Collection inventory

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Table of Contents

Overview of the Collection

Biographical History

Scope and Contents of the Collection

Arrangement of the Collection

Restrictions

Subject and Genre Headings

Related Material

Administrative Information

Index to cartoons

Inventory

Cartoons

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John Fischetti Cartoons

An inventory of his cartoons at Syracuse University

Overview of the Collection
Creator: Fischetti, John R.
Title: John Fischetti Cartoons
Inclusive Dates: 1962-1978
Bulk Dates: 1962-1967
Quantity: 1.3 linear ft.
Abstract: Original editorial cartoons by the Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist
Language: English
Repository: Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries
222 Waverly Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2010
https://library.syracuse.edu/special-collections-research-center

Biographical History

John Fischetti (1916-1980) was an American Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist.

Born in Brooklyn, New York on September 27, 1916, John R. Fischetti was the son of an Italian barber. In his teens during the Great Depression, Fischetti traveled the country doing odd jobs. For a period of time, Fischetti worked in a hotel where one of his influences, cartoonist Rollin Kirby lived.

After spending three years studying at the Pratt Institute (1937-1940), Fischetti moved to California and worked for Disney Studios for nine months until he began to suffer from eye strain. He then pursued freelance work and ended up in Chicago as a cartoonist at the Chicago Sun in 1941. His freelance work appeared in publications including Esquire, the Saturday Evening Post and Collier's.

Fischetti then served from 1942 to 1945 as a radio operator and Army sergeant in Europe during World War II. He worked for Stars and Stripes from 1945 to 1946 with Dick Wingert among other World War II cartoonists. Fischetti then held the position of cartoonist for the New York Herald Tribune for two years, leaving for the Newspaper Enterprise Association syndicate where he stayed until 1962 when he went back to the New York Herald Tribune. During this time, Fischetti sought to combine the humor cartoon with the editorial cartoon and felt the Herald Tribune was a good fit for his work. His work was syndicated through the Publisher's Newspaper Syndicate.

In 1967, Fischetti left New York for the Chicago Daily News after the Herald Tribune folded where he was chief political cartoonist until 1978 when that paper went out of business. His final position was cartoonist for the Chicago Sun-Times which he held until his death in 1980.

Fischetti's cartoons were recognized with many awards. A Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning was awarded to Fischetti in 1969 not for a particular cartoon but for the body of his 1968 work. He also received two Sigma Delta Chi awards (1956, 1958) and an American Civil Liberties award. Fischetti was also an active member of the National Cartoonists Society and received the Silver T-Square award in 1973 and the NCS's best editorial cartoon award four straight years from 1962 to 1965. A book of his cartoons, Zinga Zinga Za, was published in 1973.

John R. Fischetti died on November 18, 1980. Following his death, the Fischetti Endowment was started at Columbia College in Chicago. The endowment provides scholarships to journalism students and monetary awards to editorial cartoonists through the annual Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition.

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Scope and Contents of the Collection

The John Fischetti Cartoons consists of more than a hundred original editorial cartoons from the New York Herald Tribune (1962-1967), and one from the Chicago Sun-Times (1978). Approximately half of the cartoons are dated with years only; the remainder are undated. Each bears a copyright notice from either the New York Herald Tribune or the Publishers Newspaper Syndicate and various notations appear in the margins in pencil and crayon. Fischetti primarily worked in pen and ink on illustration board with screening.

Fischetti's cartoons mix politics and current events with social humor. His cartoons were syndicated widely and the majority focus on national and global events with a handful addressing issues local to New York City (the few local-oriented cartoons address the election of Mayor John Lindsay and the 1965 blackout). Many of the cartoons reflect the style of magazine cartoons and many depict unnamed figures commenting on current events in a humorous fashion. Of particular interest are Fischetti's cartoons that drew attention to the emergence of right-wing Republicans a s well as the racist influence of the Ku Klux Klan and the civil rights movement.

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Arrangement of the Collection

The cartoons are arranged chronologically by year with undated cartoons located at the end of the collection. Within each year, the cartoons are arranged alphabetically by caption.

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

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Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has collections of over one hundred cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.

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Subject Headings

Persons

Fischetti, John R.
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973 -- Caricatures and cartoons.

Associated Titles

New York herald tribune.

Subjects

American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Caricatures and cartoons -- United States.
Cartoonists -- New York (N.Y.)
Cartoonists -- United States.
Civil rights movements -- United States -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Communism -- Caricatures and cartoons.
Editorial cartoons -- New York (N.Y.)
Editorial cartoons -- United States.
Political cartoons.
Vietnam War, 1961-1975 -- Caricatures and cartoons.
World politics -- 1945-1989 -- Caricatures and cartoons.

Places

United States -- Politics and government -- 1963-1969 -- Caricatures and cartoons.

Genres and Forms

Cartoons (humorous images)
Editorial cartoons.

Occupations

Cartoonists.

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Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

John Fischetti Cartoons,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of John Fischetti, 1967.

1978 cartoon, gift of Betty Bewley, 2020.

