Edward Penfield: Born June 2, 1866

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“What many do not realize is that Penfield’s Harpers years account for less than a third of his thirty-four year career. During the decade after his self-retirement from Harper and Brothers, his freelance work was seen by millions of people on hundreds of magazine covers and advertisements.

Not a boisterous self-promoter like some of his contemporaries — he rarely gave personal interviews — Penfield preferred to live a quiet life near his ancestral stomping grounds in New York. But at the same time he was considered “that rare person among artists, an active citizen.” He volunteered for civic duties, spoke at womens’ clubs, taught at the Art Students’s League and served as president of the Society of Illustrators.

More than a poster artist, Edward Penfield was an illustrator, art editor, graphic designer, writer, painter, educator and mentor — an American Master.” FROM https://edwardpenfield.com/introduction/

Google Arts: https://artsandculture.google.com/entity/edward-penfield/m09rt2r_?categoryId=artist&hl=en
Edward Penfield posters~ https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/posters-by-edward-penfield#/?tab=about
eptopper

W. Heath Robinson: Born May 31, 1872

RobinsonRobinson was born into a family of artists in 1872. His father, grandfather and uncle all made their livings through art, via drawing or engraving. Robinson was educated at Islington Art School and the Royal Academy. He illustrated dozens of books, from famous works like Donoutdoors Quixote and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to lesser-known volumes such as The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm and Plantation Barn Dance.
FROM http://www.abebooks.com/books/illustration-art-uncle-lubin-william/w-heath-robinson.shtml

…in World War Two the machine created by British code breakers at Bletchley Park, the golfdriverspredecessor to the world’s first computer Colossus, was nicknamed Heath Robinson. It consisted of reels and spools, which had to be precisely aligned and timed in order for it to work.
FROM http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27813927

waterFor his own pleasure, he continued to paint in watercolours, experimenting with effects of light and colour. His importance, as an innovator in the fields of illustration and advertising, and perhaps more importantly as the heir of Rowlandson and Cruikshank in the British humorous tradition, has yet to be fully appreciated, and his work is poorly represented in public collections.
FROM http://heathrobinson.org/robinson/index.htm

Myron Waldman: Born on April 23, 1908

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/06/arts/television/06waldman.html

Myron Waldman (April 23, 1908-February 4, 2006) was an American animator, best known for his work at Fleischer Studio…He started his first career work in 1930 at Fleischer Studio. At Fleischer he worked on Betty Boop, Raggedy Ann, Gulliver’s Travels, the animated adaptations of Superman, and Popeye. He was head animator on two Academy Award nominated shorts, Educated Fish (1937) and Hunky and Spunky (1939).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myron_Waldman

Garth Williams: Born on April 16, 1912

LittleHouseWith the precision of Durer but with his own sense of innocence and wonderment, Mr. Williams created a world of storybook characters. Although the books were written by a diverse range of authors, the drawings all had Mr. Williams’s impeccable, heartwarming touch.Charlotte

Generations of children picture their favorite fictional characters as drawn by Mr. Williams: that dapper mouse Stuart Little; the kindhearted spider Charlotte and her friend, Wilbur the pig; and bears, dogs, kittens, crickets, elves, fairies, children and TallBook2grown-ups in books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, George Selden, Charlotte Zolotow, Else H. Minarik and many others. Mr. Williams also wrote the text for seven children’s books, but it is primarily as an illustrator that his work is cherished.therescuerspic

He believed that books “given, or read, to children can have a profound influence.” For that reason, he said, he used his illustrations to try to “awaken something of importance . . . humor, responsibility, respect for others, cricketpicinterest in the world at large.”
FROM http://www.nytimes.com/1996/05/10/arts/garth-williams-book-illustrator-dies-at-84.html

Garth Williams’ Gorgeous Original Illustrations for ‘Charlotte’s Web’~ http://flavorwire.com/260278/garth-williams-gorgeous-original-illustrations-for-charlottes-web (Flavorwire)

The Art of Garth Williams~ http://librarianbooksforchildren.blogspot.com/2012/05/art-of-garth-williams.html (Great Books for Children)

