John T. McCutcheon negatives

John T. McCutcheon photograph collection

Finding Aid for the Collection at the Chicago History Museum, Research Center

Diane Ryan, October, 1986; Rev. by Katie Angeli and Dana Lamparello, March 2015

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Main entry: McCutcheon, John T. (John Tinney), 1870-1949, photographer.

Title: John T. McCutcheon photograph collection [graphic]

Inclusive dates: ca. 1890-1900

Size: 1612 photographic prints : b&w ; (11 x 14 in.) or smaller.

10 photographs : cabinet card; (4 1/2 x 7 in.) or smaller.

2 photographs : carte de visite ; (4 x 2 1/2 in.)

1 photograph : stereograph ; (3 x 7 in.) ;(11 x 8 1/2 in.) or smaller.

42 photostats;(20 1.2 x 38 ½ in.) or smaller.

1 souvenir view book; 4 x 6 in.

1 folder of non-graphic material.

Accession #: 1986.0448 and 1991.0474.3.1-.42

Call #: 1986.0448 PPL

Biographical sketch,

Description of the collection,

Description of some related materials,

Provenance statement,

List of online catalog headings,

Container list of box and folder numbers and titles.

Biographical Sketch:

John Tinney McCutcheon, Chicago newspaper cartoonist, journalist, author and illustrator, was born on a farm eight miles south of Lafayette, Indiana, on May 6, 1870. He was the son of John Barr and Clara (Glick) McCutcheon and a descendant of John McCutcheon who emigrated from Scotland to Virginia in 1720. He was brother to the novelist George Barr McCutcheon, to Ben F. McCutcheon--also a writer, and to Jessie McCutcheon Raleigh Nelson, creator of the statuette, "The Good Fairy."

During college John McCutcheon became interested in art and journalism. He illustrated college publications and occasionally wrote for the Lafayette newspapers. He graduated from Purdue University in 1889. Later that year he joined the staff of the Chicago Morning News (later the Record) as an artist. There he did general illustration under the direction of William Schmedtgen. During this time he encouraged George Ade, a Purdue friend and budding journalist, to join him in Chicago. Starting with their coverage of the World's Columbian Exposition for the Chicago Record in 1892, they formed a brilliant writer/artist alliance which lasted several years. By 1895 McCutcheon's cartoon illustrations regularly appeared on the Record's front page.

In 1897 McCutcheon was invited to make a six month trip around the world on the U.S. Revenue Cutter McCulloch, recently built in Philadelphia for service on the Pacific coast. Upon arrival in Malta, the company learned of the sinking of the U.S. Maine in Havana harbor. The McCulloch was dispatched to Manila for the initial naval battle of the Spanish American War allowing McCutcheon voluntary participation. During the next two years he served as a war correspondent, providing the United States with reports and sketches of that war and the subsequent Filipino insurrection. On his return to the States, he stopped briefly in the South African Transvaal to witness Boer War activity.

McCutcheon's experience in the Philippines was a prelude to further global travel. In 1906 he made a five month tour of the Crimea, Caucasas, Persia, Russian and Chinese Turkestan and Siberia. In 1901-1911 he spent four and a half months in Africa on a big game hunt, while contributing illustrated articles to the Chicago Tribune. In 1914 he represented that newspaper at the border struggle near Vera Cruz, Mexico. Following, he covered the early months of World War I from the German front in Belgium. Later in 1914 and 1915 he reported from the Balkan front in Serbia and Greece. In 1917 he married Evelyn Shaw Wells, daughter of the architect, Howard Van Doren Shaw. They spent their honeymoon on Salt Cay, an island which McCutcheon bought in the Bahamas, near Nassau. Thereafter, the McCutcheon’s made Salt Cay their winter home.

In his cartoon work McCutcheon followed political and human interest lines. He developed the human interest cartoon into episodic stories which combined test and cartoons in innovative ways. These stories include "Congressman Pumphrey, the People's Friend," "Dawson '11, Fortune Hunter," "The Restless Age," "An Heir at Large," "Crossed Wires," and "The Master of the World." Among his better known cartoons are the series of "Boy" cartoons, the "Bird Center" series, and the "Mysterious Stranger." His seasonal cartoons, "The Colors," "Jack Frost," "The Hunter's Moon," and the often reprinted, "Injun Summer," brought him further acclaim. in 1932 he won the Pulitzer Prize for "A Wise Economist Asks a Question," a cartoon treating the bank failures of the Depression.

