Overview of the Collection |
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| Creator: | McCutcheon, John T. (John Tinney), 1870-1949 |
| Title: | John T. McCutcheon Papers |
| Inclusive Dates: | 1908-1945 |
| Quantity: | 6.0 linear ft. |
| Abstract: | Papers of the American political cartoonist and war correspondent. Cartoons, scrapbook of clippings from McCutcheon's years as a war correspondent. |
| Language: | English |
| Repository: | Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Library 222 Waverly Avenue Syracuse, NY 13244-2010 http://scrc.syr.edu |
John Tinney McCutcheon was born on a small farm near South Raub in Tippecanoe County, Indiana May 6, 1870. He spent his early childhood on the farm and his youth in neighboring communities. After receiving a B.S. degree from Purdue University in 1889, he joined the staff of the Chicago Morning News as an artist. In 1903 he became the cartoonist for the Chicago Tribune, a position he held for more than forty years.
The campaign of 1896 between Republican William McKinley and Democrat William Jennings Bryan provided McCutcheon with the material to open his career as a political cartoonist. During the Spanish-American War he served as a war correspondent from the Philippines aboard the U.S.S. McCulloch. In 1909-1910 he spent 4-1/2 months big game hunting in Africa, all the while contributing articles to the Tribune, and he reported on events in South Africa and Europe during World War I.
McCutcheon's cartoons ran the gamut from presidential races and national politics to societal changes and economic hardships. He published illustrations in magazines such as Cosmopolitan and illustrated several books by George Ade, a fellow Indianan and Purdue graduate whose humorous "fables" were popular from the turn of the century through the 1930s. He also wrote an autobiography, Drawn from Memory, which was published posthumously.
Purdue University and Notre Dame awarded him honorary doctoral degrees in 1926 and 1931 respectively. McCutcheon lectured throughout the United States and was a speaker at Missouri University during Journalism Week in 1939. His cartoons earned him an international reputation and in 1931 he received a Pulitzer Prize for his cartoon "A Wise Economist Asks a Question." He was a member of the Royal Geographical Society of London, the Chicago Zoological Society, the University Players and Coffee House of New York, and the Society of Manila Bay of Washington. He died June 10, 1949 in Lake Forest, Illinois.
The John T. McCutcheon Papers comprise 5 series: Biographical material, Subject files (mostly memorabilia), Manuscripts (diaries, drawings and school notes), Published material (books, drawings, articles, clippings, and a scrapbook from McCutcheon's years as a war correspondent in Germany), and Cartoons.
The Cartoons series is composed of dated and undated political cartoons, arranged chronologically. This series also contains a few special features: syndicated cartoon series, a set of cartoons done for Cosmopolitan magazine from 1920 to 1925, and cartoon illustrations from his book, An Heir at Large.
The cartoon which won McCutcheon a Pulitzer Prize, "A Wise Economist Asks a Question," is located in the 1931 section of dated cartoons.
There are no access restrictions on this material.
Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.
A number of items have been removed from the collection for separate cataloging. For more information on these items, please contact the repository listed above or search SUMMIT, our main catalog with "McCutcheon, John" as "Keyword Anywhere."
Special Collections Research Center has the papers of a number of American cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.
Preferred citation for this material is as follows:
John T. McCutcheon Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Library
Created by: CMV
Date: Nov 1978
Revision history: 30 Oct 2006 - converted to EAD (AMCon)
| Biographical material | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Biographical material | ||||||||||
| Subject files | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Autograph | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Photographs of McCutcheon | ||||||||||
| Programs | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Sigma Chi Dinners | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Treasure map by McCutcheon | ||||||||||
| Manuscripts | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Diary | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Drawings | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | School notes | ||||||||||
| Published material | |||||||||||
| Books | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | Indiana Society of Chicago series (9 volumes) | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Drawings | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | Illustrations | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Crossed Wires" | ||||||||||
| Magazine articles | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | "The Battle of Manila Bay" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Famous Artist Speaks at Banquet of Greek Editors" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "General Dawes" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "How Cartoons are Drawn" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Ingomar in the Provinces" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "The New Zoo" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Taking the Right Turn" | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | "Up the Andes and Down the Amazon" | ||||||||||
| Newspaper clippings | |||||||||||
| Box 1 | About McCutcheon | ||||||||||
| Box 1 | By McCutcheon | ||||||||||
| Package 9 | Scrapbook (1 vol.) | ||||||||||
| Cartoons | |||||||||||
| Dated | |||||||||||
| Package 1 | 1908 | ||||||||||
| Package 1 | 1923 | ||||||||||
| Package 1 | 1925 (26 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 1 | 1926 (43 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 1 | 1927 (29 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 2 | 1928 (15 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 2 | 1929 (22 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 2 | 1930 (19 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 2 | 1931 (11 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 2 | 1933 (10 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1934 (8 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1935 (3 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1936 (11 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1937 (5 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1938 (5 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1939 (11 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1940 (9 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1941 (4 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1942 (4 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1943 (8 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1944 (4 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 3 | 1945 (2 plates) | ||||||||||
| Package 4-7 | Undated (387 plates) | ||||||||||
| Special features | |||||||||||
| Package 8 | A Famous Pirate Stronghold | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | An Heir at Large | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Cosmopolitan magazine | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Crossed Wires | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Hints | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Morgan's Bluff | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Mr. Lugubrious Blue and Mr. Smiley Gladd | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Mr. Patchmore | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | One of the Hardships of War | ||||||||||
| Package 8 | Untitled | ||||||||||
