Washington University acquires Walt Reed Illustration Archive

Eight women converge on a sales counter, hunting for bargains. Above them a placard reads “Today only – 49 cents.” Their costumes and silhouetted forms are winsome and elegant – so much so that it takes a moment to notice the trampled boy, in stocking cap and sailor suit, lying facedown on the ground, a victim of the rush for savings.

This lively, stylish and darkly droll image was created for Lifemagazine, circa 1912, by Jessie Gillespie (1888-1926), an illustrator perhaps best remembered for her work with the Girl Scouts.

It’s a rich piece, ripe for critical analysis. It captures an early moment in the story of consumer culture — when clothiers and cosmetics makers began selling women a kind of luxurious intimacy.

With the battle for women’s suffrage beginning to rage, the image exploits anxieties about self-involved females neglecting their maternal duties. It's also a distinguished example from a specialty category in illustration reserved for women practitioners.

Illustration House

Historically, magazine illustration has received little scholarly attention.

But in 1974, Walt Reed opened the Illustration House. For decades, the New York gallery was the nation’s premier advocate for illustration art. In addition to hosting exhibitions, Reed and his son, Roger, staged twice-yearly auctions and helped pioneer what has become a thriving market for original works of illustration.
 

“No one else championed the whole field the way Walt did,” said Jeff Pike, an illustrator and professor of communication design in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Walt knew many of the illustrators he worked with and brought a level of knowledge and sophistication that were, frankly, unmatched,” Pike said. “His book The Illustrator in America remains an invaluable reference, profiling hundreds of artists dating back to the Civil War.”

Now, the Washington University Libraries have worked with Reed to acquire the Illustration House archives, along with a substantial number of original artworks.

These materials, which will be housed in the Modern Graphic History Library (MGHL), include about:

• 8,000 periodicals;
• 1,200 illustrated books;
• 250,000 magazine tear sheets; and
• 140 pieces of original art, ranging from sketches and drawings to production art and finished canvases, by 45 artists.

“Most institutions and collectors approach this field with a narrow focus on a few trophy objects, and context gets lost,” said Roger Reed, “whereas my father always took a broad stance, had catholic taste and shared information with all comers.

“Even a minor drawing could delight him in its draftsmanship or cultural resonance,” Reed added. “I'm very pleased to be working with the MGHL, which has both the vision and the facilities to responsibly house, maintain, digitize, protect and build curricula around this material.

"For us, this is a long-term commitment.”

 

A cultural strength

“Illustration remains a poorly theorized field,” said D.B. Dowd, professor of communication design, in the Sam Fox School, and American culture studies, in Arts & Sciences.

“It has been characterized by enthusiasts and fans more than by serious scholarship," added Dowd, creator of the illustrated journal Spartan Holiday."The academy hasn’t paid much attention.”

Long Live Illustration! Roger Reed, president of the Illustration House, will present the lecture "Illustration is Dead – Long Live Illustration!" at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20. The talk, which takes place in the Sam Fox School’s Steinberg Auditorium, is free and open to the public. Preceding the talk, at 5:30 p.m., will be the opening of a small exhibition, in the university’s Kenneth and Nancy Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library, of highlights from the Walt Reed Illustration Archive. Steinberg Hall is near the intersection of Skinker and Forsyth boulevards. The Kranzberg Art & Architecture Library is on the ground floor of the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, adjacent to Steinberg. For more information, call (314) 935-7741 or visit the MGHL website.

But things have begun to change. Around the country, a handful of universities — notably Duke, Ohio State and Michigan State — have established strong collections dedicated to advertising, comic books and other forms of graphic culture.

“Our particular strength is periodical illustration,” said Dowd, who also serves as faculty director of the MGHL and leads the Sam Fox School’s newly formed Visual Culture Initiative. He explained that the catalyst for establishing the MGHL, in 2007, was a series of major gifts from the estates of WUSTL alumnus Al Parker, Robert Weaver and other leading practitioners.

“The profession of illustrator was created at the birth of the modern publishing industry, which was driven by periodicals,” Dowd said. “Yet the study of illustration has been weak, analytically speaking, in part because illustrations are always contingent on something else.

“But from a culture studies perspective, that contingency is actually a strength,” Dowd said. “If you open just about any mid-century magazine, you’ll find illustrations, photographs, cartoons, short stories, nonfiction features, columns and advertisements. 

"They’re all evidence of editorial negotiation. The question is: How do these various items collide to capture a cultural moment?

“Through the Visual Culture Initiative, we intend to build programming and curricula around these resources, for humanists as well as practitioners,” Dowd added. “They capture then-contemporary social relations, gender roles, racial tropes and the emergence of consumer culture.

“It’s a tremendous academic opportunity.”

The Walt Reed Illustration Archive

Skye Lacerte, curator of the MGHL, notes that the new acquisitions include important examples by dozens of major illustrators, with a particular emphasis on the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Highlights include a half-dozen works by Gillespie as well as a drawing, circa 1880, by Benjamin Day (1810-1889), inventor of the ubiquitous “Ben Day” printing dot, and an 1882 cover illustration for The Century magazine by symbolist painter Elihu Vedder (1836-1923). 

Other materials include a 1912 piece for Life magazine by Orson Lowell (1871-1956) and a 1907 Cream of Wheat illustration by Harry Stacy Benton (1877-1947).

Later examples include a razor-sharp 1965 painting, for Look magazine, by Austin Briggs (1908-1973). Executed amidst the turmoil of the civil rights movement, it contrasts the brightly colored billboards of the “fast-changing south” with the hunched bodies of cotton pickers still working the fields.

In addition, the collection — which will be named the Walt Reed Illustration Archive — will include materials relating to Reed’s own scholarship, as well as correspondence and other documents.

“Academic access to this vast and comprehensive collection will greatly impact the growing field of visual culture research,” Lacerte said. “It also documents and preserves the contributions of Walt Reed and theIllustration House, the leading establishment in the advancement of illustration study and awareness.

“We are proud to uphold Walt’s legacy, which has influenced and inspired the present-day scholarship of illustration.”