John Alton Collins (7 October 1917 – 16 September 2007) was born in
Washington D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...
, and moved with his family to
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in 1920. He studied art at
Sir George Williams University
Sir George Williams University was a university in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It merged with Loyola College to create Concordia University on August 24, 1974.
History
In 1851, the first YMCA in North America was established on Sainte-Hélène S ...
and the
Montreal School of Fine Arts. In 1939, he became the first staff cartoonist for the ''
Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'', where he worked until his retirement in 1982. Many of Collins's cartoons included the character Uno Who, a cash-strapped taxpayer who wore only a
bankruptcy barrel
The bankruptcy barrel is a visual symbol, primarily of the 20th century, used in cartoons and other media as a token of destitution. Not intended to be realistic, it consists of a suit made of only a wooden barrel held on by suspenders, indicati ...
. He was considered a gentleman among editorial cartoonists, with a reputation of speed and reliability. John Collins died at the age of 89 on September 17, 2007.
Honours and awards
Collins won the National Newspaper Award in 1954 and 1973.
Archives
There is a John Collins fonds at
Library and Archives Canada
Library and Archives Canada (LAC; french: Bibliothèque et Archives Canada) is the federal institution, tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is th ...
. The archival reference number is R5862. The fonds consists of 3,333 original political cartoons by Collins, published in the Montreal Gazette from 1960 to 1982. The fonds also contains an original cartoon by J.B. Fitzmaurice, published in the Montreal Herald in 1913.
[John Collins fonds. Library and Archives Canada. https://recherche-collection-search.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/home/record?app=FonAndCol&IdNumber=181610. Accessed 17 March 2022.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Collins, John
1917 births
2007 deaths
Canadian editorial cartoonists
Montreal Gazette people
Artists from Washington, D.C.
American emigrants to Canada