Incomplet Design History

Women have long been a part of bookmaking, design, and publishing, dating as far back as handmade illuminated manuscripts, created before the printing press. In the 18th and 19th centuries, women were known to run some very successful book binderies, including Jane Steel, Katherine Waghorn, Jane Aitken, and Lorina Watkins. Most often women took over when their husbands or fathers died. Other women supported their husbands' work by setting type, such as Bertha Goudy, wife of noted book and type designer Frederic Goudy. Women also became very successful book designers following the era of book reform known as the Arts & Crafts period which resulted in the Private Press Movement. The Private Press movement was concerned with making high-quality books that were beautiful expressions of book design and a departure from the low-quality mass-produced books emerging from the industrial age and the Victorian era. Women were gaining entry into the design world as part of the Arts & Crafts movement, schools associated with the movement were cropping up all over Europe and in the United States as well, and women were enrolling in these schools in numbers not seen before. Historians note the high number of women who matriculated from the Glasgow Arts & Crafts school surpassed the number of men. As such it makes sense that we would find women designers in the history of the Private Press movement. Designers such as Margaret Armstrong and Amy Sacker designed book covers and interior pages during the era. Primarily ignored in many histories of art and design is the history of bookbinding. However, this history is also tied to the Arts & Crafts and the Private Press movement, bookbinding was another avenue of paid labor for women.

TIMELINE

10th Century – Ende, Spanish Illuminator of Manuscripts signs her work
18th Century – women begin owning and operating bookbinderies; women and girls were also employed in large numbers folding and stitching pages
1839 – Jane Burden (Morris), born
1859 – Jane Burden (Morris), marries William Morris
1863 – Alice Cordelia Morse, born
1867 – Margaret Armstrong, born
1867 – Amy Sacker, born
1879 – Alice Cordelia Morse attends the Cooper Union (segregated school for girls)
1880-1890 – Designing book covers becomes a professional practice
1885-1889 – Alice Cordelia Morse works for Tiffany & Co. designing stained glass; in 1889 she leaves Tiffany to begin a freelance career designing book covers
1889 – Jane Burden (Morris) designed the cover for Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s In Vinculis
1890 – Armstrong’s first book cover design was for Sweet William by Marguerite Bouvet
1890-1940 – Margaret Armstrong's career as a book designer, produced some 270 book designs
1891 – Kelmscott Press founded by William Morris and Emery Walker
1901 – Amy Sacker received awarded a medal for designs at the Pan-American exposition
1893 – Morse chaired the Sub-Committee on Book-Covers, Wood Engraving, and Illustration of the Board of Women Managers for the Woman’s Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition
1897 – Society of Arts & Crafts in Boston founded, active members included Amy Sacker, Sarah Wyman Whitman, Julia DeWolf Addison, and Mary Crease Sears
1910 – Women begin to dominate the modern decorative movement
1914 – Jane Burden (Morris), dies
1918 – Le Corbusier and Amédée Ozenfant, announce a hierarchy of art and craft with women and craft at the bottom
1923 – Alice Cordelia Morse donates her book cover designs to the Metropolitan Museum Library
1937 – Bookmaking on the Distaff Side, a book published by women printers
1944 – Margaret Armstrong, dies
1961 – Alice Cordelia Morse, dies
1965 – Amy Sacker, dies

WOMEN IN BOOK DESIGN & BOOKBINDING HISTORY

This should not be considered a complete list of women in book design & bookbinding history, this is just a list of names uncovered for the research of this episode and intended to show that there is a wealth of names that could be included in histories of graphic design. This list focuses on women from the past, there is also a wealth of women designers who have worked more recently in book design, this too could become a future episode.

• Sarah Wyman Whitman (1842-1904)
• Helena de Kay (1848-1916)
• Katherine Adams (1862-1952)
• Alice Cordelia Morse (1863 – 1961)
• Margaret Armstrong (1867–1944)
• Elizabeth Corbet Yeats (1868-1940)
• Bertha Goudy (1869-1935)
• Bertha Stuart (1869-1953)
• Anna Simons (1871-1951)
• Amy Sacker (1872-1965)
• Annie French (1872-1965)
• Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973)
• Jessie Marion King (1875-1949)
• Anna Sipkena (1877-1933)
• Vanessa Bell (1879-1961)...

