Existing comment:
Daily Cartoon Drawings:
Selected by UVA Faculty
The largest selection of the Oliphant archive comprises original daily cartoon drawings, which number almost 7,000 and a date from the mid-1960s to 2015. An Oliphant drawing is like a small stage on which an often epic drama plays out. Its horizontal orientation was new to American editors when Oliphant entered syndication in the mid-1960s, and some resisted it at first: "They were used to square or upright cartoons -- I drew wide. That was a hell of a gamble, really trying something new." The layout was so widely imitated that it is difficult to imagine it hasn't always been around.
While his format remains consistent, Oliphant's drawing technique and tools have evolved over the years. In an interview in the early 1980s, when asked what tools he used for his daily drawings, he said, "Whatever I want -- brush, pen, stick. I'll try anything. Right now I'm using some lovely 100-year-old mapping pen nibs that [cartoonist Paul] Rigby discovered in the basement of the New York Post."
Special Collections research librarians have already fielded numerous research inquiries about Oliphant's daily drawings, and we anticipate that scholars from a range of disciplines will mine the collection for Oliphant's take on countless aspects of American culture of the last half-century.
For the side walls of the gallery, we have invited UVA Faculty from a range of disciplines to select cartoons that pique their interest: each valiantly approached the daunting task of selecting just four cartoons from the thousands available to them. |