John James Held Jr. (January 10, 1889 – March 2, 1958) was an American
cartoonist
A cartoonist is a visual artist who specializes in both drawing and writing cartoons (individual images) or comics (sequential images). Cartoonists differ from comics writers or comic book illustrators in that they produce both the literary and ...
,
printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, and author. One of the best-known
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
illustrators of the 1920s, his most popular works were his uniquely styled cartoons which depicted people dancing, driving, playing sports, and engaging in other popular activities of the era.
Held grew up in an artistic family that encouraged his pursuit of arts from the beginning. He began selling pieces of art by the age of nine. He never graduated from high school, finding his time was better spent honing his skills which he began at ''
The Salt Lake Tribune
''The Salt Lake Tribune'' is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The ''Tribune'' is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871."
History
...
'' as a sports illustrator during his late teenage years. His friendship with Harold Ross, creator of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
,'' served him well in his career, as his cartoons were featured in many prominent magazines including ''The New Yorker'', ''
Vanity Fair'', ''
Harper's Bazaar
''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...
'', and ''
Life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...
'' magazine.
Due to his sense of humor and keen observation of his surroundings, Held was praised for his cartoon depictions of the cultural paradigm shift in the 1920s. The drawings depicted the
flapper
Flappers were a subculture of young Western women in the 1920s who wore short skirts (knee height was considered short during that period), bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptab ...
era in a way that both
satirized
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming or e ...
and influenced the styles and mores of the time, and his images have continued to define the
Jazz Age for subsequent generations.
Youth
The oldest of six children, John Held Jr. was born in
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
, to Annie Evans and John Lyman Held, who met at a church social.
His father was born in
Geneva, Switzerland
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
to Jacques Held, a watchmaker, and was noticed by
Mormon
Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...
educator
John R. Park who was scouting Europe for talented young people. He adopted Held Sr. and brought him back to Salt Lake City.
He decide not to pursue a career as an educator like his mentor, but instead pursued a diverse career in copperplate engraving, manufacturing fountain pens, and operating a stationery shop. He privately developed his musical abilities on the cornet and organized Held's Band, which performed at all major Utah events for about fifty years.
John Held Sr. contributed illustrations to the 1888 ''The Story of the Book of Mormon''.
Annie Evans, his mother, acted in the local theater.
John Held Jr.'s maternal grandfather, James Evans, was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
convert to the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The c ...
who traveled to Salt Lake City with the
Mormon handcart pioneers
The Mormon handcart pioneers were participants in the migration of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to Salt Lake City, Utah, who used handcarts to transport their belongings. The Mormon handcart movement b ...
.
Thriving in a home where the arts were appreciated and encouraged, Held showed a talent for the arts at a young age. He learned woodcutting and engraving from his father, and sold a drawing to a local newspaper at the age of nine.
[Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 16. .] The wood block was his preferred medium in his youth and he would return to it several times throughout his career. He loved
Western culture
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
including horses, deserts, and cowboys, and this was a recurring theme in his art, both as a child and as an adult.
He sold his first cartoon, a Western-themed one, to ''Life'' magazine at the age of 15.
In 1905, he began working as a sports illustrator and cartoonist at the ''Salt Lake City Tribune'' with his fellow West High School classmate
Harold Ross
Harold Wallace Ross (November 6, 1892 – December 6, 1951) was an American journalist who co-founded ''The New Yorker'' magazine in 1925 with his wife Jane Grant, and was its editor-in-chief until his death.
Early life
Born in a prospector' ...
.
During his years at the ''Tribune'', he obtained no formal art instruction claiming that his only teachers were his father and the sculptor
Mahonri M. Young, a grandson of
Brigham Young
Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...
.
In 1910 Held married Myrtle Jennings, the ''Tribunes society editor. In 1912 he relocated to New York, without his wife, to find a good job.
[Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 144. .] While living in a flat with Hal Burrows and Mahonri Young, he drew posters for Collier's Street Railway Advertising Company and ads for
Wanamaker's Department Store, and designed costumes and sets for the theater to make ends meet. In 1914, he returned to his
linoleum block print
Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...
style.
