reputation
as a newspaper illustrator, and has accomplished some widely copied work
in his line. He received his early development in the art department of
the public schools of New Bedford and his bent in that direction so
forcibly manifested itself that immediately after graduating from the
High School, he determined to follow his inclination in the profession.
He entered the art class at the Swain Free School, New Bedford and
rapidly rose in his chosen calling. Upon graduation there he was engaged
by the King Manufacturing Company as the head of it pastel artists and
accomplished splendid results, but the dull routine of shop work was not
a fruitful ground for Ashley’s development, and realizing the fact he
decided to enter the field of newspaper illustration. In 1891 he
associated himself with the Evening Standard’s staff and was placed in
charge of the art and illustrating department.
In this capacity Ashley has found his best opportunity. His work has
embraced the leading events in the news line in all Southern
Massachusetts and his sketches are often copied. As a chalk plate artist
he has really made some splendid specimens of work and the best of it
has been that his sketches and plates have always been from the
originals, many of them thrilling and difficult objects and acquired
sometimes only after adventurous experiences.
The famous Borden murder case gave Ashley his best opportunity for a
reputation. The papers of Fall River had no artists at the time of the
tragedy, but New Bedford was only fourteen miles away. No sooner was the
news flashed into the Standard office than Ashley was sent to the scene,
and he obtained the very first sketches made of the awful sights. In
fact it was Ashley’s sketch of the bloody chamber with the unfortunate
Mrs. Borden lying on the floor that was copied in all the papers of the
great cities. And in the long trial which followed Ashley maintained an
industry and faithful application to his art, which made him eminent. In
this work he was thrown into competition with some of the most
celebrated newspaper artists of the country, but did not suffer by
comparison.
Ashley has repeatedly received flattering offers to sever his
connection with the Standard, but has persistently declined, preferring
to remain on the staff where he has met with such large measure of
success. And indeed there is no better field in all New England , for
the Standard has furnished Ashley every chance for original work. His
portfolio contains many thrilling subjects, including several murder
scenes and such original specimens as ship-wrecks and marine disasters
of various kinds.
The Los
Angeles Times
Prior to 1890 the Los Angeles Times did not use illustrations and there
was really no need of them. Anything in the nature of art then was in
the nature of a luxury. There were neither engravers nor artists in Los
Angeles capable of doing good work, and the conditions generally did not
warrant newspaper illustration. In 1890 the Times began to use Chalk
Plates in a limited way and continued to do so until 1893. Its manager
recognized the limitations of that process and as soon as possible
substituted line engraving, a vast improvement of the weak,
characterless chalk plates.
There were at the time but two zinc-engraving establishments in Los
Angeles, neither of which was capable of doing good work, and the Times
was for some time unable to secure good results. In 1893 Will E. Chapin
became associated with the Times and, having had extensive experience in
illustrating work in the East, he was able to secure for the paper more
satisfactory results. The value of the cartoon was soon established in
Los Angeles, and it thereafter became one of the leading features of the
paper. Special editions designed to promote the interests of Southern
California have been issued from time to time during the past four
years. They have been filled with a wealth of good illustrations that
correctly portrayed the various features of Southern California life.
Will E. Chapin, who for three years has been associated with the Los
Angeles Times as its chief artist and superintendent of it art
department, is a member of that notable family that has
given many famous men to the country, the Chapins of Springfield. Mass.
The young artist’s father is the Nestor of American art. He conducted
the art department of Gleason’s Pictorial and organized and conducted
the art department of Harper’s Weekly, and it was natural that the son
should follow in the footsteps of the father.
Chapin’s style has a strength and boldness which ranks him with the
best. During the recent political campaign his cartoons showed an
originality and vigor which gave him a front rank in that field of work.
It is in cartoon work, notably, that his most telling work has been done
in association with the Times, and his productions in that line have
given him wide popularity. The illustrations that have emanated from his
pen in connection with the great special editions of the paper show his
versatility. These pictures are original in conception and the technique
of the headings symbolical pictures and covers is exceedingly
commendable.
Introduction
1. The Chronicle's
Exhibition of Pictorial Art in Journalism, by staff
2. A History of Art in
America, by Chronicle writer John Bonner
3. The Process of
Reproducing Images, by Chronicle writer John Bonner
4. America's Greatest
Newspapers, by Chronicle writer John Bonner
5. History of
Illustration among America's Major Newspapers, by Chronicle
writer John Bonner
6. Critics Preempt the
Exhibition
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