The Society of Illustrators: Pay-Time and Play-Time

The thirtieth annual exhibition of the Society of Illustrators was held at the Harlow, McDonald Gallery early  in the spring of 1932. It was the time of the Great Depression and, according to an ad found on eBay, many illustrators were out of work. The Society raised money to assist these artists by offering the public fifteen-minute portrait sketches and caricatures by some of the era's most celebrated illustrators. For five dollars ($108.32 in today's money), from March 28 to April 9, visitors could be immortalized by Peter Arno, W. T. Benda, Floyd Davis, James Montgomery Flagg, Rube Goldberg, Jefferson Machamer, Herb Roth, Tony Sarg, Otto Soglow, or C. D. Williams. For those who didn't lose their life savings in the Great Crash, it wasn't a bad deal at all.

What became of these portraits created more than ninety years ago for a good cause? Some of them must still be around, but how are we to recognize if they are from this event?

Society of Illustrators
eBay listing accessed January 29, 2023

https://www.ebay.com/itm/385378978259?hash=item59ba6089d3:g:JFoAAOSwm4Vj1XrP&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoKHAV2SB8Q%2BNkv8C22373E9efMvoyZ%2FkfzkhEInkS3QxduQMIWe2DSZrX%2BbtOCpf2g5Dw7gpCNcgSLnva1bubKZo2bn9gEu%2BOvttzW7YyBDSxehs%2BE8%2FI2Z9nlOF%2BDs1KchkRkXiyoYDLE4hysR1SMuczlU1DZBlnqZn7rTRma2ZsmHNaWlRvgwIAwOb6gbU5emIOCNWctiUuEsgxYwl8Y0%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR8astdzAYQ

Society of Illustrators
eBay item description

Note:  Attempted Bloggery would like to post some of these portraits, so please search your family heirlooms.

The ad is illustrated by W. M. I don't recognize the initials. Could it be Wallace Morgan? Or somebody else?

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