While retired life lets me be distracted by any number of personal projects, it’s the unexpected scope of my current project that has has occupied me most for the past 6-7 months. Last summer I added a Wikipedia entry for James E. Allen, an artist, printmaker and illustrator in the early decades of the 20th century (and subject of a previous entry). I then wanted to make a complete (as possible) inventory of his works. Little did I know then the scope of the task.
As part of the Social Realist movement of the time, Allen is best known for his etchings and lithographs showing ordinary men at work — everyday heroes like the builders of skyscrapers and makers of steel …
… or the layers of pipe, and builders of ships.
Allen also had a 30 year career as an illustrator of books, and of popular fiction and advertisements in magazines like Collier’s, Good Housekeeping, and Saturday Evening Post. Those of an age might remember the very popular booklet he illustrated for the Sinclair Oil Company:
Yet there is no comprehensive survey of his works. Hence my mission.
There was a fairly complete print catalog from 1984, and a listing of his magazine illustrations in an online index called the FictionMags Index. I started with those sources, intending to just bring them up to date — easy, or so I thought. Here’s what I have learned:
- The “fairly complete” catalog was for an 1984 exhibit of his prints at New York’s Mary Ryan Gallery. It was extensive (91 works) but not exhaustive. I have identified 124 prints so far.
- Likewise, starting with a list of 80 illustrations from the FictionMags Index, I have identified nearly 200 magazine stories and 25 books he illustrated. This however is likely some fraction of his 30 year career as a commercial artist.
- The large majority of illustrations started as oil paintings. What has survived has gone to private collectors and shows up occasionally at auction. Sadly Allen late in life destroyed much of that work left in his studio so many paintings may never be seen again. I must turn to their reproductions in magazines to identify a significant body of his work.
- I was pleased to find a good number of magazines digitized and online through Google Books and library sources. But while 122 magazines I sought were online, only 21 had acceptable imaging of the illustrations — the others were black and white scans rendering the illustrations useless. Compare these images, one an online scan, the other taken from a copy of the Dec 30, 1931 Collier’s:
Even the clear image is a half-tone reproduction with only one color added; we can only imagine what the original painting looked like.
So I have become a magazine collector of sorts. There’s a large and lively trade in collectable vintage magazines, and I have sought out as many of Allen’s illustrations as I can afford. It’s often pretty cheap, Ebay to the rescue! But when an item is particularly rare and pricey — e.g. $500 for the 1934 Good Housekeeping that introduced Donald Duck — I have turned to the generosity of sellers to take pictures for me.
Here is my current stash of 110 old magazines. Ladies! Good Housekeeping has many articles on cooking and cleaning for the harried homemaker. Guys! check out the new attachments for the Midwest Engine Company “Utilitor”, or the latest roadster from the Dort Motor Car Company.
So where am I? This could be a never ending project, but I am close to wrapping up an initial body of information. I will work with the Stanford Library folks to see what kind of permanent home can be made for this catalog where it can continue to grow. I have one more trove of information to mine first — I was pleased to get get in touch with Allen’s three grandchildren, who have treasures passed on to them from their mother, Allen’s daughter Charlotte. I look forward to a research jaunt to visit them soon, to discover and photograph some unique items not found in the Smithsonian archive of Allen’s papers.
But now, I must get back to my data entry …