Magazine illustrations, 1902-1906

F.E.Schoonover, Outing Magazine, Dec. 1905

When I was a kid on the farm in Nebraska, I wanted to be a magazine illustrator. I loved the colorful, action-filled or mood-inspiring pictures that came with the stories in Saturday Evening Post and Collier's. I thought that would have been the coolest job, getting to see the work of your own pens and brushes on those slick pages. Alas, the magazines didn't last long enough for that to ever happen.

With public domain publications online now, I can look back at the work of illustrators from 100 years ago. At odd hours you can find me searching through old issues of magazines for illustrations by graphic artists like J. N. Marchand and Frederick Schoonover. The picture above is one of Schoonover's illustrations for Clarence E. Mulford's story "The Fight at Buckskin."

Below are illustrations for articles about wildlife, trappers, prospectors, overland freighters, the capture of outlaws, the use of "human bloodhounds," and stories by Emerson Hough, Ben Blow, and M. Pollough-Pogue [click to enlarge].

The Dalton Gang, J.N.Marchand, Munsey's, Feb. 1902

J.N.Marchand, Outing Magazine, Dec. 1905

J.N.Marchand, Outing Magazine, Jan. 1903

J.N.Marchand, Outing Magazine, Feb. 1906

J.N.Marchand, Outing Magazine, Dec. 1902

Paul R. Goodwin, Outing Magazine, Nov. 1902

Allen True, Outing Magazine, Jan. 1906

Philip R. Goodwin, Outing Magazine, Feb. 1903

J.N.Marchand, Munsey's, Feb. 1902

Allen True, Outing Magazine, Jan. 1906

Finally, here's a great photo I found of bronco busting in a 1902 issue of The Outing Magazine.

I love the composition, the figures in the lower corners, including a dog, the rider pitched upward over the bucking horse, the dust, and most of all the throw of the shadows, putting the time as late in the afternoon. The crowd along the fence makes a diagonal across the top of the photo, and in the far distance, the horizon of distant hills. [Click to enlarge for an even better look.]

Coming up: More pictures of Montana