Frank "Ket" Kettlewell, born Benjamin Franklin (after his father), was a successful editorial cartoonist, cartographer, painter and photographer, who worked for the Oakland Tribune from 1912 until his death on June 11, 1969 at 79. His signature, "KET," usually included a tiny bird.But in Dec. 1905, "Frankie" as he signed himself then, had just turned 16, and was writing from his place of birth, St. Helena, Cal., to Mrs. B.F. Kettlewell--his mother, Libbie, who was visiting her father in San Francisco. Frank appears to have had an art lesson or two. On thin card he drew the front of the family house in light pencil, went over it with pen & ink, and applied watercolor. He then cut it carefully to postal card size, and glued it just as carefully to a 1¢ William McKinley card. Except for a subtle weight difference, it's not apparent. If caught, the post office applied a 1c penalty for anything mounted to a card, basically raising your cost to that of a first class letter.Frankie fooled them, but then this was not your typical teenager, though the message to his mother, who was away with his older brother Charles, was certainly from a 16-year-old, with a sign comically pinned to a modest St. Helena home, and a helpful arrow drawn at left: "WANTED A COOK AND DISHWASHER."We don't know if Libbie took offense at her son's view of her status, but Mrs. Kettlewell, who lived until 1951, held on to the card and appears to have taken pretty good care of it. Frankie moved to San Francisco in 1906, shortly after the great quake to be with his grandfather, and ended up doing volunteer work while waiting, impatiently one imagines, for the city to rebuild its art school.A selection from an archive of 30 Kettlewell drawings, ca. 1916-1935, can be found on-line at Geographicus Rare Antique Maps.
Note: Thanks to David From Manhattan for educating me about a subject of which I am not very knowledgeable. This is his seventy-second contribution to the old blog.
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