Communications

WANN Microphone

Tools of communication have transformed American society time and again over the past two centuries. The Museum has preserved many instruments of these changes, from printing presses to personal digital assistants.

The collections include hundreds of artifacts from the printing trade and related fields, including papermaking equipment, wood and metal type collections, bookbinding tools, and typesetting machines. Benjamin Franklin is said to have used one of the printing presses in the collection in 1726.

More than 7,000 objects chart the evolution of electronic communications, including the original telegraph of Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell's early telephones. Radios, televisions, tape recorders, and the tools of the computer age are part of the collections, along with wireless phones and a satellite tracking system.

Date: 1960s

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Mr. Magoo

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Mr. Magoo comic strip shows the title character during his weekly visit with nephew Waldo. Waldo appears behind a barred window and Magoo thinks he’s in jail. Magoo asks if he can help break Waldo out.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Mr. Magoo comic strip shows the title character during his weekly visit with nephew Waldo. Waldo appears behind a barred window and Magoo thinks he’s in jail. Magoo asks if he can help break Waldo out. The last panel reveals the two in a post office where Magoo addresses a passing postman by saying “Good day, officer.”
Peter J. Alvarado, Jr. (1920-2003) drew the Mr. Magoo newspaper comic strip between 1964 and 1966. Alvarado’s other work includes collaborations on Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and other strips for which he drew under the pen name Al McKimson. Alvarado, well known for his animation work, provided artwork for Disney, Warner Brothers, and Hanna-Barbera between the late 1930s and the early 1990s.
Mr. Magoo (1964-1966) was based on the animated film short cartoon of the same name, originally developed by the United Productions of America studios in 1949. The central figure, Quincy Magoo, is a wealthy retiree who spends much of his time with his nephew Waldo. The storyline humor is mainly the result of the title character’s extreme nearsightedness. The Mr. Magoo character is said to have been based on film actor W.C. Fields. Some of the strip's messages are also said to represent protests against McCarthy-era activities.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1965-01-31
graphic artist
Saperstein, Henry G.
publisher
Tribune Printing Company
ID Number
2010.0081.249
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.249

Type VA-842 klystron

During the early 20th century, scientists developed radar–a means to transmit and then detect radio waves reflected by metal objects.
Description
During the early 20th century, scientists developed radar–a means to transmit and then detect radio waves reflected by metal objects. Most radar units used electronic tubes to generate the radio waves and many different types of tubes were invented.
The model VA-842 klystron tube from Varian Corporation is one of the largest radar tubes made. This klystron operated for over 29,000 hours (about four years) in the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System radar at Thule, Greenland. Banks of these klystrons generated the radio waves transmitted by the huge radar in order to detect missiles aimed at North America.
The VA-842 klystron provided 1,250,000 watts peak power output with an average power output of 75,000 watts. The radio waves ranged from 400 to 450 megahertz in frequency. Varian donated the klystron to the Smithsonian in September 1964.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960
maker
Varian Associates
ID Number
EM.325744
catalog number
325744
accession number
257190
model number
VA-842

Indian Lake, Sunset

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
1962
original artist
Palmer, Frances F.
publisher
Travelers Companies, Inc.
ID Number
2012.3050.05.12
nonaccession number
2012.3050
catalog number
2012.3050.05.12

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Mary Worth

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Mary Worth comic strip shows Mary and her neighbor Mrs. Hardin arguing about the way Bertie should be raised.Kenneth Frederic Ernst (1918-1985) studied art in Chicago.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Mary Worth comic strip shows Mary and her neighbor Mrs. Hardin arguing about the way Bertie should be raised.
Kenneth Frederic Ernst (1918-1985) studied art in Chicago. In 1936 he joined the Harry "A" Chesler shop for comic book production and distribution. While still working there he began collaborating with Frank Martinek on the strip Don Winslow of the Navy. Ernst took over drawing the Mary Worth strip from Dale Ulrey in 1942. He was noted for his photorealistic drawing style. The strip itself was a departure from other contemporary strips, most of which were violent, wartime strips.
Mary Worth (1938- ) is a soap opera-style comic strip about a mature, intrusive suburbanite. The strip became popular because of its looks into upscale lifestyles, romantic entanglements, and dysfunctional families. Allen Saunders wrote the unconnected-style storyline in the 1940s and 1950s. Over the years Mary has become a more regularly featured character and continues her role as the link to the range of cast members and their various stories.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-06-17
author
Saunders, John Allen
graphic artist
Ernst, Ken
publisher
Publishers Newspapers Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
GA.22429
catalog number
22429
accession number
277502

