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YE INTRUDERS BEWARE: FANTASTICAL PIRATES IN THE GOLDEN AGE OF ILLUSTRATION Anne M. Loechle Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of the History of Art Indiana University November 2010 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Doctoral Committee _________________________________ Chairperson, Sarah Burns, Ph.D. __________________________________ Janet Kennedy, Ph.D. __________________________________ Patrick McNaughton, Ph.D. __________________________________ Beverly Stoeltje, Ph.D. November 9, 2010 ii ©2010 Anne M. Loechle ALL RIGHTS RESERVED iii Acknowledgments I am indebted to many people for the help and encouragement they have given me during the long duration of this project. From academic and financial to editorial and emotional, I was never lacking in support. I am truly thankful, not to mention lucky. Sarah Burns, my advisor and mentor, supported my ideas, cheered my successes, and patiently edited and helped me to revise my failures. I also owe her thanks for encouraging me to pursue an unorthodox topic. From the moment pirates came up during one of our meetings in the spring of 2005, I was hooked. She knew it, and she continuously suggested ways to expand the idea first into an independent study, and then into this dissertation. My dissertation committee – Janet Kennedy, Patrick McNaughton, and Beverly Stoeltje – likewise deserves my thanks for their mentoring and enthusiasm. Other scholars have graciously shared with me their knowledge and input along the way. David M. Lubin read a version of my third chapter and gave me helpful advice, opening up to me new ways of thinking about Howard Pyle in particular. He also sent me his forthcoming essay about pirates and film and encouraged me to use his ideas as a foil to my own. In addition, David Rickman, the Exhibits Coordinator for the Delaware Division of Parks and Recreation, met with me in Wilmington, leading me around town and pointing out to me sites important to Howard Pyle’s life, such as his childhood home, studio, and Quaker meetinghouse. David also shared with me his ideas for a forthcoming article in which he describes the connections between Pyle’s pirate character and popular iv costumes during the late nineteenth century. My own ideas about pirate costuming stemmed from this very enlightening conversation. My research trips to Chadds Ford, Wilmington, and Washington, D. C. were successes because of the people who guided me to helpful sources and resources. I owe thanks to Joyce Schiller, the former Curator of American art at the Delaware Art Museum, as well as to her successor Heather Coyle. I also wish to thank Serena Fletcher, the Head Librarian at the Delaware Art Museum. Virginia O’Hara, the Curator of Collections at the Brandywine River Museum (BRM) in Chadds Ford, was a helpful guide, and Christine Podmaniczky, the Associate Curator of N. C. Wyeth Collections, took time to share her knowledge with me even though she was in the throes of editing Wyeth’s catalogue raisonné. Finally, Gail Stanislow worked with me in the BRM library and archives. She gave me a little extra enthusiasm for my topic by telling me about a group of pirate lovers she knows who spend their free time diving along the East coast searching for sunken treasure. I would like to thank Richard Kelly as well. His collection – the Kelly Collection of American Illustration – includes several swashbuckling paintings, including Pyle’s Walking the Plank. Richard kindly opened up his home to me. He personally gave me a tour of his many paintings, shared with me their stories, and allowed me time to gawk. He also gave me several exhibition catalogues in which his pieces have been shown. Furthermore, with the help of Collections Manager Elizabeth Alberding, I was able to conduct research on American illustration in Richard’s extensive library and in the collection’s digital archive. v These trips were made possible by the generous grant that I received from the Friends of Art at Indiana University. I am grateful to this organization for its support. Along with the Friends of Art, some other friends made these visits relaxing as well as academically worthwhile. Rebecca Dubay provided me with a home away from home as I traveled to Chadds Ford and Wilmington. She leant an ear while I told her about my findings, but we also got to enjoy non-art-related delicacies like good dinners and even better desserts. January Simpson and Maggie Clifton also shared their home with me in Washington, D.C. Watching The Muppet’s Treasure Island with them added some levity to my trip, although I still felt as if I was doing “research.” Debbie Kennedy, a good friend and good editor, read multiple drafts of this dissertation. She diligently and patiently corrected my awkward phrases and poor