McCutcheon was the author of several books and cartoon anthologies, including Stories of Filipino Warfare (1900), Cartoons by McCutcheon (1903), Bird Center Cartoons (1904), The Mysterious Stranger and Other Cartoons (1905), Congressman Pumphrey (1907), In Africa (1912), and his autobiography Drawn From Memory (1949).

His public life included memberships in the Chicago Club, the Commercial Club, the Chicago Athletic Club, the Onwentisia, Shoreacres, the Saddle and Cycle, and the Cliff Dwellers. He was a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society (England) and President of the Chicago Zoological Society during the organization of Brookfield Zoo.

He officially retired from the Chicago Tribune in 1946. He spent most of his later years on his island. After a few years of failing health, John T. McCutcheon died on June 10, 1949.

Description of the collection:

Primarily snapshots of the Spanish American War in the Philippine Islands and the following Filipino insurrection (1898-1900), during which McCutcheon acted as an overseas correspondent. Includes views before and after the Battle of Manila, participating naval vessels, and scenes of military maneuvers and life on land. Also includes photographs of naval and military officers, Filipino dignitaries, Spanish soldiers, and scenes of the Manila area and its inhabitants. Photographs show war casualties, destruction of property, and a few views of artillery--mostly canon. Series II documents McCutcheon's outbound voyage on the revenue cutter, U.S. McCulloch, with ports of call in the Western Mediterranean and the Middle East; his travels to Japan, Korea, China and India; and his homeward bound voyage with views of South Africa during the Boer War (1900). The souvenir view book is entitled “Pictorial Automobile Trip From Chicago to Milwaukee.” The photostats consist of cartoons by John T. McCutcheon. Subjects are mostly political, with some illustrations of buildings at the Worlds Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1983.

This donation was accompanied by a few pencil sketches--portraits and landscapes--and eight hand drawn maps indicating war activities, McCutcheon's movements and travel routes.

Related materials at Chicago History Museum, Research Center, include the John T. McCutcheon cartoon collection, the John T. McCutcheon negative collection (1985.0385), and the John T. McCutcheon manuscripts. There also is a John T. McCutcheon manuscript collection at the Newberry Library (Chicago, Ill.).

Gift of McCutcheon family, 1955 (1986.0448)

List of online catalog headings:

McCutcheon, John T. (John Tinney), 1870-1949

Chicago Tribune (Firm) -- Employees.

Artillery -- Philippines.

Campaigns & battles -- Philippines. lctgm

Foreign correspondents.

Cartoonists -- Illinois -- Chicago.

Reporters and reporting -- United States.

Government vessels, American -- Philippines. lctgm

Government vessels, Spanish -- Philippines. lctgm

Guerrillas -- Philippines. lctgm

Manila Bay, Battle of, Philippines, 1898

Military officers -- Philippines. lctgm

Naval warfare -- Philippines. lctgm

Soldiers, Spanish -- Philippines. lctgm

War casualties -- Philippines. lctgm

War damage -- Philippines. lctgm

Spanish-American War, 1898 -- Philippines.

China -- Pictorial works.

Gibraltar -- Pictorial works.

Japan -- Pictorial works.

Korea -- Pictorial works -- To 1900.

Malta -- Pictorial works.

Philippines -- Pictorial works.

Philippines -- History -- 1812-1898

Philippines -- History -- Philippine American War, 1899-1902

Tangier (Morocco) -- Pictorial works.

South Africa -- History -- South African War -- 1899-1902.

Sri Lanka -- Pictorial works.

Landscape photographs.

Portrait photographs.

Snapshots.

Albumen prints.

Cabinet photographs.

Cartes de visite.

Gelatin silver prints.

Container list of box and folder numbers and titles:

Box 1 Philippine Islands/Spanish American War

1 Artillery

2 Drawings

3-7 Military scenes

Box 2

1-2 Native races

3-5 Naval vessels

Box 3

1 Portraits--Group

2 Portraits--Individual

3 Portraits--Informal--Americans

At leisure

Correspondence

With John T. McCutcheon

4 Portraits--Military personnel

5 Scenery--Identified—Manila

Box 4

1 Scenery--Identified

Calbayog

Cavite

Corregidor

Jolo

Mindanao

2 Scenery--Identified--Various places

3-5 Scenery—Unidentified

Box 5 Travels

1-2 McCulloch voyage--1898--Ports of call

3 Asia--1899--China

4 Asia--1899--Various ports

5 India--[1900?]

6-7 Africa--1900--Transvaal, Abyssinia, Lorenco Marquez

8 United States--[190-]

Chicago?

Asheville, North Carolina

9 Maps of travel routes

Box 6

Rolled and damaged photoprints

Box 7

1 Souvenir View book

2-5 Positive and Negative Photostats