Telephone Answering Machine

This Code-A-Phone 700 answering machine was produced in 1966, several years before a series of legal battles forced Bell Telephone to allow connection of non-Bell equipment to their telephone lines.
Description (Brief)
This Code-A-Phone 700 answering machine was produced in 1966, several years before a series of legal battles forced Bell Telephone to allow connection of non-Bell equipment to their telephone lines. Ultimately the Code-A-Phone was produced by Ford Industries with parts made by Western Electric, the Bell System’s manufacturing unit. Having decided that they could not prevent the use of answering machines, Bell used Code-A-Phone in an attempt to control the market.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966
maker
Western Electric
ID Number
1996.0224.01
catalog number
1996.0224.01
accession number
1996.0224

Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder

The reel-to-reel format did not disappear overnight. This AIWA portable tape recorder dates from the mid-1960s, a time in which both the cassette tape and the 8-track cartridge formats were gaining popularity.
Description (Brief)
The reel-to-reel format did not disappear overnight. This AIWA portable tape recorder dates from the mid-1960s, a time in which both the cassette tape and the 8-track cartridge formats were gaining popularity. Reducing the size of the tape required moving the recording tracks closer together. That in turn required more advanced recording heads that could read and write the narrower tracks, as well as physically-stronger tape.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1965
maker
AWIA Co., Ltd.
ID Number
2006.0253.01
accession number
2006.0253
catalog number
2006.0253.01
model number
TP-30

Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder

This portable tape recorder was designed in the late 1950s by noted industrial designer John Vassos (1898-1985). Born in Romania to Greek parents, Vassos came to the US in 1919 and studied design.
Description (Brief)
This portable tape recorder was designed in the late 1950s by noted industrial designer John Vassos (1898-1985). Born in Romania to Greek parents, Vassos came to the US in 1919 and studied design. Famous for his modernist designs, he helped establish the look of radios and televisions after joining RCA in 1933.
Tape recorders were a relatively new product for home use when RCA entered the market. Drawing on experiences with early radio and TV designs, Vassos’ design made this new technology feel accessible for ordinary people. Being portable, the recorder was also designed to withstand rough use.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960
maker
Radio Corporation of America
ID Number
1989.0657.08
accession number
1989.0657
catalog number
1989.0657.08

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Big George

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the single-panel daily comic Big George shows George learning how to play the ukulele using the key-tuning phrase “My Dog Has Fleas.”Virgil Franklin "Vip" Partch (1916-1984) began his career in 1937 illustrating for Walt Disney Studios.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the single-panel daily comic Big George shows George learning how to play the ukulele using the key-tuning phrase “My Dog Has Fleas.”
Virgil Franklin "Vip" Partch (1916-1984) began his career in 1937 illustrating for Walt Disney Studios. He is known for his participation in the 1941 Disney animators’ strike, and as a result of his participation, never returned to work for the company. Before his service in the U.S. Army Partch assisted Walter Lantz on the Woody Woodpecker cartoons. This prewar work assisted his transfer to his position as the art director and cartoonist for the weekly military magazine Panorama. After he left the army, Partch began freelancing and published books containing single-panel cartoons. In 1960 he created Big George, the strip that became his biggest success.
Big George (1960-1990) was a comic strip featuring family humor. The title character, much like other comic-strip husbands, was often neglected or ridiculed by the rest of his family. The daily version of the comic was usually shown in a single-panel format, but with the debut of the Sunday page a few years later, in the early 1960s, it took on a more traditional strip form. Partch died unexpectedly in 1984 as a result of a car crash.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964-05-08
graphic artist
Partch, Virgil
publisher
Publishers Newspapers Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
2010.0081.399
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.399