grammar. As she wore out her red correction pens, she never forgot to include positive commentary on even the worst of my drafts. I will forever be indebted to her for this act of mercy. Throughout this project, my friends have given me a never-ending supply of pirate paraphernalia from coloring books and drinking glasses to Jolly Roger flags, tote bags, and socks. Thank you to all of them; these generous gifts were a source of inspiration and a constant reminder of their support and love. My family – my mom, my dad, and my brother Eric – supported me through the duration of this project and throughout my career as a student. They never asked when I was going to be finished, but never doubted that I would succeed. Furthermore, as educators themselves, my parents instilled in me the belief that education and inquiry are vi not just important to a person’s livelihood, but essential to leading a happy life. I wish to thank them for their insight and love. And, Aaron: thank you for listening everyday, to the bad and to the good, no matter what. vii Anne M. Loechle Ye Intruders Beware: Fantastical Pirates in the Golden Age of Illustration This dissertation examines the cultural significance of the sudden and rapid proliferation of piracy and pirate illustrations that marked the turn of the twentieth century in the United States. During this “Golden Age” (c. 1880-1920) – an era that witnessed an explosion of magazine and book imagery – the illustrators Howard Pyle, N. C. Wyeth, and Frank E. Schoonover turned away from the realities and histories of piracy and shaped instead a new, fantastical icon. Pyle, in particular, created this adventurer, immersing him –and vicariously, his admirers – in exotic, violent fantasy. Wyeth and Schoonover, Pyle’s students, followed in their teacher’s iconographical footsteps even as they developed their own individual styles. So powerful was the fantastical pirate’s appeal that he continued to generate excitement decades after the Golden Age in illustrations as well as in lucrative Hollywood productions. The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (2003, 2006, 2007) testifies to the hold the pirate maintains over the popular imagination. In The Goonies – a pirate film from 1985 – a treasure map warns, “Ye intruders beware;” used here, the expression suggests that this dissertation intrudes into the pirate’s world, looking beneath its frivolity to expose a deeper understanding of the pirate icon, the illustrators that conceived him, and the audiences that embraced him at the turn of the twentieth century and continue to cherish him today. The first chapter introduces the question “Why the pirate?” Chapter two inspects the illustrated pirate in relation to fin- viii de-siècle issues of masculinity while the third chapter looks at the icon alongside contemporary notions of class. Chapter four pries into turn-of-the-century ideologies of race and imperialism as pirate illustrators promoted both the fear and fascination of the piratical “other.” The final chapter looks beyond the Golden Age of illustration by examining the continuation of the pirate fantasy in twenty- and twenty-first-century illustration and film. It also examines the reality of piracy that threatens to overshadow the fantastical icon. With twenty-first century pirates marauding the coast of Africa, the notion of a pirate hero must be questioned even as we continue to enjoy the figure dreamt up by Golden Age illustrators. ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ix Table of Contents Acceptance Page ii Acknowledgments iv Abstract viii List of Images xi Chapter One: From Reality to Fantasy: Introduction to the Pirates of Illustration’s Golden Age 1 Chapter Two: The “Lurid Glamour of the Heroical” for Bachelors and Boys 24 Chapter Three: An Outlaw Hero for Brainworkers, Neurasthenics, and Captains of Industry 57 Chapter Four: A Primitive “Other” for Regression Fantasists 92 Chapter Five: Fantasy and Reality: Beyond the Golden Age with Errol Flynn, Johnny Depp, and Somali Pirates 124 Images 155 Bibliography 250 x List of Images Figure 1. Winslow Homer, The Approach of the Pirate [Ship] “Alabama,” 1865. 155 Figure 2. Howard Pyle, Walking the Plank, 1887. 156 Figure 3. N. C. Wyeth, I Said Good-bye to Mother and the Cove, 1911. 157 Figure 4. Two Views of the President. Illustration for Eagle (Brooklyn). 158 Figure 5. Howard Pyle, Initial “I” for “Jamaica, New and Old,” 1890. 159 Figure 6. She was Bound to Go. James Bennie of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Tries To Persuade His Wife Not To Elope and She Wipes the Station Floor with Him, 1887. 160 Figure 7. She Punched the Dude King. The Encounter Bob Hilliard, the Actor, is Alleged to Have Had with a Pretty, Red-Headed Actress, 1888. 160 Figure 8.

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