An indigenous cowboy-artist from small-town Oklahoma, Tommy Wayne Cannon was born to Caddo and Kiowa parents in the Fall of 1946. Growing up he attended school in Gracemont and took an interest in the arts. As an adolescent, Cannon was self-taught in the arts and entered his works in regional art competitions through the Southern Plains Indian Museum. His success in these competitions, as well as his proficiency in multiple mediums, won him a scholarship to the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was here that Cannon’s passion for art was met with an environment of tools and people that allowed for further exploration and refinement of his skills. In school, Cannon adopted his moniker “T. C.” Cannon, which is how he would be known professionally once his career began. The IAIA was not accredited as a College at the time, so Cannon enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute but was disappointed in the lack of community he had grown accustomed to at the IAIA. He dropped out of school and enlisted in the Army, serving in combat in the late-stage offensives of the Vietnam War. Upon returning he attended Central State University (now UCO) in Edmond, Oklahoma where he met his wife, Barbara. Upon graduation, he produced work for a showcase alongside one of his IAIA mentors that toured the US and Europe. In preparation for his next showcase, solo at the Arbach Gallery in NYC, Cannon spent six years in his studio creating a large body of work. Tragically, just a few months prior to his showcase in May of 1978, Cannon was killed in a car accident in Santa Fe. He was only 31 years old.

TIMELINE

1946 — Born in Lawton Oklahoma
1961 — Age of 15, sold his first works to the Southern Plains Indian Museum
1964 — Enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts
1965 — The Voting Rights Act assured Native Americans right to vote
1967 — Begins tour of Vietnam under the 101st Airborne; While away, Rosemary Ellison included him in a traveling exhibition
1968 — Returns from war
1972 — Finishes his degree at Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma, graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts
1972 — Included in, and toured with, a Smithsonian exhibit. Over the next six years he would go on to produce a large body of work in anticipation of his solo showcase.
1975 — Became Artist-in-Residence at Dartmouth.
1978 — Died in a car crash in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Aged 31 years old.
1978 — His showcase is posthumously opened at the Arbach Gallery in New York
1988 — Inducted into the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians

REFERENCES

101st Airborne Division - Army Unit Directory. (n.d.). Together We Served. https://army.togetherweserved.com/army/servlet/tws.webapp.WebApp?cmd=PublicUnit&type=Unit&ID=231#membersinthisunit

101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) :: FORT CAMPBELL. (n.d.). US Army. https://home.army.mil/campbell/index.php/101st

Action Painting & Gestural Painting | IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. (n.d.). IAIA - Action/Abstraction Redefined. https://abstraction.iaia.edu/exhibition/action-gestural/?page=3

Color Field Painting movement Overview. (n.d.). The Art Story. https://www.theartstory.org/movement/color-field-painting/

Fauntleroy, G. (2018, July 16). Perspective: T.C. Cannon [1946–1978]. Western Art & Architecture. https://westernartandarchitecture.com/august-september-2018/perspective-t-c-cannon-1946-1978

Fritz Scholder | Biography. (n.d.). Fritz Scholder official Website. http://www.fritzscholder.com/biography.php

Kapplow, H., & Kapplow, H. (2018). The Bold Yet Too-Brief Art Career of T.C. Cannon. Hyperallergic. https://hyperallergic.com/446024/tc-cannon-peabody-essex-museum/

Krutak, L. (2018, January 23). Treasures Of The Iacb: T.C. Cannon, Who Shot The Arrow, Who Killed The Sparrow (1970). U.S. Department of The Interior. https://www.doi.gov/iacb/treasures-iacb-tc-cannon-who-shot-arrow-who-killed-sparrow-1970

Levy, M. (n.d.). TC Cannon. Medic in the Green Time. http://medicinthegreentime.com/tc-cannon/

Making History: Celebratin...

