Almsfor Oblivion: TheHistory of Womenin EarlyAmerican Graphic Design EllenMazur Thomson Timehath, my Lord,a walletat his back,Wherein he puts almsforoblivion, A great-siz'dmonster of ingratitudes... William Shakespeare, Troilusand Cressida When Linda Nochlin's article "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?" appeared in 1971, it generated enormous interest in neglected work by women artists.' Nochlin challenged traditional art historians to analyze the institutional and ideological structures that distort what women have accomplished or were unable to achieve. She warned that women must "face up to the reality of 1 LindaNochlin, "Why Have There Been their history and of their present situation, without making excuses NoGreat Women Artists?" Art News, 69, or puffing mediocrity. Disadvantage may indeed be an excuse; it is 9 (January1971), 22-39, 67-71. This not, however, an intellectual position."2 Since then, feminist histori- articlealso appeared as "WhyAre There on in NoGreat Women Artists?" Women in ans have explored the limitations placed women pursuing SexistSociety. Studies in Power and their artistic careers, as well as the representations of those women Powerless,ed. Vivian Gornick and who did succeed.3 Graphic design historians, however, have only BarbaraMoran. (New York: Basic Books, recently faced the biases in their own field and begun to identify 1971)and Art and Sexual Politics, ed. individual women and document their position in graphic design ThomasB. Hess and Elizabeth C. Baker. history. (NewYork: Colliers, 1971). 2 Nochlin,Art News, 70. Martha Scotford Lange began this process by showing that 3 Feministart historians have expanded the major texts used to teach graphic design concentrate on the Nochlin'sagenda considerably. For a work of a limited number of "great men" and that, graphic design overviewof feministart criticism and art historians, either consciously or unconsciously, have created an historyin the 1970sand 1980s, see unacknowledged canon that excludes women.4 She suggests that ThaliaGouma-Peterson and Patricia Mathews,"The Feminist Critique of Art cultural history, rather than art history, would provide a better History,"Art Bulletin LXIX, 3 (September model for historians to follow. 1987),326-357. This essay is the result of preliminary research into the 4 MarthaScotford Lange, "Is There a conditions that governed the role of women in early modern Canonof GraphicDesign History?" AlGA American graphic design. By concentrating on the period from Journalof GraphicDesign, IX, 2 (1991), approximately 1850 to 1920, the beginning of "professionalization," 3-5, 9. Langeanalyzed the contents of fivewell-known histories: James Craig this essay explores the extent and character of women's participa- andBruce Barton's Thirty Centuries of tion in this development. While it is important to recover the names GraphicDesign, Alan Fern and Mildred of individual designers, it is equally important to understand some Constantine'sWord and Image, Steven of the conditions and attitudes that determined the fortunes of Hellerand Seymour Chwast's Graphic women graphic designers by examining their treatment in both Style,Philip B. Meggs' A Historyof of the time later. GraphicDesign, and Josef Mueller- literature and Brockman'sA History of Visual During this period, graphic design emerged as a profession, Communication. one that developed in response to social changes and technologies ( Copyright1994 by MIT DesignIssues: Volume 10, Number 2 Summer1994 27 This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 5 See HowardLeathlean, "The that generated an enormous amount of printed material for mass Archaeologyof theArt Director?" Some consumption. The concept of graphic design and the professional Examplesof ArtDirection in Mid- graphic designer evolved in the United States during the second Nineteenth-CenturyBritish Publishing," half of the 19th century.5Previously, compositors, printers, typogra- Joumalof DesignHistoryV1,4 (1993), phers, and artist-engravers designed as part of their craft. The revo- 229-45,and Ellen Mazur Thomson, "EarlyGraphic Design Periodicals in lution in press and paper technology, photography and America,"Journal of DesignHistory, V photomechanical reproduction, and transportation and business 11,2(1994), 113-126. practices encouraged specialization and professionalism. By 1900, 6 W.A. Dwigginsfirst used the term art directors, commercial-art managers, layout artists, and illustra- "graphicdesign" in 1922to describe tors, sometimes called "designer," were recognized professionals.6 professionsinvolved in the design of Those trained in printing, typography, engraving, and illustration commercialprinting, commercial illus- tration,type design, and advertising