Cartoons and covers
In 1915 ''Vanity Fair'' began publishing his drawings, for which he used the pseudonym "Myrtle Held", because he was too shy to use his own name.
He also began doing
woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
s for his "Frankie and Johnny" series, which would be published in limited quantity in 1930 and greater quantity in 1971.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, Held worked for US Naval Intelligence in Central America as an artist and
cartographer
Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...
. During this commission, he participated in an expedition co-sponsored by the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
and the Carnegie Foundation with archaeologists
Sylanus Morley and
Herbert Spinden
Herbert Joseph Spinden (1879–1967) was an American anthropologist, archeologist and art historian who specialized in the study of Native American cultures of the US and Mesoamerica.
Biography
Spinden was born in 1879 in Huron, a small settleme ...
. His duties were to look for German submarine activity off-shore, make coastal maps, sketch any signs of military operation, and record the
Mayan hieroglyphics and sketch any finds in the expedition.
His friend and roommate
Marc Connelly
Marcus Cook Connelly (December 13, 1890 – December 21, 1980) was an American playwright, director, producer, performer, and lyricist. He was a key member of the Algonquin Round Table, and received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930.
Biogra ...
, a famous American playwright, later wrote of Held's distinct humor, recounting that he teased friend Ernest Haskell for wearing a terrible homemade camouflage costume by crying out, "My God! Where's Ernie?"
In 1925, his old high school friend Harold Ross started ''The New Yorker''. By 1927, Held's work had appeared in ''Life'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''Harper's Bazaar'', and ''The New Yorker'', and he had also contributed illustrations for other influential magazines, including ''
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...
'' and ''
The Smart Set
''The Smart Set'' was an American literary magazine, founded by Colonel William d'Alton Mann and published from March 1900 to June 1930. Its headquarters was in New York City. During its Jazz Age heyday under the editorship of H. L. Mencken and G ...
''.
His work, which quickly became popular, defined the "funny, stylish image of the flapper with her cigarette holder, shingle bob and turned-down hose and of her slick-haired boyfriend in puffy pants and raccoon coat," whom he named Betty Co-ed and Joe College; the perfect archetypes for the generation. According to Held, he didn't really intend to create the flapper ideal; he just drew what was around him, and it became popular so he kept drawing.
He was reportedly becoming so popular that people were sending him blank checks, offering anything for an original piece.
From a 1957 interview with the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
,'' an editor explained that Held was seen as a man who could pull a magazine out of trouble, which made his cartoons valuable and coveted.
He wrote and drew two newspaper comic strips, ''Oh! Margy'' and its sequel ''Merely Margy'' and ''Rah Rah Rosalie''.
After
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald (September 24, 1896 – December 21, 1940) was an American novelist, essayist, and short story writer. He is best known for his novels depicting the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age—a term he popularize ...
complained that William Hill designed the characters on his covers to look too much like himself and his wife
Zelda, Fitzgerald hired Held to illustrate his book covers, after taking a liking to his cartoon style. This represented the stylistic shift of the period from realism to abstraction which influenced the
Art-Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the United ...
style of the decade. Held's first cover for Fitzgerald was a companion book of short stories for ''
The Beautiful and Damned
''The Beautiful and Damned'' is a 1922 novel by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. Set in New York City, the novel's plot follows a young artist Anthony Patch and his flapper wife Gloria Gilbert who become "wrecked on the shoals of dissipati ...
'', and he subsequently illustrated ''
Tales of the Jazz Age
''Tales of the Jazz Age'' (1922) is a collection of eleven short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Divided into three separate parts, according to subject matter, it includes one of his better-known short stories, " The Curious Case of Benjamin Bu ...
'' (1922) and ''
The Vegetable'' (1923). Held also designed the cover for
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...
-winning novel, ''
So Big.''
In addition to his archetypical flapper illustrations, Held also made
linocut
Linocut, also known as lino print, lino printing or linoleum art, is a printmaking technique, a variant of woodcut in which a sheet of linoleum (sometimes mounted on a wooden block) is used for a relief surface. A design is cut into the linoleum s ...
s and drew cartoons in a 19th-century woodcut style, as he had started getting bored with the flapper girls. During this time period, his art often depicted the "
Gay Nineties
The Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term and a periodization of the history of the United States referring to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the United Kingdom as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly ...