From its origins in the 1950s from the pages of books to software like MacDraw in the 1980s to CD Roms, and finally moving online in the 1990s, Clip Art’s evolution took place along with that of graphic design. Even though clip art was mostly created by unnamed designers and illustrators and sold in packages or libraries, there are many important figures we know of whose clip art contributed to the history of graphic design. Joan Shogren, an early computer art pioneer and clip art designer; Frank Fruznya, whose iconic clip art defined an era; and Sean Tejaratchi, whose cult hit zine series Crap Hound celebrates Clip Art and visually meditates on social issues. Ultimately, clip art is a misunderstood element of graphic design that holds an essential place in its history. Clip art in many ways paved the way for stock photo and stock illustration use that is common practice among designers today.

TIMELINE

1928 – Tom Tierney born in Beaumont, Texas
1928– Dan X. Solo born
1932 – Joan Shogren born
1941 – Dover Publications founded
1947 – Jean Larcher born in Rennes, France
1949 – Tierney graduates from the University of Austin in Texas, majoring in painting and sculpture
1950s – Clip Art began to be produced in books for commercial sale, such as The Volk Corporation
1951 – Tierney serves in the US Military for 3 years
1952 – Frank Fruznya, prolific Clip Art illustrator, born in Illinois
1953 – Tierney movies to NYC to work as a fashion illustrator
1954 – Art Chantry born
1960s – Tom B. Sawyer created Clip Art for Harry Volk Jr’s Volk & Co’s “Clip Book of Line Art”series
1963 – Shogren designs set of rules to make the first computer art with Jim Larsen and Dr. Ralph Fessenden’s assistance at San Jose Univeristy in California
1963 – “Cybernation” exhibition of early computer art featuring Shogren took place at the San Jose State Partna Book Store
1962 – Solotype founded
1965 – Larcher graduates after studying typographic art at the Paris Chaamber of Commerce
1969 – Artist and illustrator Mitch O’Connell starts to freelance Clip Art illustration for Dynamic Graphics
1970s – Dover begins publishing Clip Art books
1970 – Sean Tejartchi born
1973 – Larcher begins freelance design work
1974 – Fruznya started to work for H&R; then was recruited to work for Dynamic Graphics
1976 – Tierney publishes his first paper doll book, “Thirty from the 30s” which attracted the attention of Dover
1979 – Peter Roizen and Heidi Roizen, brother and sister, co-found T/Maker
1981 – IBM introduces the first personal computer
1983 – Heidi Roizen takes over as president at T/Maker
1983 – ImageWriter printer released
1983 – VCN ExecuVision published IBM’s first Clip Art library
1984 – Shogren starts to work for T/Maker for ClickArt
1984 – T/Maker releases ClickArt Publications digital Clip Art collection
1984 – Brad Fregger creates Clip Art for Activision
1984 – Nova Development founded
1984 – MacPaint comes pre installed on Macintosh computers
1985 – “The Year of the Computer” mass production of personal computers helps change the world
1985 – LaserWriter printer is introduced
1986 – Graphic Source published Clip Art Books
1986 – Apple introduces the Macintosh Computer
1986 – Mac Plus released
1987 – MacPaint to longer pre installed on Macintosh computers
1987 – T/Maker introduced first vector Clip Art made with Adobe Illustrator
1988 – Adobe Systems released Adobe Illustrator
1989 – Company 3G Graphics published “Images with Impact!”
1994 – Crap Hound first published
1994 – Deluxe Corp buys remaining software lines from T/Maker, including ClickArt
1996 – Zedcor was the first company to offer Clip Art images as part of an online subscription service
1996 – Microsoft began to include Clip Art in it’s built in libraries
1996 – Animation Factory founded
1998-2001 – T/Makers ClickArt library sold each year due to large mergers and acquisitions to companies like Mattel and The Learning Company
1998 – Crap Hound ceases publishing
1999 – Animation Factory sold
2003 – Fruznya quits Dynamic Graphics after anonymously being the Clip Art world’s star illustrator in the 80s and 90s
2005 – Jupitermedia purchased Creatas, now owning all of Dynamic Grapahic’s clip art library
2005 – Tejaratchi begins to publish Crap Hound again
2009 – Jupitermedia went out of business
2009 – Fruzyna moves to Paradise, Michigan with his partner to paint
2012 – Solo passes away
2014 – Tierney passes away
2014 – Microsoft discontinues it’s Clip Art library in favor of Bing Image Search
2015 – Dat Boi, an Animation Factory asset, becomes an early internet meme
2015 – Larcher passes away

REFERENCES

Arntson, Amy E. (1988). Graphic Design Basics. Saunders College Publishing.

