nne Mergen was born in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1906. She studied commercial art in Chicago before moving to Miami in the mid 1920s to work as a fashion advertising artist for a local department store. When the Miami Daily News, part of the Cox newspaper chain, hired her as its editorial cartoonist in 1933, she was the only woman editorial cartoonist in the United States, a status that continued until her retirement in 1956. She continued to have cartoons published as late as June 1961.

She had a home studio and all of the contemporary press coverage about her career celebrates the fact that she drew her editorial cartoons only after fulfilling her duties as wife and mother to two children. In addition to being published in the Miami Daily News, her cartoons were published in other Cox newspapers including the Atlanta Journal and the Dayton News.  Anne Mergen died in 1994

Mergen’s editorial cartoons chronicle history from the Great Depression through the Cold War.  She was a thoughtful commentator on the events of her time and her work merits wider recognition.

The cartoons in this exhibition are all from the Anne Mergen Collection, which contains nearly 600 editorial cartoons documenting her career, at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.  This digital exhibition is based on the physical exhibit Anne Mergen:  Editorial Cartoonist which was on display in the Reading Room Gallery of The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum
February 1-April 11, 2008.

 

The Ohio State University Libraries / Conditions of Use

The images in this Website are used by permission of Joan Bernhardt and are protected by copyright. Permission is required to print, download or otherwise reproduce any image in this digital exhibition. For information contact
The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at cartoons@osu.edu.

 

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