A Century of The New Yorker at the New York Public Library

On Sunday I visited the New York Public Library to catch the exhibition "A Century of The New Yorker." The show's banner is behind the library lion known as Patience.

It's always best to start at Beginnings, but I will not be strictly chronological here.

Introduction with some of the magazine's library covers:

Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant started it all in 1925 (with the financial backing of Raoul Fleischmann).

The magazine's prospectus sold the idea of The New Yorker.

Rea Irvin's original artwork of the dandy we call Eustace Tilley is iconic.

A spot drawing of showgirls is by the pioneering cartoonist Barbara Shermund.

Some drawings of the city by Reginald Marsh circa the 1930s adorn the show as well.

What! No Pie Charts? has text by humorist Corey Ford and pictures by Julian de Miskey.

Preliminary art from 1934 is by Reginald Marsh for "It's her first lynching."

Giddap is a 1930 etching by Hale Woodruff.

J. D. Salinger gets his start in the pages of The New Yorker:

 

A spot drawing of a bus stop sign by K. Sterne:

A 1939 photograph of Dorothy Parker:

A lovely 1947 spot drawing by Susan Flint:

A 1946 pony edition of The New Yorker sent to servicemen overseas has a cover by James Thurber featuring several varieties of his dogs.

A 1940 photograph of "Letter from Paris" correspondent Janet Flanner, or Genêt, is by Carl Van Vechten.

A Fact Checking Department banner by Anne Mortimer-Maddox, c. 1970:

A 1948 photograph of New Yorker staff members and a fact checking memo from Frederick Packard to Ross:

An after-hours spot drawing by Garth Williams:

"This is going on all over!" The magazine increases its circulation outside of New York City.

A synchronous spot drawintg by Virginia Snedeker:

Original cartoon art by Helen E. Hokinson:

"I want to report a winking man."

And original art by Charles Addams, c. 1945. You may recognize the witch as Morticia, but this is well before Addams Family members had been given names.

"Oh, I couldn't make it Friday—I've so many things to do. It's the thirteenth, you know."

A full issue in 1946 was dedicated to John Hersey's "Hiroshima."

Copycat!

Cover by Charles Alston:

A dynamic 1948 spot drawing by Esther Pressoir:

Onward!

A 1975 spot drawing by Tom Funk:

A weighty 1982 spot drawing by Margit Steig:

Lillian Ross and William Shawn in an undated photograph:

Office typewriters of Lillian Ross and William Shawn:

Hannah Arendt's draft of "Eichmann in Jerusalem:"

A 1987 letter from Si Newhouse to the New Yorker staff announces William Shawn's resignation as editor.

Subsequently, staff writers at The New Yorker urge Robert Gottlieb not to accept his new post as editor:

Floor plan (2020) by Luci Gutierrez:

Kara Walker develops a cover:

Art by Barry Blitt and Roz Chast from the collection of the current editor David Remnick:

A poster by Bruce McCall for The New Yorker Festival, 2001:

Art Spiegelman:

Saul Steinberg. You may have seen this one.

Edward Koren's cartoon represents The New Yorker Cartoon Caption Contest:

A 1973 spot drawing by David Preston:

Don't forget to look up.

Outside the exhibition, there's Rembrandt Peale's portrait of George Washington after Gilbert Stuart:

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A Few First Steps Into "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration"

The exhibition "Drawn From The New Yorker:  A Centennial Celebration" fills two floors of the Society of Illustrators, so there are two very good places to begin. To take in the show's material chronologically, a visitor can start at the bar on the third floor. As usual, a festive painting donated by Norman Rockwell welcomes all, as do a variety of libations.

A scrapbook kept by the magazine of published cartoons by Helen E. Hokinson is displayed under glass, on loan from The New Yorker's library. The page is open to her work from December 1926. Below that is the magazine's first cartoon issue from 1997 and the first album of drawings (1928). On the lowest level there are several smaller pony editions of the magazine published for America's overseas troops during World War II.

New Yorker cartoonist Liza Donnelly curated the show. She and her husband, New Yorker cartoonist Michael Maslin, loaned the exhibition a 1940s-era portrait of founding editor Harold Ross by magazine artist Garrett Price.

A photograph by Arnold Newman shows Ross and his wife Jane Grant who, along with Raoul Fleischmann, founded The New Yorker. (Fleischmann provided financing through his family's yeast and baking enterprises.)

A bold 1926 magazine header designed by Johan Bull for the Skyline section is also on loan from the collection of Maslin and Donnelly. They have not been able to determine if it was published.

Note:  These few photographs hardly begin to cover the delights of this exhibition. "Drawn From The New Yorker: A Centennial Celebration" is now on view at the Society of Illustrators. The full show may be seen in all its glory through March 12. The second floor gallery currently featuring more recent material will remain open through May 3.

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