John R. Fischetti Collection, 1945-1980 | Columbia College Chicago Archives

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Collection Overview

Title: John R. Fischetti Collection, 1945-1980

ID: 1000/02/MSS1002

Extent: 5.0 Boxes

Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by year within each series.

Date Acquired: 10/00/2005

Languages: English

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The collection is composed of sketchbooks, original drawings, and photomechanically reproduced drawings by John Fischetti. A small amount of work by other artists is also in the collection and include: Pat Oliphant, Bill Mauldin, and Walt Scott.

Writing on his editorial cartoon sketchbooks in his autobiography, Fischetti stated "Before 1961 I used to doodle ideas on the backs of envelopes, scraps of paper and yellow copy paper... Since even half-formed ideas are invaluable, I decided to use layout pads for the gestating periods. By dating each page, it turned out to be a sort of log of historical and personal events" Zinga, Zinga, Za!, pg. 98.

Administrative Information

Acquisition Source: Gift

Box and Folder Listing

Browse by Series:

[Series 1: Sketchbooks and Sketches],
[Series 2: Punch Magazine],
[Series 3: Projects and Ideas],
[Series 4: Personal Material],
[Series 5: Other Artists Work],
[Series 6: Finished Editorial Cartoons],
[All]

Series 3: Projects and Ideas

Contains political projects such as the Marshal Petain trial sketches from 1945, Democratic and Republican Convention sketches over time, as well as ideas for book projects.

Box 3

Folder 7: Marshal Henri Petain Trial, 1945: Five original courtroom sketches and one composite copy of the July 1945 trial:
Marshal Petain listens to Gen. Doyan testify; the Big Three of Marshal Petain's defense; President Caous on the stand objecting to an article written by Leon Blum in the French newspaper; General scene at Palais Justice, Paris; Marshal Petain cocks and attentive ear to the proceedings at his trial.
Folder 8: UNICEF, 1969, 1978: Original cartoon done for UNICEF.
Copyright owned by Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.
Folder 9: Republican and Democratic National Conventions, 1956: twenty-four sketches of convention images
Folder 10: Democratic National Convention, 1972: Six sketches from Miami Beach, FL.
Folder 11: Book character sketches and final drawings, 1960s: Seven finished images and four pages of sketches for a book. Character names include: Gotcha the alligator, Toulouse, the Welsh Corgi, The Cat, and Longfellow, the Black Snake.
Folder 12: Book character sketches, 1969: Five pages of sketches of book characters drawn in April 1969.
Folder 13: Book character finished pieces, "Brave Daniel", 1970: Images used in the printing of the book of the character Daniel and of the lion.
Folder 14: Book working ideas, 1972: Two pages of book ideas
Folder 15: Book character sketches ,"Civil Servants", 1979: Held within the travel sketchbook for Peru 1979, these pages detail an idea for a book on Chicago politicians.