The 1946 Directory of United States Illustrators

     This was a great discovery in a box of old books: a compact beat-up binder titled "Official Directory of American Advertising Artists and Illustrators 1946." 

   
     It is more than just a directory of advertising artists and illustrators from that year (or decade depending on how you want to look at it).  

     This booklet reveals a bundle of interesting tidbits of information about illustration art in general.  For example, a short study of its 'Types of Art Work' illuminates how a collection of specific disciplines and their sub-categories together defined the broad field of illustration art in the 1940s.

Walter D. Richards, Illustrator #617

     I gather this tasty glimpse into the business side of American illustration holds credence because of its three primary authors:  The Society of Illustrators, The Art Directors Club N.Y., and The Artists Guild.  That said, of the 104 'representatives' and 826 artists listed, the vast majority of the artists and art studios are in New York City and Chicago.  Three from San Francisco are listed and two from both Los Angeles and Cleveland.  Westport (CT), Dallas, Detroit, Brooklyn and Washington D.C. each had one listing.


     Hmmmm.  I've read that even by the 1940s a very large portion of all advertising in the United States (probably the world for that matter) was hand drawn.  You'd think there'd've been more than 104 entities representing at least one artist in the country.  Then again, when you see the list of companies a label like the Charles E. Cooper Studio held as clients, maybe 104 'representatives' is realistic.


     But enough of this boring rumination.  For the fun of it, I've typed out each category and sub-category that is found in the directory.  Eventually, I would like to include the number of corresponding artists in each discipline.  I think there is some fun in the statistics.  Better yet, there might be someone reading this who is actually qualified (not me) to have an opinion or observation about it.

  7 Types of Illustration and 132 Sub-Categories


Illustration: 96 sub-categories ____ artists (numbers to be added later)
     Abstracts:
     Accessories (men's shoes):
     Adventure: 
     Advertising: 
     Airbrush: 
     Americana: See Historical
     Airplanes (aviation):
     Animals:
     Animation:
     Architectural:
     Art:
     Automobiles:
     Birds-Eye: See Outdoors
     Black and White:
     Book:
     Calenders:
     Cartoons:
     Character:
     Children:
     Color:
     Commercial Art:
     Comprehensives:
     Composition:
     Continuities:
     Cosmetics:
     Covers:
     Crayon:
     Decorative:
     Diagrams:  See Technical
     Drybrush:
     Drawings:
     Editorial:
     Fantasy:
     Fashion:
     Fiction:
     Figures:
     Fine Arts: 
     Finished Art:
     Flowers:
     Furniture:
     General:
     Genre:
     Girls:
     Glamour:
     Gnomes:
     Heads:
     Historical:
     Housefurnishings:
     Human Interest:
     Humor:
     Imaginative:
     Illustration:
     Informative:
     Industrial:
     Interiors:
     Magazine:
     Marine:
     Mechanical:
     Medical:
     Merchandise:
     Military:
     Modern:
     Monochrome:
     Murals:
     Music Interpretation:
     Object:
     Oil:
     Oriental:
     Outdoors:
     Painting:
     Pastels:
     Pictorial:
     Portraits:
     Products:
     Realistic:
     Scratchboard:
     Sea Subjects:
     Serious:
     Shoes:
     Sketches:
     Sports:
     Spot:
     Still-Life:
     Story:
     Strips:
     Stylized:
     Surrealist:
     Symbolic:
     Technical:
     Teenage:
     Tempera:
     Textiles:
     Wash:
     Watercolor:
     Western Action:
     Woodcut:


Design: 21 sub-categories ____ Artists
     Book:
     Calligraphy:
     Cartographers:
     Coats-of-Arms:
     Decoration:
     Design:
     Engrossing:
     Graphic:
     Heraldry:
     Humorous:
     Industrial:
     Jewerly:
     Labels:
     Layout:
     Lettering:
     Letterheads:
     Maps: 
     Packaging:
     Trade-Mark:
     Symbolic:
     Typographical:


Posters & Displays: ____ Artists


Art Direction: ____ Artists
     Art Director:
     Catalog:
     Complete Advertisement:
     Consultant:
     Creative:
     Visualizer:


Retouching:  ____ Artists
     Color:
     Retouching:


General: ____ Artists
     Commercial Art, Presentation, Rendering:


Sculpture: ____ Artists
     Clay Modeling:
     Moulage:
     Paper Sculpture:
     Sculpture:


What percentage of the artists are in each category ____?
What percentage of the artists are in each sub-category ____?