What better way for us to begin Women’s History Month, than with a review of the (few) instances in which Cartoons Magazine focused the pages they regularly devoted upon cartoonists themselves, on women. In the monthly title’s first year-and-a-half, these are nearly all of the pages on or by women (we’ll show one next week, in the British Suffrage posting).

None of these were the better known/better quality women cartoonists of the time (most of whom were working for publishers who didn’t share material with Cartoons Magazine). And the pages reveal the patronizing attitudes one saw at this time, anytime women pusued careers outside traditional roles.

Click on the above & below pages, to make them large enough to read.

Above, a page on cartoonist Emma Gordon, from the April 1913 issue. I attempted to find examples on the web of Gordon’s work, to provide a link here, but instead all I found was a prior posting of this page, here, which is still interesting for the comments it generated.

Below, from March 1913, a page about Alice McKee (on whom I couldn’t even find as much as on Gordon).

Above, from February 1913, cartoons by Alice McKee and Marguerite Martyn. Below, also from February 1913, two pages on Miss Lou Rogers, who did achieve some fame (and who may have been one of the not sufficiently identified “Rogers” who have popped up now and again in Cartoons Magazine). Amusingly, according to a January 1924 newspaper article, Rogers was the “World’s Only Woman Cartoonist”, (click here), which must have come as a surprise to all the others, who had to quickly check their sex…

Above & below, from May 1912, two previously shown pages of cartoons by Gerda Wegener. These are by far, milder examples of her work, which in later years would lean towards the erotic. If you’re not at work, or with children around, you might risk clicking here to find what she is more famous for.

Doug Wheeler

Focus on Cartoonists