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Rip Kirby

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Rip Kirby comic strip shows Marion and Rip discussing Rip’s used car business troubles and Marion’s offer to help.John Prentice (1920-1999) spent six years in the U.S.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Rip Kirby comic strip shows Marion and Rip discussing Rip’s used car business troubles and Marion’s offer to help.
John Prentice (1920-1999) spent six years in the U.S. Navy during World War II before attending art school in Pittsburgh and soon afterward working in advertising and comic books. In 1956 he was asked to take over the Rip Kirby comic strip after the death of its creator, Alex Raymond. Prentice drew the strip, with writer Fred Dickenson, and later, on his own, until his own death in 1999.
Rip Kirby (1946-1999) was a postwar ex-marine who turned to a private detective's career. Most Rip Kirby stories saw the title character using humor and imagination to solve crimes instead of physical force. Kirby was often seen with his frail assistant, Desmond, or his longtime girlfriend, Honey Dorian.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-09-10
author
Dickenson, Fred
graphic artist
Prentice, John
issuing authority
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22617
catalog number
22617
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Buz Sawyer

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Buz Sawyer comic strip shows U.S. Air Force jets flying close to Tam’s plane, as Buz tries to signal that he and Tam are not the enemy.Royston Campbell "Roy" Crane (1901-1977) studied art in Chicago.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Buz Sawyer comic strip shows U.S. Air Force jets flying close to Tam’s plane, as Buz tries to signal that he and Tam are not the enemy.
Royston Campbell "Roy" Crane (1901-1977) studied art in Chicago. He started a short-lived strip called Wash Tubbs in 1924, and Captain Easy in 1929, as an outlet for ideas from his own travels through Central America. Later, in 1943, Crane launched Buz Sawyer which, unlike Captain Easy, allowed him ownership of all the rights to his strip. Crane drew the strip with the help of assistants until the 1960s, when he retired because of health issues.
Buz Sawyer (1943-1989) told the story of World War II U.S. Navy fighter pilot John Singer “Buz” Sawyer. With the real-life end of the war, Buz's life changed with his marriage and the birth of his son. By the early 1950s Buz is shown as returning to the U.S. Navy and later fighting in the Vietnam War. The strip was continued into the late 1980s but the Sunday version of the strip was discontinued in 1974.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-06-24
graphic artist
Crane, Roy
publisher
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22438
catalog number
22438
accession number
277502

The Through Express

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
original artist
Currier & Ives
publisher
Travelers Companies, Inc.
ID Number
2012.3050.05.09
nonaccession number
2012.3050
catalog number
2012.3050.05.09

The Return from the Woods

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1969
1962
original artist
Palmer, Frances F.
publisher
Travelers Companies, Inc.
ID Number
2012.3050.05.11
nonaccession number
2012.3050
catalog number
2012.3050.05.11

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Peanuts

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Peanuts comic strip shows Lucy pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown tries to kick it.Charles Monroe Schulz (1922-2000) started the weekly single-panel humor series Li'l Folks shortly after World War II.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Peanuts comic strip shows Lucy pulling the football away just as Charlie Brown tries to kick it.
Charles Monroe Schulz (1922-2000) started the weekly single-panel humor series Li'l Folks shortly after World War II. The series included and introduced Schulz's characters, Charlie Brown and a Snoopy-like dog. Peanuts, a revised version of the same strip, was debuted in 1950. Schulz drew the strip for the length of its run.
Peanuts (1950-2000) debuted after a revision of a similar strip Li'l Folks. During the course of its run the strip ran internationally with its universally recognizable characters Charlie Brown, Lucy, Snoopy, and others. One of the strip's more popular story lines involved Charlie Brown trying to kick a football, and Lucy pulling it away at the last minute. Peanuts was adapted into various media, including comic books, commercial animations, feature films, television specials (such as A Charlie Brown Christmas) and the Broadway musical You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown, which had a five-year run in the 1960s.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-09-25
graphic artist
Schulz, Charles M.
publisher
United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
GA.22400
catalog number
22400
accession number
277502

Telephone Answering Machine

While telephone answering machines date to the early twentieth century, commercial units did not begin to enter the U.S. market until the 1960s. AT&T executives feared that users might cut back on telephone use if recording devices were widely adopted.
Description (Brief)
While telephone answering machines date to the early twentieth century, commercial units did not begin to enter the U.S. market until the 1960s. AT&T executives feared that users might cut back on telephone use if recording devices were widely adopted. The company sought to block the introduction of answering machines even while their engineers made significant technical advances in magnetic recording technology.
This model 100 “Record-O-Phone” by Robosonics was one of the early, commercially available answering machines. Introduced in 1963, these machines cost several hundred dollars each and were aimed at business customers. The unit used a reel of plastic recording tape to record incoming messages. The unit’s cradle-arms were placed beneath the handset of a desk telephone and lifted the handset off the base in response to an incoming call. Since the unit is not electrically connected to the telephone, the user avoided sanction by the telephone company.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1964
maker
Robosonics Inc.
ID Number
2000.0101.01
catalog number
2000.0101.01
accession number
2000.0101