". From 1925 to 1932, his woodcut-style cartoons and faux maps were published frequently in ''The New Yorker.'' Held Jr slipped occasional imagery alluding to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints such as
temples
A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...
, the acronym
ZCMI
Zion's Co-operative Mercantile Institution (typically referred to as ZCMI) was an American department store chain. It was founded in Salt Lake City, Utah, on October 9, 1868 by Brigham Young. For many years it used the slogan, "America's First De ...
, the
Angel Moroni
The Angel Moroni () is an angel whom Joseph Smith reported as having visited him on numerous occasions, beginning on September 21, 1823. According to Smith, the angel was the guardian of the golden plates, buried in the hill Cumorah near Smith's ...
, and
Brigham Young
Brigham Young (; June 1, 1801August 29, 1877) was an American religious leader and politician. He was the second President of the Church (LDS Church), president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), from 1847 until his ...
, and though some people believe he sneaked them in, Ross was fully aware of it and actually encouraged it. Held portrayed a satirical view of the
Roaring Twenties
The Roaring Twenties, sometimes stylized as Roaring '20s, refers to the 1920s decade in music and fashion, as it happened in Western society and Western culture. It was a period of economic prosperity with a distinctive cultural edge in the U ...
, often criticizing the drinking, gambling, and rampant sexuality that often characterized the decade. This contrasted his counterparts in Jazz-Age cartoons such as
Peter Arno
Curtis Arnoux Peters, Jr. (January 8, 1904 – February 22, 1968), known professionally as Peter Arno, was an American cartoonist. He contributed cartoons and 101 covers to ''The New Yorker'' from 1925, the magazine's first year, until 1968, the ...
who seemed to celebrate it. Held also created the iconic "Wise Men Fish Here" sign which hung above the door of the
Gotham Book Mart
The Gotham Book Mart was a famous Midtown Manhattan bookstore and cultural landmark that operated from 1920 to 2007. The business was located first in a small basement space on West 45th Street near the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater Distric ...
for the life of the store.
His post-1930 works are not as well known; during the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
Held lost much of his money in the
Ivar Kreuger
Ivar Kreuger (; 2 March 1880 – 12 March 1932) was a Swedish civil engineer, financier, entrepreneur and industrialist. In 1908, he co-founded the construction company Kreuger & Toll Byggnads AB, which specialized in new building techniques. B ...
fraud scheme, and his last ''New Yorker'' illustration appeared in 1932. Held wrote and illustrated several novels, such as ''Grim Youth'' (1930) and ''The Flesh Is Weak'' (1931). The reduced demand for his cartoons in the 1930s gave him more time to paint. During this time, he painted somber landscapes and cityscapes, while also illustrating children's books and animal fantasies.
He loved animals and depicted them frequently, but rarely used them for satire, because he found humans more strange and amusing.
He also published ''The Works of John Held Jr.'' in 1931.
In 1937, he designed sets for the Broadway comedy revue ''
Hellzapoppin'', and produced the ''Tops Variety Show'' which showcased young talent. He exhibited his bronze sculptures of horses in New York in 1939 at Bland Gallery.
He was named artist-in residence at
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
and the
University of Georgia
, mottoeng = "To teach, to serve, and to inquire into the nature of things.""To serve" was later added to the motto without changing the seal; the Latin motto directly translates as "To teach and to inquire into the nature of things."
, establ ...
by the
Carnegie Corporation
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...
where he taught students and focused on sculpting.
He moved to a dairy farm in
Wall, New Jersey
Wall Township is a township in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States. It is located in the New York Metropolitan Area and is a bedroom community of New York. As of the 2010 United States Census, the township's population was 26,164, refl ...
in 1943 working as a free-lance artist and illustrating children's books, after serving with his wife in the area during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
in the
U.S. Army Signal Corps
)
, colors = Orange and white
, colors_label = Corps colors
, march =
, mascot =
, equipment =
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...
