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The original cover sketch of "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," by Richard Scarry, with cartoon animals in vehicles.

On Richard Scarry and the Art of Children's Literature

Scarry’s guides to life both reflected and bolstered kids’ lived experience, and in some cases even provided the template for it.
Doodles, flourishes and scribbles drawn by George Washington.

Doodle Nation: Notes on Distracted Drawing

Humans have doodled for as long as they have written and drawn, but psychoanalysis began to imagine the doodle as a key to understanding the unconscious mind.
Sketch of women traveling with the Continental Army.

How a Curator at the Museum of the American Revolution Solved a Nearly 250-Year-Old Art Mystery

An eye-witness depiction of the Continental Army passing through Philadelphia hung in a New York apartment for decades.
Ledger drawing of Plains Indians on horseback.

A Shameful US History Told Through Ledger Drawings

In the 19th century ledger drawings became a concentrated point of resistance for Indigenous people, an expression of individual and communal pride.
A colorful drawing of Native Americans on horses.

Pictures From a Genocide

An astonishing new show of Native American ledger drawings brings a historic crime into focus.
Paul Peter Porges with self-portrait, during his time in the US army, 1951-52.

‘They Were Survivors’: The Jewish Cartoonists Who Fled the Nazis

A new exhibition celebrates the work of three Austrian artists who escaped their country as Nazis took over and created daring work in the years after.

Illustrating Carnival: Remembering the Overlooked Artists Behind Early Mardi Gras

A look at the ornate float and costume designs from Carnival’s “Golden Age."

Dramatic Courtroom Drawings From Decades of American Trials

The Library of Congress' new exhibition is "Drawing Justice: The Art of Courtroom illustration."
Missouri State Hospital No. 3.

The Incredible Story of 'Drawings from Inside State Hospital No. 3'

In 1970, a hand-bound portfolio of nearly 300 drawings is found in a dumpster. It would take 41 years to identify the artist who drew them.
Red Horse's drawing of American soldiers on horseback

A Lakota Sioux Warrior's Eyewitness Drawings of Little Bighorn

The role of Red Horse's drawings in the historical narrative of the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Illustration from the “Projected Trends” section of Hugh Ferriss’ The Metropolis of Tomorrow (1929).

Modern Babylon: Ziggurat Skyscrapers and Hugh Ferriss’ Retrofuturism

In the early twentieth century, architects turned to a newly discovered past to craft novel visions of the future: the ancient history of Mesopotamia.
Fanny Angelina Hesse in front of article about her accomplishments.

Meet the Forgotten Woman Who Revolutionized Microbiology With a Simple Kitchen Staple

Fanny Angelina Hesse introduced agar to the life sciences in 1881. A trove of unpublished family papers sheds new light on her many accomplishments.
Keith Haring spray painting

Keith Haring, the Boy Who Cried Art

Was he a brilliant painter or a brilliant brand?
Drawing from "Little Nemo in Slumberland" by Winsor McCay

The Cutting-Edge Cartoons of Winsor McCay

A prolific, meticulous artist, McCay created characters and storyscapes that inspired generations of cartoonists and animators.
Illustration of Harold drawing the moon, from "Harold and the Purple Crayon"

On "Harold of the Purple Crayon" and the Value of an Imaginative Journey

Considering the lessons and history of Crockett Johnson’s classic.
Political cartoon with Nixon and his inner circle tied up with wires, each pointing the finger at another.

8 Cartoons That Shaped Our View of Watergate — And Still Resonate Today

Herblock, Garry Trudeau, and others created memorable cartoons that skewered Nixon and Watergate, making the era a boom time for political satire.
Frank Lloyd Wright, a letter, and Edith Carlson

How to Fire Frank Lloyd Wright

The untold story of a world-renowned architect, an obsessive librarian, and a $5,500 house that never was.
Animated scene from One Hundred and One Dalmatians

How 'One Hundred and One Dalmatians' Saved Disney

Sixty years ago, the company modernized animation when it used Xerox technology on the classic film.
Charles Schulz sketching Peanuts comics

Charlie Brown Tried to Stay Out of Politics

Why did readers search for deeper meaning in the adventures of Snoopy and the gang?
Whale illustrations.

The Art of Whaling: Illustrations from the Logbooks of Nantucket Whaleships

The 19th-century whale hunt was a brutal business. But between the frantic calls of “there she blows!”, there was plenty of time for creation too.
Carvings on two whaleteeth (scrimshaw)

The Pleasure Crafts

Everyday people's creation of porn and erotic objects over the centuries.

Panel Mania

An excerpt from a new graphic biography of Jack Kirby, the "King of Comics."

My Native American Father Drew the Land O’Lakes Maiden. She Was Never a Stereotype.

The blind erasure of native culture is nothing new.

Comic Gold

The Gold Rush introduced a new figure into the American imagination – the effete Eastern urbanite who travels to the Wild West in quest of his fortune.

Foolish Questions

Screwball comics wage a gleeful war on civilization and its discontents—armed mostly with water-pistols, stink bombs, and laughing gas.
Travels through Virginia. From Theodor de Bry's 'America', Vol. I, 1590, after a drawing of John White. Depicting American Indians dancing.

The Construction of America, in the Eyes of the English

In Theodor de Bry’s illustrations for "True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia," the Algonquin are made to look like the Irish. Surprise.

Dream Come True

An excerpt from a new book reveals how Disneyland came to be.

Original Catfluencer: How a Victorian Artist’s Feline Fixation Gave Us the Internet Cat

A story of how Louis Wain single handedly made cats adored by Victorian society through to modern day.
Map of the United States from 1828.

In Its First Decades, The United States Nurtured Schoolgirl Mapmakers

Education for women and emerging nationhood, illustrated with care and charm.

Network Visualisations Show What We Can and What We May Know

On the intellectual history of the lines and arrows that have become a standard feature of the news media.

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