Camera-ready comic strip, entitled Barney Google and Snuffy Smith

This pen-and-ink drawing for the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip shows Aunt Loweezy telling Snuffy to punish Jughaid for using her prize-winning quilt and petticoat to make a tent and a kite.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing for the Barney Google and Snuffy Smith comic strip shows Aunt Loweezy telling Snuffy to punish Jughaid for using her prize-winning quilt and petticoat to make a tent and a kite. Snuffy can’t seem to understand why that’s a problem until he finds out what Jughaid did with his whittling knife.
Fred Lasswell (1916-2001) started his career in the 1920s as a sports cartoonist for the Tampa Daily Times. During the course of his work there he began assisting Billy DeBeck with Barney Google. After DeBeck’s death in 1942, Lasswell took over the strip entirely. During his service in World War II Lasswell also created a strip called Sgt. Hashmark. Lasswell continued to draw Barney Google and Snuffy Smith until his death in 2001.
Barney Google and Snuffy Smith (1919- ) started out as a sports strip titled Take Barney Google, F'rinstance. The title character was portrayed as a very short man who was regularly seen at sporting events. The addition of a race horse named Spark Plug, in 1922, caught the nation's attention and prompted creator DeBeck to make the horse a regular cast member. Hillbilly Snuffy Smith, also very short in stature, joined the cast in 1934 and soon was added to the title of the strip. Since the 1950s, Snuffy Smith has been the central character of the strip.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-06-12
graphic artist
Lasswell, Fred
publisher
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22603
catalog number
22603
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic strip, entitled Apartment 3-G

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Apartment 3-G comic strip shows the characters discussing how much they miss Peter. A new neighbor, named Newton Figg, is just arriving to move into 3-B, across the hall.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Apartment 3-G comic strip shows the characters discussing how much they miss Peter. A new neighbor, named Newton Figg, is just arriving to move into 3-B, across the hall. Figg raises some eyebrows because he’s arriving with two oversized, stuffed animals named Wilbur and Wendell.
Alex Kotzky(1923-1996), while an art student in New York in 1940, became an assistant at DC Comics. In the 1950s he worked for publishers Quality Comics and Ziff-Davis. During this time he also ghost-drew for comic strips such as Steve Canyon and Big Ben Bolt. In 1961 he and writer-psychiatrist Nick Dallis began producing Apartment 3-G.
Apartment 3-G (1961- ) portrayed the lives of three young women who live together: art teacher Lu Ann Powers, nurse Tommie Thompson, and Margo Magee (who over time held different jobs). The soap opera-style comic includes the interactions of the three young women and their friendly, fatherly neighbor Professor Aristotle Papagoras.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-08-07
graphic artist
Kotzky, Alex
publisher
Publishers Newspapers Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
GA.22528
catalog number
22528
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Marmaduke

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Marmaduke single-panel daily comic strip shows the Great Dane upset because Phil Winslow, his owner, has put ice in his daughter Barbara’s water, but not in his own water.Brad Anderson (1924- ) began his career as a comic artist selling s
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Marmaduke single-panel daily comic strip shows the Great Dane upset because Phil Winslow, his owner, has put ice in his daughter Barbara’s water, but not in his own water.
Brad Anderson (1924- ) began his career as a comic artist selling some of his cartoon art to an aviation magazine while still in high school. After college and four years' service in the U.S. Navy, Anderson began working in advertising and prepared freelance drawings for magazine cartoons in 1953. His creation Marmaduke was debuted in newspapers across the country in 1954. Today Anderson continues to draw Marmaduke with the help of his son.
Marmaduke (1954- ) is a newspaper daily panel and Sunday comic strip. The title character is a Great Dane belonging to the Winslow family, including husband and wife, Phil and Dottie, and two children, Barbara and Billy. The running theme involves the human characteristics of the title character, which contribute to the household's general unease and confusion.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1963-04-22
graphic artist
Anderson, Brad
maker
United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
ID Number
2010.0081.009
accession number
2010.0081
catalog number
2010.0081.009

