A new college graduate wonders as war brews: “Where do we go from here?” A boy at a school desk is taunted by the baseball, bat and mitt he can’t play with. The grim reaper sits astride a sedan on a winding mountain road pointing forward amid warnings — even from a nearby cow — to “Be Careful!”

These are drawings by an editorial cartoonist named Howard Fisher (1890-1962), who worked and drew for decades for the , a Portland newspaper that folded in 1982. They are featured in a UW Libraries Special Collections exhibit called “.” The display is in Special Collections in the Allen Library South basement.

The exhibit was created by , associate director of Special Collections and its curator. The images came to the UW after Nicolette Bromberg, UW Libraries curator, was contacted by an antiquarian dealer who had acquired some of Fisher’s work. Special Collections then purchased 440 Fisher editorial drawings, a wide selection of which are featured in “Captured in Ink.”

“He did over 9,000 in his career,” Oberg said. “The and other places with political collections have some, but I think now we probably have one of the largest collection of his work.”

Fisher’s drawings were not, however, all light cultural observations; many were sharp, even chilling in tone, especially as World War II approached:

• A jackbooted Adolf Hitler hikes toward a “new world order” up a hillside littered with broken bodies named for the countries he has conquered. The title: “His Rise to Power”
• A car labeled “the third term” with Franklin Roosevelt at the wheel speeds down a slick highway (similar to the “Be Careful!” spot) with oily lettering: “The road to totalitarianism.” A penciled headline at the top clarifies: “As Tom Dewey sees it.” Dewey was defeated by FDR for the presidency in 1944 (and again by Harry Truman in 1948).
• In a 1937 reference to World War I, a darkly seductive figure labeled “WAR” with a death’s head lures a young American man to her room saying, “Come on in, I’ll treat you right. I used to know your daddy.”

Images in the exhibit also reveal some of Fisher’s process. A few are only pencil sketches, but hint of the full drawing to come. Many of the drawings, some of Oberg’s favorites, show where the artist used white-out to clarify edges and make it camera-ready. And Fisher, like many in his trade, had as a signature character a tiny cartoon beaver reacting to the image from the lower corners of some images.

Oberg gathered other historical cartoons as well for the exhibit, and will change these occasionally during the run. These include:

• Small color caricatures of celebrities of the early 20^th century from the original Vanity Fair magazine — Madame Curie, Charles Darwin, Oliver Wendell Holmes and more.
• Drawings by , an early 20^th century cartoonist for the Seattle Times, of a character called , whose hat indicated the weather that day.
• Some of the very first political cartoons, of a strutting, pompous Napoleon. Many hand-colored, these came from French and English publications of the late 1700s, though some were individually created etchings.
• Along one wall, blown-up caricatures of famous Seattle locals from decades back (women were typically featured only on the arm of a man, Oberg notes)
• A small display on the theme of wartime cartooning, called “Drawn to War.”

“I find it’s incredibly timely,” Oberg said, noting an editorial cartoonist in Pittsburgh who was recently over his views expressed in ink.

A quote from the Newseum posted in bold letters near the door sums up the role of the editorial cartoonist well, Oberg said.

It reads: “A good editorial cartoonist can produce smiles at the nation’s breakfast tables and, at the same time, screams around the White House. That’s the point of cartooning: to tickle those who agree with you, torture those who don’t, and maybe sway the remainder.”

“Captured in Ink: Historical Cartoons and Caricatures,” reflecting the long and proud tradition of criticism via pen and ink, will be on display through Oct. 19.

###

For more information, contact Oberg at 206-543-7492 or lisanne@uw.edu.

Say it’s the year 1675 and you need to ride from London to the city of Bristol. Siri won’t be invented for centuries — how will you find your way? Don’t worry, there’s a map for that.

Drawn expressly for the purpose by Scottish cartographer , the map now sits under glass in the Special Collections area of the UW’s Allen Library, in great shape for being 340 years old.