Borrell, J. (1988, January). ...

If it seems like the underground comix scene was a raucous and raunchy boys club, that’s fairly accurate. However, there were plenty of women artists who reacted against the sexist depictions of women in comix, of which there was plenty. Their complaints about how women were being portrayed was seen to be just more censorship heaped on the male comix artists. Rather than just be quiet and go away, women like Trina Robbins, Willy Mendes, Linda Barry, Mary Fleener, and many others started drawing, bringing their own voices into the underground comix scene. Their experience in comix wasn’t all smooth sailing either. The women creating comix also insisted on absolute artistic freedom and the space to explore difficult topics, but it came at a price just like it did for the male comix artists. Undercover police, raids, and lawsuits while not necessarily the norm, seemed to be always looming. While some comix titles managed to run longer than others, the heyday of comix was all but over by the mid 1970s. However, the influence of underground comix is evident in the comics and graphic novels being published today that are willing to have serious discussions about equally serious topics.

TIMELINE

1880s – Comics began publication in American newspapers
1895 – The Yellow Kid by Richard Outcault first published
1914 – Krazy Kat by Geroge Herriman first published
1920s – Tijuana Bibles began to be published
1930s – Comic book began in America
1931 – Alice Schenker (born Alice Olsen) born in Racine, WI
1933 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman
1936-1939 – The comic magazine format became popular
1936 – Victor Moscoso born in Spain
1937 – Frank Stack born in Houston, TX
1938 – Gary Arlington born in San Jose, CA
1938 – Trina Robbins born in Brooklyn, NY
1939 – “She Saw The World’s Fair” published by Wesley Morse
1939 – Harvey Pekar born in Cleveland, OH
1939 – Richard “Grass” Green born in Fort Wayne, IN
1940-1950s – Comic burnings became common in America
1940 – Gilbert Shelton born in Houston, TX
1940 – Manuel “Spain” Reodriguez born in Buffalo, NY
1941 – Vaughn Bodé born in Utica, NY
1941 – S. Clay Wilson (Steven Clay Wilson) born in Lincoln, Nebraska
1941 – Jack “Jaxon” Jackson born in Texas
1942 – Rand Holmes born in Nova Scotia
1942 – Dan O’Neil born
1943 – Joel Beck born in Ross, CA
1943 – Robert Williaams born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – George Herriman dies
1944 – Howard Cruse is born in Birmingham, AL
1943 – Robert Crumb born in Philadelphia, PA
1944 – Rick Griffin born in California
1944 – Bill Griffith born
1944 – Kim Deitch born in Los Angeles, CA
1944 – Max Gaines establishes Educational Comics
1944 – Mervyn “Skip” Williamson born in San Antonio, TX
1945 – Lee Mars born
1947 – Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster sued in NY Supreme Court to regain their rights to Superman; they lose the case and their jobs at DC Comics
1947 – Jay Lynch born in Orange, NJ
1947 – Max Gaines dies in a boat crash; son William Gaines takes over EC Comics
1948 – Art Spiegelman born in Stockholm, Sweden
1948 – Barbara “Willy” Mendes born
1948 – Aline Kominsky-Crumb born in Long Beach, NY
1949 – Marry Wings born Mary Geller in Chicago, IL
1950s – Student Press Movement starts
1950 – Educational Comics becomes Entertaining Comics under William Gaines
1950 – Gary Panter born in Durant, OK
1951 – Mary Fleener born
1952-1956 – Harvey Kurtzman is the editor of MAD Magazine
1953 – Roberta Gregory born in Los Angeles, CA
1954 – “Seduction of the Innocent” by psychiatrist Frederick Werthan published
1954 – Comics Code Authority established
1954 – Victor Moscoso starts at Cooper Union Art School in Manhattan
1955 – William Gaines starts humor magazine, MAD Magazine
1955 – Charles Burns born
1956 – After being cited by the CCA, EC comics diverts resources to new title MAD Magazine
1956 – Ralph Bakshi starts animating at Terrytoons
1956 – Alice and Don Schenker marry
1956 – Lynda Barry born in Richland Center, WI
1957 – Harvey Kurtzmaan’s Trump magazine published
1957 – Peter Baagge born in New York
1957-1960 – Spain Rodriguez studies at Silvermine Guild School of Art in New Canaan, CT
1958 – Moe Moskowitz moves to Bay Are and opens bookstore
1958 – Robert Crumb and his brother Charles publish satire magazine “Foo”
1958-1962 – Frank Stack and Gilbert Shelton edit University of Texas at Austin’s newspaper, The Texas Ranger
1959 – Victor Moscoso moves to San Francisco, CA
1960s – Underground comix movement started
1960 – MAD Magazine had circulation of 1.4 million
1960 – Rick Griffin met filmmaker John Severson at screening of Surf Fever movie
1960 – Harvey Kurtzman starts Help! Magazine
1960 – Phoebe Gloeckner born in Philadelphia, PA
1960 – Alison Bechdel born in ...