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Bringing Up Father

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Bringing up Father comic strip shows Mother mentioning that she worries about Father and his absentmindedness. When she and Nora are at the matinee, Father takes a message for Mother.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Bringing up Father comic strip shows Mother mentioning that she worries about Father and his absentmindedness. When she and Nora are at the matinee, Father takes a message for Mother. He doesn’t recall all the details about the message, and when Mother becomes angry about that he reveals that she was the one who had forgotten to meet someone for lunch earlier that day.
Frank Fletcher (1919- ) began his career in the advertising field. He also served as art director for the Pictorial Review and the Saturday Home Magazine, and provided artwork for popular comic books. Fletcher also became the artist for the Bringing Up Father comic strip after the death in 1954 of its creator, George McManus. Fletcher continued drawing the strip in the Sunday edition until 1984.
Bringing Up Father (1913-2000) featured an Irish immigrant named Jiggs; his wife, Maggie; and their two children Nora and Ethelbert (known as Sonny). The story usually revolved around Jiggs’s attempts to cope with his newfound wealth after receiving winnings from the Irish Sweepstakes. Much of the time Jiggs longed for his working-class friends, habits, and general lifestyle. Meanwhile Maggie, a social climber, had embraced her nouveau riche status and demanded that Jiggs do the same.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-09-25
author
Fletcher, Frank
graphic artist
Kavanaugh, Bill
publisher
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22587
catalog number
22587
accession number
277502

Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder

About ten years after the invention of transistors, Steelman Phonograph & Radio Company produced this portable tape recorder that used seven transistors in its circuits.
Description (Brief)
About ten years after the invention of transistors, Steelman Phonograph & Radio Company produced this portable tape recorder that used seven transistors in its circuits. Although heavy by today’s standards, weighing about 6.5 pounds, the “Transitape” recorder demonstrated possibilities of size and weight reduction that using transistors could provide. The Transitape used a reel-to-reel tape design with tapes that could record for sixty-four minutes. Six mercury cell AA batteries operated the amplifier for about 300 hours and another seven batteries operated the motor for 50 hours.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1960
maker
Steelman Phonograph & Radio Co., Inc.
ID Number
1987.0520.01
accession number
1987.0520
catalog number
1987.0520.01

Camera-ready comic strip for Archie

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Archie comic strip shows Veronica hosting a party and suggesting to Archie that he and Jughead can later sleep on the couch, which turns into a bed.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Archie comic strip shows Veronica hosting a party and suggesting to Archie that he and Jughead can later sleep on the couch, which turns into a bed. Archie suggests to Jug that pressing the button for the foldout couch will also provide him food.
Robert William "Bob" Montana (1920-1975), in his youth, drew caricatures of customers in his father’s restaurant in New Hampshire. Later he became a freelance illustrator and at age twenty-one, in the 1940s, Montana created and started drawing Archie for the comic book series Pep Comics, and soon after the Archie comic strip. Montana drew the daily and Sunday Archie strips as well as Archie comic books until his death in 1975.
Archie (1947- ) is said to have been based on the 1930s and 1940s Andy Hardy movies, such as A Family Affair and Love Finds Andy Hardy. Even though the comic subject was originally included as filler in the publication called Pep Comics, which included mostly superhero stories, after about a year Archie appeared on the comic book cover. Archie was syndicated in newspapers across the country beginning in 1947. The subject was also included in radio and television spin-offs.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-07-18
graphic artist
Montana, Bob
publisher
Archie Comic Publications, Inc.
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22441
catalog number
22441
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Ponytail

