The Gray Lady Covers The New York Public Library New Yorker Centennial Exhibit
From The New York Times, March 5, 2025, “A Weighty and Whimsical Century of The New Yorker’s Archives”
In an (almost) otherwise fine article devoted to the New York Public Library exhibit “A Century Of The New Yorker” it amazes me (and saddens me) that the magazine’s cartoons and cartoonists are mentioned once each, and only in passing:
[1] The archives of The New Yorker, housed at the New York Public Library, consist of more than 2,500 boxes of manuscripts, letters, page proofs, cartoons, art, photographs and memos.
[2] In 1987, after Shawn was forced out as editor by S.I. Newhouse Jr., the magazine’s owner, more than 150 of the magazine’s writers and cartoonists signed a letter imploring his replacement, Robert Gottlieb, not to take the job.
A few more issues in the article, beginning with this passage:
The show includes a generous sampling of covers, starting with Rea Irvin’s original artwork for the now-famous first cover, with the dandy Eustace Tilley peering at a butterfly through his monocle. (Look closely, and you’ll notice that the hand-drawn version of the now-familiar typeface he created is a bit wobbly.)
It’s the “now-familiar typeface he created” that got my goat. Ironically, the New York Public Library holdings include a folder laying out the history of Mr Irvin’s adaptation of Allen Lewis’s typeface (found in Journeys To Bagdad). It can be found in Box 1344 in a folder labeled “Rea Irvin Typeface.” I was as surprised as anyone when I came upon the folder during my research for my biography of Peter Arno. Mr. Irvin, seeing Mr. Lewis’s typeface, asked for and was granted permission to adapt it for The New Yorker. As you can see from the title page of Mr. Lewis’s book, the adaptation did not stray far from the original:
One example among many: as you can see, the intertwined “O” survived completely intact. Here it is on the cover of The New Yorker’s 100th birthday anniversary issue
The other issue with the article, and this time the issue is a matter of opinion, not fact:
This passage about Tina Brown, and a quote from one of the exhibit’s curators, Julie Golia:
At the time, some of the old guard saw her arrival as the second coming of Genghis Khan. But “it’s fair to say that Tina Brown saved the magazine,” Golia said.
I would’ve thought the New York Times would have allowed for a counter opinion to “it’s fair to say Tina Brown saved the magazine.” I believe “it’s fair to say” that a lot of readers and contributors, and those working at the magazine, including this one — would disagree with Ms. Golia. The New Yorker was saved (if one even believes it needed saving) and has continued to thrive because of its own DNA.