This finding aid is made available for public use following the Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons designation.
The collection of noted cartoonist Joseph Farris, who had a nearly 50-year career at THE NEW YORKER, as well as in a plethora of other publications. It contains roughly 14,000 unpublished cartoons; over 7500 published cartoons; spot drawings; books that collected his work, or that he illustrated, or that he appeared in; book drafts; tear sheets; sketchbooks; contracts; correspondence; process materials; and more.
Joseph Farris had a long and prolific career as a cartoonist, especially at THE NEW YORKER. He was mentored by the great NEW YORKER cartoonist Richard Taylor (by whom we have one piece of original art in the Comic Art Collection), and thus serves as a bridge between the golden years under Harold Ross and the second age of greatness under William Shawn.
The proportion of unpublished to published cartoons in the collection is a testament to the difficult life of the freelance gag cartoonist--but those cartoons as a whole reveal extraordinary evidence of changing social, moral, and political attitudes, and will be a rich socio-historical resource. What's more, correspondence between Richard Taylor and NEW YORKER art director James Geraghty shed light on the practical business of cartooning (Geraghty's own archive is at NYPL, which makes for easy research access).
The sketchbook Farris kept during World War II is in the Library of Congress, but there are book materials from its 2011 publication in this collection.
Material is unprocessed. Please contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Joseph Farris Papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish material from the collection must be requested from the Curator of Manuscripts/University Archivist, Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML). The RBML approves permission to publish that which it physically owns; the responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.
This collection is located on-site.
Gift of Christine Andersen, 2019.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.