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Ponytail comic strip shows the title character asking Stickshift, her mechanically inclined friend, to help start the new lawn mower, after being brushed off by her boyfriend, Donald.Lee Holley (1933- ) sold his first cartoon at age fifte
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Ponytail comic strip shows the title character asking Stickshift, her mechanically inclined friend, to help start the new lawn mower, after being brushed off by her boyfriend, Donald.
Lee Holley (1933- ) sold his first cartoon at age fifteen, and just a few years later went to work for Warner Bros. Animation Studios as an artist. In 1957 he began ghostwriting the Dennis the Menace Sunday strip. In 1960 he launch his own strip Ponytail, which ran until 1989. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Holley also contributed artwork to Warner Bros. comic books.
Ponytail (1960-1989), like earlier strips Emmy Lou and Penny, was a strip about the adventures and social mishaps of a teenage girl. Though Ponytail premiered after other comics with similar themes, it was an instant hit. It was also briefly adapted as a comic book.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-07-31
graphic artist
Holley, Lee
publisher
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22554
catalog number
22554
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Hi and Lois

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Hi and Lois comic strip shows Lois leaving baby Trixie with Hi while she runs some errands.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Hi and Lois comic strip shows Lois leaving baby Trixie with Hi while she runs some errands. Hi quickly falls asleep as Trixie proceeds to wreck the house.
Richard Arthur Allan "Dik" Browne (1917-1989) worked with the New York Journal American and Newsweek, and while he was serving in World War II launched his first comic strip, Jinny Jeep. In the 1950s Browne collaborated with Mort Walker on Hi and Lois. In 1973 Browne debuted another strip called Hägar the Horrible about an uncouth 9th-century Viking. Both of Browne’s strips are still running, and both are drawn by his sons.
Hi and Lois (1954- ) features a married couple and their suburban family, including four children. The couple first appeared in the Beetle Bailey comic strip. Lois is Beetle’s sister. Lois is shown taking a job as a real estate agent in 1980, as a nod to changing times.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-05-08
graphic artist
Browne, Dik
Walker, Mort
publisher
King Features Syndicate
ID Number
GA.22451
catalog number
22451
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Winnie Winkle

This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Winnie Winkle comic strip shows Ethel going sightseeing with Vic Ventura. Vic is trying to deceive Ethel by appealing to her sympathy.Martin Branner (1888-1970) was a vaudeville star-turned-cartoonist after his service in World War I.
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing prepared for the Winnie Winkle comic strip shows Ethel going sightseeing with Vic Ventura. Vic is trying to deceive Ethel by appealing to her sympathy.
Martin Branner (1888-1970) was a vaudeville star-turned-cartoonist after his service in World War I. In his first few years working in comics, he produced short-lived strips until he hit on Winnie Winkle the Breadwinner in 1920. The title of the strip was shortened to Winnie Winkle in 1943.
Winnie Winkle (1920-1996), about a female family breadwinner, began as a story about the young woman named Winnie who took care of her adopted younger brother. Winnie matured slightly during the years, and eventually became an adult, got married, and served as a single parent during her husband's soldiering years. Though the strip started out in a daily “gag” format, over time it transitioned into a soap opera-themed strip. Winnie Winkle made a brief crossover into comic books, but the longer storylines were not as popular.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1964-08-16
graphic artist
Branner, Martin
publisher
Tribune Printing Company
ID Number
GA.22610
catalog number
22610
accession number
277502

Camera-ready comic art drawing for Dick Tracy

This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Dick Tracy comic strip shows Tracy coming back from a trip to the moon and getting notice that his help is needed to catch an escaped fugitive.Chester Gould (1900-1985) began his career in the early 1920s cartooning for The Daily Oklahoma
Description (Brief)
This pen-and-ink drawing produced for the Dick Tracy comic strip shows Tracy coming back from a trip to the moon and getting notice that his help is needed to catch an escaped fugitive.
Chester Gould (1900-1985) began his career in the early 1920s cartooning for The Daily Oklahoman. Shortly afterwards he began drawing his strips Fillum Fables and The Radio Catts. Gould's Dick Tracy strip ran beginning in 1931. He drew and wrote Dick Tracy until he retired in 1977.
Dick Tracy (1931- ) is a police detective who is shown using science and technology to his advantage in order to solve his crimes. His "2-Way Wrist Radio" was an example of his futuristic interests. During the 1960s Gould began receiving criticism about the strip, especially for its politics and celebration of the police. This criticism prompted more science fiction-directed stories, such as Tracy’s visits to the moon. The Dick Tracy story has seen adaptations to radio, film, television, books, and comic books.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1966-05-21
original artist
Gould, Chester
publisher
Tribune Printing Company
ID Number
GA.22594
catalog number
22594
accession number
277502

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