G.H. Lockwood Art School
Last Monday, we gave the contents of the envelope mailed to prospective students of the W.L. Evans’ School of Cartooning Art. To close out April Fool’s Month, we show a small handful of publications from a second correspondence school of the early 20th century — the G.H. Lockwood Art School.
The Lockwood Art School was established in 1892. Beginning in 1907, it published Student Art Magazine, containing both cartooning how-to’s, and examples of student art from the school. Below left is the cover from issue number 79, April 1922, with cover art by Nate Collier, one of the more successful graduates of the school. Below right, with cover art by Lockwood, is Lockwood’s circa 1914 Cartoon Catalogue packed with student art from the school.
Click on any picture, to see an enlarged version.
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Next, a sampling of Lockwood’s political cartoons, circa 1903-1904, from the introductory pages of the Cartoon Catalogue.
Below from the catalogue, the introduction explaining the school’s approach.
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This next page from the Cartoon Catalogue, is one student’s depiction of his fellow students (at the actual, physical school, which he ran in addition to the correspondence version).
Circa 1914-1915, Lockwood published a number of Little Journeys to the Homes of Former Art Students booklets, each focusing on a different successful Lockwood graduate. Below right is the cover of A “Little Journey” to the Home of Collier the “Crazy”, focusing of Life Magazine artist, Nate Collier. Left, from the booklet, is student art by Collier, depicting some of his fellow Lockwood students.
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The next two pamphlets shown, are the cover and one interior page each, focusing on successful commercial artists from the Lockwood School. Walter J. Peterson…
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…and Sam Stoltz.
The most successful of Lockwood’s graduates, was Clare Briggs. Below right is the cover of the Lockwood published A Little Journey to the Home of Briggs the Sky-Rocket. In 1926, Briggs wrote his own how-to cartooning book, shown below right, which was more a “how to develop and present cartoon ideas”, than an actual “how to draw” book.
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Unlike the other booklets, which contained student work by the artist, Briggs the Sky-Rocket contains samplings of Briggs’ professional work, including sample cartoons from Briggs’ Oh Skin-nay! In the Days of Real Sport (1913, P.F. Volland). There are at least two variant printings of Briggs the Sky-Rocket, with the cartoon content slightly differing in each. The sample cartoons below, were scanned from different variants.
In addition to Briggs’ own cartoons, the Briggs the Sky-Rocket booklet contains numerous cartoons about Clare Briggs by other cartoonists, some of them quite famous. As there are enough to make a separate subject unto itself, I am buying myself an extra week, by saving those for my post next Monday. 
Doug Wheeler
— Doug
[...] Monday’s post on the pamphlets of the G.H. Lockwood Art School, ended with the booklet A Little Journey to the Home of Briggs the Sky-Rocket, focusing on artist [...]
Seeking information of
1) NO91,C-1 Cartoons, Amimals -set of 40 with 2 missing
2) No24,F-4 Figures, After Mucha set of 40 (two sets)
3) NO 50, M-4, Art Gem Prints set of 40
4) NO 91, C-1 Cartoons, Animals set of 32 with 9 cards missing. These are Political cartoons.
These are not dated, however, most of the items of his that I have are from 1939 or 1940.
Any information you can provide would be appreciated and advice on where and how to sell. The cards are like brand new, however, the boxes show the years and hav e been taped at the corners. Everything is in a box except the Political ones.
Thank you,
Molly Baldwin
did my first comment go through ~ if not, I can reconstruct it.
Hello,
I just found a set of the G.H.Lockwood’s Little Gem Plates.
It appears to be No.20, M-1 Sample Set sample of No 78, m-10.
It is a set of 40 in a box.
[...] & below, still more on the Socialist Party, by Cy Hungerford and Nate Collier (above), and Ryan Walker [...]
Hi Doug,
I enjoyed your blog on G.H. Lockwood and his art school (even though written over 2 years ago). I am a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and am intrigued by all of this. Even more astounding, I stumbled upon something unique that you may find particularly interesting.
I just found an original portfolio of one of Lockwood’s students from 1926-27. There are dozens of original ink on paper art pieces by Fidel S. Asevedo. The portfolio also has G.H. Lockwood’s original typewritten letter congratulating him on his ability and he says there are no complaints. Also he states that Mr. Asevedo is well up by the top bunch of students. His work is quite good, and I am truly astounded to have found this amazing piece of lost cartooning history, and even more amazed to now be enlightened a bit more thanks to your blog.
Anyways, I just thought I would share this with you or anyone else who would care to know.
Best,
Aaron
Hey, that’s a really great find. I don’t know if you’re a comics/cartoon collector. Or an antiques dealer. Or someone who just happened to make a great find. But that collection is best kept together. So far as I know, Fidel S. Asevedo never became a name cartoonist, so the pieces individually would not be worth much. But, together, in the context of the G.H. Lockwood school, these would have historical value to those interested in the cartooning schools of the early 20th century, and their students.
Doug Wheeler