The map is one of dozens of items in a new exhibit titled “.” Carefully chosen and organized by UW Book Arts and Rare Book Curator Sandra Kroupa, the exhibit is a celebration of cartography, geography and travel, featuring maps, travel literature, vintage books, photos, manuscripts and more.

“I really love that map,” Kroupa said. “The interesting thing is that it doesn’t put you in any context, so you don’t know where in the world you are. You know to get from here to there, but that’s it. And all along the road are symbols of what happens there, and one of the things is a tree that people were hung from. We even have an artist book from the collection that was inspired by that map.”

To Kroupa, on the job just months short of 50 years with no retirement in sight, caring for centuries-old original items like these is like a “sacred trust.” She added: “Here are these things that have managed to make it through God knows what, and — especially some of the early maps — where have they been?” Some were individual sheets in atlases long dismantled and sold off separately, she said.

Nearby Ogilby’s cartography are other vintage maps as well as travel books by Charles Dickens and others, including a small 1804 book about touring England told in letters from a brother to a sister and an intriguing 1905 guide to “The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain.”

Behind glass in another shelf are a few 19^th century photographs by William Babcock — and really, nothing says “colonial” like a formal British couple solemnly riding an elephant on their honeymoon.

Also included are cycling diaries “recorded in map form” by the late, beloved UW historian . He was — who knew? — evidently a biking enthusiast who cycled around England and Ireland in the 1920s. Kroupa said colleague John Bolcer, librarian and university archivist, brought these to her attention. Nicolette Bromberg, UW Libraries visual materials curator, suggested photos for the exhibit and Lisa Oberg, associate director of Special Collections and history of science and medicine curator, provided the exhibit title.

Book arts, scientific instruments and ephemera are represented here as well. Kroupa herself donated a 1950s-era Disneyland Viewmaster slide promoting Tomorrowland that lures the viewer with: “Let’s go ahead in time to 1986 — a world of spaceports, moon rockets, modernistic buildings and the fun rides of the future!”

Kroupa created the display in just a few days after learning that she had a hole in her schedule to fill. Curators know their collections, and exhibits compiled in this personal way can be a rare glimpse at favorite items from the trove, which at UW Special Collections numbers about 250,000 printed materials and 1,500,000 visual images in all.

It’s like putting together a big puzzle, she said.

“I say to people that when I walked in here at age 21, someone handed me a whole bunch of puzzle pieces, but I never saw the box! So I didn’t know if I was facing Mount Rainier or four kitties in a yarn basket, or fresh fruit. It just seems like everything you do gives you more puzzle pieces.”

“All Over the Map: From Cartographs to (C)artifacts” will be on display until Jan. 31, 2018.

###

For more information, contact Kroupa at 206-685-3248 or skroupa@uw.edu.

UW Libraries will host an open house from 1 to 5 p.m. on Veterans Day, Friday, Nov. 11, in conjunction with the current World War I-themed exhibit, “.”

The exhibit features photographs, diaries, newspapers, letters and ephemera from the World War I era. Notes with the exhibit discuss how the UW responded to the war with the formation of a hospital, ambulance unit and training camp. About 4,000 students, staff, faculty and alumni served, 58 of whom lost their lives in what was at the time called “The War to End All Wars.”

The Armistice Day (Veterans Day) open house will open with a color guard from Ballard Eagleson VFW Post 3063. Guided walks of the exhibit will be offered, as well as documentary films about the influenza epidemic of 1918 and the creation of American cemeteries in France.

The exhibit was curated by Lisa Oberg, head of public services for UW Libraries Special Collections, who also directs the public’s attention to the two obelisks at the north entrance to campus bearing the names of the 58 who gave their lives.

November 11, is Veterans Day, a national holiday — but Suzzallo and Allen libraries will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibit will be on display through Jan. 31, 2017.

###

For more information on the exhibit and event, contact Oberg at 206-543-7492 or lisanne@uw.edu