Existing comment:
(43) Uncle Sam's Girl-Shower, 1918.
Crayon, charcoal, and ink over graphite, with opaque white and overlay.
Art Wood Collection of Cartoon and Caricature
Prints and Photographs Division
LC-DIG-ppmsca-03341 (43)
Nell Brinkley (1888-1944) depicts a bevy of beauties floating into Washington, D.C., eager to support the war effort during World War I, only to face a severe housing shortage. Brinkley highlights their urgent plight by showing one girl asleep on a bench, another sleeping against a lamp post, and a third reading a rental sign banning dogs, children, and girls. In the central vignette an elegant young woman appeals to Uncle Sam for help. During an exceptionally successful career, this popular pioneering woman illustrator employed a distinctive, fine-lined drawing style in her newspaper illustrations of idealistic young women. |