moved into separate art departments of advertising agencies, book design.I havefollowed these general and magazine publishers, or worked as free-lance designers. parameters."New Kind of PrintingCalls Relying on basic texts of graphic design history one would assume forNew Design," The Boston Evening that women were marginal if not absent in this transformation.7 Transcript,(August 29, 1922),Graphic In part, the omission of women from design history occurred ArtsSection, Part 1II, 6. roots in 7 See Lange,op.cit., for the omission of because historians have emphasized graphic design's rela- womendesigners from major graphic tion to printing's history. By doing so, they remove graphic design designtexts. from its cultural context, and thus tend to ignore or de-emphasize 8 Therecognized "great men" of early the impact of the advertising industry and new theories of art and in graphicdesign were trained a variety education on visual communication.8 Arguably, advances in trans- of fieldsand spent their professional portation technology that linked the continent by rail and ship, and livesin a widerange of activitiesthat nowconstitute professional design the advent of mass marketing and widespread literacy that spurred practice.They are, nonetheless, first the growth of newspapers and magazine publications are as signifi- identifiedas "printers"inthe literature. cant as the revolution in print technology that occurred at the same Forexample, William Addison Dwiggins time. Unfortunately, advertising historians have ignored the visual (1880-1956) worked in advertising for aspects of advertising, concentrating instead on the work of adver- twentyyears, and in a longand success careerwas a calligrapher,illustrator, tising agents, copy writers, and agency heads.9 Feminist art histori- prolificwriter, and master puppeteer, as ans, even when they include illustrators in their histories, are wellas a typographerand book inclined to ignore the commercial aspects of their work."0Art histor- designer. ical models, as noted above, are often based on the great men and 9 Theclassic histories, Henry Sampson's monuments model and fail to go beyond narrations of lives, assess- A Historyof Advertising from the ments of influence, and progressions of styles. EarliestTimes (London: Chatto, 1874. Reprint.Detroit: Gale Research, 1974) andFrank Presbrey's The History and York:Harry N. Abrams, 1990). WomenArtists BoM Before 1900 DevelopmentofAdvertising (Garden Thereis a briefdiscussion of adver- (Boston:G6K. Hall, 1985), and Charlotte City,NY: Doubleday, Duran, 1929. tisingart in one chapter "Art, Artists, and SteiferRubinstein, American Women Reprint.Westport: Greenwood Press, Illustrators,"but both text and pictures Artistsfrom Early Indian Times to the 1968)ignore advertising artists, featurethe work of JamesMontgomery Present(Boston:G.K. Hall, 1982). althoughPresbrey does include some Flagg,J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Oneof the problemsencountered in informationon the developmentof art Rockwell.Jessie Willcox Smith is the anyattempt track women is thatof multi- departmentsinagencies. Daniel Pope onlywoman mentioned and she is repre- plesurnames and cross-references are in TheMaking of ModemAdvertising sentedby a smallblack and white repro- notalways used. Also, many women and (NewYork: Basic Books, 1983) de- duction.A perfectexample of Lange's mensigned their work with initials scribesthe increaseduse of illustration canon. insteadof firstnames and some first inadvertising but not the illustrators 10 Nonetheless,the two most useful namesare gender neutral-a problemin themselves.More surprising, given the biographicalreferences in graphic design identifyingsignatures in published work authors'abundant use of illustration,is areconcerned with women artists. See incaseswhen it is signed.And most AdvertisinginAmerica by Charles ChrisPetteys, Dictionary of Women advertisementsand magazine illustrtions Goodrumand Helen Dalrymple (New Artists.An International Dictionary of werenot signed. 28 Design Issues: Volume10, Number2 Summer1994 This content downloaded from 149.31.21.88 on Sat, 27 Feb 2016 18:12:39 UTC All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 11 Thispaper does not, for example, In describing women's experiences in the printing and addressissues of classor ethnicity as it advertising industries, and in commercial illustration, I hope to was manifestin different aspects of the highlight the areas in which women participated in graphic design, profession.African-Americans, Native as well as show how their experiences reveal the profession's ties to Americansand European immigrant other aspects of American culture.-" groupswere involved in the printing industryand produced material for their