BookList

Dorothy P. Lathrop: Born April 16, 1891

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“Dorothy Pulis Lathrop was born April 16, 1891 in Albany, New York. One of the most influential and important illustrators of children’s books in the thirties and forties, she began her career in 1918. At that time she was a 27 year old teacher of art in Albany. Arguably her most famous works were the illustrations for Rachel Field’s, Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, the story of a doll. The book was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1930 and a new edition was in the stores for Christmas 1999. An image from the book is at the right. Lathrop was awarded the very first Caldecott Medal in 1938 for her book Animals of the Bible (1937).
”
FROM http://lathropgenealogy.blogspot.com/2005/03/dorothy-lathrop-biography.html

Read/download The Three Mulla-mulgars~ http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32620
Read/download Down-adown-derry~ https://archive.org/details/downadownderrybo00delauoft

Fairieswomen

Hardie Gramatky: Born on April 12, 1907

Bernhard August “Hardie” Gramatky, Jr. (April 12, 1907-April 29, 1979) was an American painter, writer, animator, and illustrator. In a 2006 article in Watercolor Magazine, Andrew Wyeth named him as one of America’s 20 greatest watercolorists. He wrote and illustrated several children’s books, most notably Little Toot.
FROM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardie_Gramatky

ROOF

http://www.californiawatercolor.com/pages/hardie-gramatky-biography

https://www.mazzamuseum.org/project/miles-gallery/

https://www.lambiek.net/artists/g/gramatky_hardie.htm

Carl Barks (March 27, 1901-August 25, 2000)

Carl Barks (March 27, 1901 – August 25, 2000) was a famous Disney Studio illustrator and comic book creator, who invented Duckburg and many of its inhabitants, such as Scrooge McDuck (1947), Gladstone Gander (1948), the Beagle Boys (1951), Gyro Gearloose (1952), Flintheart Glomgold (1956), John D. Rockerduck (1961) and Magica De Spell (1961). The quality of his scripts and drawings earned him the nicknames The Duck Man and The Good Duck Artist. Fellow comic writer Will Eisner called him “the Hans Christian Andersen of comic books.”
FROM http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/Carl_Barks

Randolph Caldecott: Born on March 22, 1846

artMedal

The full-color illustration adapted for the image depicted on the Caldecott Medal, from The Diverting History of John Gilpin (1878). Source: http://www.publishersweekly.com/images/data/ARTICLE_PHOTO/photo/000/017/17815-1.JPG

Randolph Caldecott was born in Chester on 22 March 1846. He was the third son of John Caldecott and his first wife Mary Dinah Brookes, and one of 13 siblings or half-siblings. Caldecott attended King Henry VIII School, Chester, where he became head boy.

From an early age Caldecott showed artistic talent. He won a prize for drawing while at school in Chester, and in 1861, when he was 15 years old, the Illustrated London News published his drawing and written account of a major fire at a railway hotel in Chester.

Caldecott was also interested in sculpture, and studied for a time with the French sculptor Jules Dalou. He also produced decorative murals, panels and bas-reliefs, and painted in oils.

Caldecott is most famous for his 16 picture books, published annually in pairs by George Routledge & Sons, London.
https://www.natwestgroup.com/heritage/people/randolph-caldecott.html

selfportraitThe Randolph Caldecott Medal
Frederic G. Melcher suggested in 1937 the establishment of a…medal is to be given to the artist who had created the most distinguished picture book of the year and named in honor of the nineteenth-century English illustrator Randolph J. Caldecott.
The Caldecott Medal “shall be awarded to the artist of the most distinguished American Picture Book for Children published in the United States during the preceding year.”
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/aboutcaldecott/aboutcaldecott

Caldecott Medal & Honor Books, 1938-Present
http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/caldecottmedal/caldecotthonors/caldecottmedal

An excerpt from ‘Randolph Caldecott: The Man Who Could Not Stop Drawing’
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/childrens/childrens-book-news/article/58869-randolph-caldecott-the-man-who-could-not-stop-drawing-a-pw-excerpt.html

JackBuilt

THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT:
One of R. Caldecott’s Picture Books
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12109/12109-h/12109-h.htm

Al Williamson: Born March 21, 1931

WilliamsonAlfonso Williamson (March 21, 1931-June 12, 2010) was an American cartoonist, comic book artist,
and illustrator specializing in adventure, Western, and science-fiction/fantasy  ~ Wikipedia

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28503
http://www.inkwellawards.com/?page_id=316
https://www.lambiek.net/artists/w/williamson_a.htm