REFERENCES

Tucker, I. (Ed.)(2018). FF DOT: The pixel art of final fantasy. Dark Horse Books.

Hendrix, G. (2017). Paperbacks from hell: The twisted history of ‘70s and ‘80s horror fiction. Quirk Books.

Chatziioannou, A. (2023). From ants to zombies: Six decades of video game horror. Bitmap Books.

Gianni, G. (2017). Gary gianni’s monstermen and other scary stories. Dark Horse Books.

Kochman, C. (Ed.)(2012). Mars attacks. Abrams ComicArts.

Vallejo, D. (2000). The art of rowena. Paper Tiger.

Voger, M. (2015). Monster mash: The creepy, kooky monster craze in America 1957-1972. TwoMorrows Publishing.

Jones, Stephen (2015). The art of horror: An illustrated history. Applause.

Allie, S. (Ed.)(2004). B.p.r.d.: The soul of venice and other stories. Dark Horse Comics.

Saunders, D. (2009). Rudolph belarski (1900-1983). Illustration, 7(27), 8–61.

McVittie, A. (2014). The art of alien:isolation. Titan Books.

Sadowski,G. (Ed.)(2017). Four color fear: Forgotten horror comics of the 1950s. Fantagraphics Books

Nourmand, T. & Marsh, G. (Eds.) (2006). Film posters: Horror. Evergreen.

Hodge, T. (2015). Vhs video cover art. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Weist, J. (2002). Bradbury: An illustrated life. William Morrow

Boyreau, J. (2002). Trash: The graphic genius of exploitation movie posters. Chronicle Books.

Salisbury, M. (2014). Alien the archive: The ultimate guide to the classic movies. TitanBooks.

Ferris, E. (2016). My favorite thing is monsters: Book one. Fantagraphics Books.

Morton, R. (2005). King kong, the history of a movie icon: from fay wray to peter jackson. Applause Theatre & Cinema Books.

Landis, J. (2011). Monsters in the movies: 100 years of cinematic nightmares. Dorling Kindersley Limited.

Ortiz, L. (2011). Jack Gaughan. Illustration, 9(33), 2–27.

(2009). Deco devolution: The art of the bioshock 2. 2k publishing.

Humphreys, G. (2019). Hung, drawn and executed: The horror art of graham humphreys. Korero Press Ltd.

Gammil, K. & Spurlock, J.D. (2005). Famous monster movie art of basil gogos. Vanguard

Tucker, I. (Ed.) (2021). The art of arkham horror. Dark Horse Books.

D’Agostino, N. (2020). Sex and horror volume four. Korero Press.

Hulse, E. (2021). The art of pulp fiction: An illustrated history of vintage paperbacks. Elephant Book Company

Rodriguez, S. (2021). The art of goosebumps. Dynamite.

Nolen-Weathington, E. (2010). Modern masters volume twenty-four: Guy davis. TwoMorrows Publishing