The Annenberg School for Communication has received an extensive archive of work by Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist Tony Auth.
The gift, which was recently donated by Auth’s family, includes more than 10,000 original editorial cartoons, letters in exchange with colleagues and readers, ink and watercolor illustrations, and teaching cartoons. The collection is held in Annenberg’s library archives and will be shared with the public through exhibitions, programming, and classes at the School.
Sarah Banet-Weiser, Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School, spoke about how the gift supports Annenberg’s mission of documenting media history.
“Annenberg has always been the place that connects media history to the most pressing challenges of our society now,” Banet-Weiser told Annenberg News. “Adding an important local political cartoonist’s work to the archives enriches this community resource, and will help the next generation of scholars and students make clearer meaning of culture and role of the press in it.”
Auth served a long career in media, working as a political cartoonist for The Philadelphia Inquirer from 1971 to 2012, as well as a children’s book illustrator. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1976, was a finalist for that award on two other occasions, and was awarded the Herblock Prize in 2005.
“Tony was a very deft draftsman,” Eliza Auth, Tony’s wife, said. “But it was his ability to almost instantly condense a complex event into a small clear drawing with a sharply defined point of view, beautifully drawn, that made him the extraordinary cartoonist that he was.”
Annenberg archivist Samantha Summerbell said the collection will be shared with the greater community after it is fully catalogued.
“This incredible corpus of work offers countless opportunities for research in a number of fields, from communications to history, political science to art,” Summerbell said. “It is a wonderful opportunity to be the stewards of such a legacy, and I am thrilled to work with students, scholars, and members of the community, incorporating Tony’s work into new works of scholarship.”
