MARCH 3, 2005
Richard Samuel West Reception and Talk
Thursday, March 3, 2005
Reception 5:30PM , Talk 6:30 PM
The Sting of The Wasp Exhibition
February 1 April 15, 2005
An exhibition at The Ohio State University Cartoon
Research Library
27 West 17th Avenue Mall, Columbus, Ohio
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free and open to
the public
Guest curator Richard Samuel West will speak at
6:30 p.m., Thursday, March 3, 2005 at the Cartoon Research Library. A reception
honoring Mr. West will begin at 5:30 p.m. This event is free and open to
the public and is co-sponsored by the Aldus Society.
For most of the 19th century, American magazines were
vast monochromatic fields of black on white. Beginning in the 1830s, a
few magazines featured small hand-colored plates, but they were meager
exceptions. Then, in the 1870s, thanks to the perfection of the chromolithographic
process, a new breed of magazine exploding with color came to the fore.
In short order, chromolithographic weeklies began popping up all over America.
Outside of the famous New York weeklies, Puck and Judge,
though, none lasted more than a year or two, except for one -- The San
Francisco Wasp.
That The Wasp endured was most improbable. Founded
during the worst financial depression of the 19th century, it was expensive
to produce. Published in an under-populated region of the country, it was
guaranteed never to have a significant circulation. Often out of step with
majority opinion, it never became the political power broker it aspired
to be. Yet The Wasp was a success. It was for many years the most
widely read magazine west of the Rockies. Its best cartoons compared favorably
with those being published in New York. And the work of one of its editors,
Ambrose Bierce, is read by more people today than are the writings of any
of the editors of its more widely celebrated rivals.
During its first twenty years, the period of time when
cartoons dominated its contents, The Wasp was, by turns, a staunch
partisan of the Democratic Party, then politically independent, and finally
a Republican Party booster of various stripes. It was owned by a series
of men intent on advancing one political agenda or another. Twelve different
men edited the magazine, while five served at different times as its chief
cartoonist.
The Wasp was the colorful
chronicler of one of the most exciting periods in the history of San Francisco.
This show presents some of The Wasp's most powerful and representative
cartoons from the private collection of guest curator Richard Samuel West.
The exhibit is supported in part by the Mark Cohen and Rose Marie McDaniel
Endowment and Milton Caniff Endowment of the Cartoon Research Library.
Richard Samuel West is an independent scholar and historian
of American political cartooning. He edited two periodicals, The Puck
Papers and Target, and is the author of the outstanding biography
of Joseph Keppler, Satire on Stone. He currently is the owner of
Periodyssey, the largest company in New England specializing in rare and
out-of-print magazines. West's most recent book is The San Francisco
Wasp: An Illustrated History.
Parking is available in the Ohio Union and Arps garages.
Due to the Wexner Center renovation, access to the Cartoon Research Library
is limited to walkways on the east and the north.
For additional information contact the Cartoon Research
Library at 614-292-0538 or via e-mail at cartoons@osu.edu