Through History with D. Henry Smith

Our Saturday History Tour this week looks at some of the November output of editorial cartoonist Dorman H. Smith on the topic of that month's Disarmament Conference.

"Brought Into Court at Last" by Dorman H. Smith for Newspaper Enterprise Assn., by Nov. 12, 1921

I've come across two slightly different curricula vitae for Smith (1892-1956). John Adcock reports that Smith sold his first published drawing to Life magazine at the age of 17. Per Adcock, Smith began his editorial cartooning career with the Cleveland-based Newspaper Enterprise Association, a division of Scripps-Howard Newspapers, in 1921, then left for the Chicago Herald and Examiner in 1933.

"Annoying, to Say the Least" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 1, 1921

AskART, citing "Artists in California, 1786-1940" by Edan Hughes, Who's Who in American Art 1940; Who's Who in California 1942; and Smith's March 2, 1956 obituary in the New York Times, says that "Smith worked briefly in the steel mills before getting a job as an advertising artist in Columbus [Ohio]. A self-taught artist, he was a cartoonist for the Des Moines News (1919-21) and New York American (1927-29). He then was a cartoonist for the San Francisco Examiner while living across the Golden Gate in San Anselmo."

"Sounds Like a Bad Egg" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 14, 1921

These accounts aren't necessarily mutually exclusive; either contains some information that the other lacks. Also, while the NEA had its cartoonists' offices in Cleveland, Smith might have at times worked from offices at another newspaper. 

For example, I found this classified ad, in which Smith had a California P.O. address, run in various newspapers between 1932 and 1941, when Smith was reportedly working for the Chicago Herald and Examiner. Yet a September, 1935 column by O.O. McIntire identified Smith as "a San Francisco cartoonist." A syndicated list of celebrity birthdays in February, 1937, however, identified him as "Dorman H. Smith, of Chicago, cartoonist." 

Cartoonists generally did not write the name of their home newspaper or syndication service on their cartoons; that information might be typeset alongside or below the other cartoonists' captions, but I haven't seen that with Smith's work. 

"The Key to the Whole Situation" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 15, 1921

In any case, Smith's cartoons quickly appeared in some 700 NEA newspapers around the country in 1921, and it's not difficult to see why. His simple pen-and-ink drawing style appealed to editors, readers, and any lay-out guys who preferred white space to lots and lots of gray grease pencil. (He would employ grease pencil in some of his later work, however, including cartoons for Collier's — a job neither Adcock nor AskART mentions.)

His Republican, isolationist leanings suited the popular mood of the day; since he generally approved of the actions of the decade's Republican presidents and congresses, any criticisms he made tended to be aimed at foreigners and such bêtes noirs as high prices, rents, and taxes.

"China Knows Good Style" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 19, 1921

Until I found that Adcock has probably left out a few details, I imagined Smith leaving the NEA to draw for the Chicago Herald and Examiner, his train passing by Herblock's, who left the Chicago Daily News in 1933 to replace the NEA's then cartoonist. Was that Smith? Adcock says so, but Herblock never mentions Smith by name in his own memoir, Herblock: A Cartoonist's Life (Random House, 1998).

"We Won't Have Any Peace Until the Cook Is Fired, Too" by Smith for NEA, by Nov. 22, 1921

Whereas Smith's isolationism was a perfect fit with William Randolph Hearst's newspapers whether in Chicago or San Francisco, Herblock repeatedly clashed with the anti-New Deal, isolationist President of the NEA, Fred Ferguson. When, in 1943, Herblock answered the draft to military service (albeit stateside), Smith returned to the NEA as his replacement's replacement.

I guess he might have been the Grover Cleveland of editorial cartoonists.

"Let's Hope She Doesn't Stumble Over Anything" by Smith for NEA, Nov. 26, 1921

Smith was considered for Pulitzers for editorial cartooning in 1930 and 1946, but never won the prize. Adcock reports, however, that Smith "won numerous awards for cartooning and in 1950 was awarded the George Polk Memorial award presented by the journalism department of Long Island University for his two 1949 interviews with Stalin." (I'm not finding that award here. Meanwhile, according to Editorial Cartoon Awards, 1922-1997, Heinz Dietrich Fischer, ed., Smith was working for the San Francisco Examiner in 1930 and Newspaper Enterprise Association in 1946.)

"Little Lord Fauntleroy" by Dorman H. Smith for NEA, by Nov. 25, 1921

Some of his awards I've found in news reports include the Sigma Delta Chi award for editorial cartooning in 1946, and a medal from the Freedom Foundation in 1949 for a cartoon titled "Every Man a King." Smith was too ill to attend the ceremony in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when he won the National Headliners Club medal for "consistently outstanding editorial cartoons" in 1950.

So now you know just about everything I know about Dorman H. Smith, and I haven't managed to tell you one damned thing today about the Washington Disarmament Conference, China, Anglo-Japan alliances, the Open Door Policy, or Burr Shafer.