Finding Aid Information

Created by: WHL/CAD
Date: Oct 1982
Revision history: 11 Dec 2008 - converted to EAD (MD); 15 Oct 2009 - added detailed index, revised bio and inv (SK); 24 Feb 2013 - additions (MRC); 31 Aug 2020 - added 1 item (MRC)

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Inventory

Cartoons (101 items) 10 1/2 x 14 1/2"
Oversize 1, Folder 1 Cartoons 1962
Achievements
Oversize 1, Folder 2 Cartoons 1963
Elections returns
The Fat cats and the canary
If you keep insisting the world is round, people will really think we're the lunatic fringe.
Wallace reaps the whirlwind
What do you mean the town's had enough of this drunken crowd? I'm not drunk.
Oversize 1, Folder 3 Cartoons 1964
And leave the driving to us
Barry certainly makes a handsome couple.
Barry, you have a special charm of your own for democrats.
Buddy system
The country's in capable hands, dammit.
I can say without fear of contradiction -- It stinks.
I just want the Senate to put on its thinking cap during the civil rights debate.
It's a heady wine -- domestic, of course.
Oversize 1, Folder 4 Cartoons 1964
Now he belongs to the Dark Ages.
Phoenix
Reduce to a cinder, then serve.
The road back
Rocky '64
Sometimes I just feel like hanging up my sneakers.
Sure tells you about the light bill going down but not a word about the phone bill going up.
Watch your language. My friend here speaks war fluently.
You're guilty of a serious personality cult offense -- taking all those pictures of me that I ordered.
Oversize 1, Folder 5 Cartoons 1965
--And I was so looking forward to the day when discrimination would end for him.
Cannon to right of them, cannon to left of them...volley'd and thunder'd...
Capital hill
Cliff-hanger
The Cocoon
Flotsam
How to ruin property values in Alabama
Oversize 1, Folder 6 Cartoons 1965
I didn't know Pop could hot dog.
If it's too hot, I'll be happy to help you out of the kitchen.
If they thought blasting the monuments was tough, destroying the ideas they represent is impossible.
If you put it that way, Lyndon, how can I say no?
I had no idea chess was so hazardous.
Imagine that, Pop! Nazi bullies used to attack religious people out in the street...
In the movies a guy's always cast away with a beautiful girl.
It looked better on Nikita.
It should be made absolutely clear to General Khanh that we vote for our leaders here... when we vote.
Oversize 1, Folder 7 Cartoons 1965
Let there be light...
Life will be impossible with him if Americans are kept from coming here...Pierre so enjoys snapping at them.
Marge, I think it's high time I stopped stalling on that trip abroad I've been promising you for so long.
Men, nobody else is -- but Governor Wallace's mighty proud of you.
Old habits are hard to break.
The potting shed
Those poor Dominicans...Castro's trying to make them as happy as he's made us.
War monger!
What does he think we are -- capitalists?
Why, it's against everything I believe in -- it's constructive.
You're jostling me. Can't you walk without stumbling?
Oversize 1, Folder 8 Cartoons 1966-1967
Feeding the flames of bigotry
Home of the brave
Practice makes imperfect
Oversize 1, Folder 9 Cartoons 1978 - includes note from Fischetti to Betty Bewley
Gift of Betty Bewley, 2020.
First canal treaty victory the hard way
Oversize 2, Folder 1 Cartoons, A-H Undated
-- About the caustic calls of 'Author! Author!'...we are not amused.
After all, you must remember I'm an opportunist.
The Alabama volunteers
Algerian strong man
All hot -- there aren't any cool lines.
Anti-war is hell, man.
But I don't want to get well.
Can't you realize what a frightful spectacle you're making of yourself?
Fur lined foxhole (see Undated, miscellaneous)
Gordian knot
The great anti-American sport-reducing the strike zone.
He went that-a-way.
Highway blight
Oversize 2, Folder 2 Cartoons, I-M Undated
I certainly hope they don't expect us to explain us.
If they do discover life on Mars it'll probably be underdeveloped.
I hear we're setting all kinds of records.
I know a golden opportunity when I see one.
I'll give that plane just one eon...
I'm having a re-entry problem.
I want to thank all the good people of Alabama who stood silently by.
Killed in action
Lieutenant -- The Viet Cong had a 'Teach-in' here. They killed the village chief, some men and a kid.
Look, fellas -- I don't want the moon. I'll just settle for what's left.
Looks like a long run -- they got rave reviews.
Men, there's no place to go but up.
Most welcome, Pope Paul
Oversize 2, Folder 3 Cartoons, N-T Undated
Name a clean one
Nothing to lose but your temper
Now, that's what I call latitudes and longitudes.
Redoubt
Sanctuary
Sentence - six more year (see Undated, miscellaneous)
Since Stalin has been partially rehabilitated his portrait was replaced facing the wall, of course.
The Spoilers
Strongman
Testament
That was a pretty good preliminary, kid -- meet the main event.
They better not have another power failure. A little blackout camaraderie goes a long way with me.
Trouble with Guevara was, he didn't care which side my bread's buttered on.
Tug of war
Oversize 2, Folder 4 Cartoons, U-Y Undated
The Ugly American
The Unholy Grail
We have a lot in common...she loathes my work and I abhor hers.
We want you to share our way of, er, life.
When all about you kept their heads, you lost yours -- Why?
Where seldom's heard an encouraging word.
The whites sure are preserving the Northern way of life.
Won't it be nice to have me nagging you again, now that L.B.J. won't?
You have a nerve voicing an opinion -- are you trying to undermine Democracy?
You're so right -- leave us alone and we guarantee peace and quiet here.
Oversize 3 Cartoons, miscellaneous Undated
Fur lined foxhole
Sentence - six more years

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Index to cartoons

The following is a list of predominant people, places and subjects appearing in the editorial cartoons in this collection. The list is not exhaustive. Some subjects may require you to browse with alternative terms.

B= Box, F= Folder. For example: B1F1= Box 1 Folder 1.

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