, painting pictures of radar apparatus.
In the 1950s, popular nostalgia for the 1920s resulted in a revival of interest in Held's earlier works, as the first edition of ''
Playboy
''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother.
K ...
'' featured a reprint of Held's "Frankie and Johnny" cartoons.
Style
To some, Held is the F. Scott Fitzgerald of American art in the early to mid-1900s. Some critics disagree, claiming that Held's work was too superficial, but Fitzgerald lived a far more tragic and tumultuous life that was well reflected in his writing. Held matched Fitzgerald, not in depth of subject, but in skill and honesty.
Held was unorthodox among the artists of the decade, as he was uninterested in copying European art and made his own way stylistically.
Pointillism
Pointillism (, ) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term "Pointillism" wa ...
was the only exception as he occasionally painted in this style up until 1931, taking inspiration from
Georges Seurat
Georges Pierre Seurat ( , , ; 2 December 1859 – 29 March 1891) was a French post-Impressionist artist. He devised the painting techniques known as chromoluminarism and pointillism and used conté crayon for drawings on paper with a rough su ...
.
He claimed to be influenced by the
Ashcan School
The Ashcan School, also called the Ash Can School, was an artistic movement in the United States during the late 19th-early 20th century that produced works portraying scenes of daily life in New York, often in the city's poorer neighborhoods.
...
early on in his career.
Held admired the caricatural quality of
Greek vase painting
Ancient Greek pottery, due to its relative durability, comprises a large part of the archaeological record of ancient Greece, and since there is so much of it (over 100,000 painted vases are recorded in the Corpus vasorum antiquorum), it has exe ...
. He was also inspired by the Mayan geometric designs he saw during his time in Central America in 1917, using them as elements of his art rather than the foundation of it.
[Held, John. 1972. ''The Most of John Held, Jr.'' Brattleboro, Vt: S. Greene Press. p. 18. .]
The angular style of Held's drawings depicting the Roaring Twenties has sometimes been incorrectly defined as Art Deco, according to art historian Carl Weidhardt.
His classic style is represented by the exaggeratedly tall and skinny, yet surprisingly anatomically correct flapper girls that made him famous, shown in minimal detail with a high influence of angle and diagonal lines and a comedic use of color.
In the midst of his long career, he began to loathe the characters he created, but looking back towards the end of his life, he was amazed by the uproar and social criticism that those daring, young girls evoked.
Having stated that he wasn't sure whether religion created his interest in geography or vice versa, he was also known for his satirical cartography, which contained cartoons and purposefully unrealistic geographical proportions.
Throughout his career, Held used woodblock, linocut, bronze, pen, and paint and he painted everything from maps to cartoons, to scenery and accurate animal portraits. Even though his art was so varied in style, there was unity in effect.
Arguing that Fitzgerald christened the Jazz Age,
Corey Ford
Corey Ford (April 29, 1902 – July 27, 1969) was an American humorist, writer, outdoorsman, and screenwriter. He was friendly with several members of the Algonquin Round Table in New York City and occasionally lunched there.
Early years
Ford was ...
described Held as both the recorder and the setter of popular styles and manners of the era:
His angular and scantily clad flapper was accepted by scandalized elders as the prototype of modern youth, the symbol of our moral revolution ... Week after week in ''Life'' and ''Judge'' and '' College Humor'', they danced the Charleston with ropes of beads swinging and bracelets clanking and legs kicking at right angles ... So sedulously did we ape his caricatures that they lost their satiric point and came to be a documentary record of our time.
File:The Forum (1919) (14801550803).jpg, alt=The Forum illustration., Held's illustration for "When the Criminal Takes to Science", ''The Forum'' (July 1919).
File:The Forum (1919) (14594998820).jpg, alt=The Forum illustration., Held's illustration for "Any Fool Could Do It!", ''The Forum'' (September 1919).
Personal life
Held made an enormous fortune in the 1920s and became a part of the high-society life that he depicted in his art.
He had a fairly unpredictable and constantly shifting love life, as he was married four times. He married Myrtle Jennings in 1910. After a divorce, he married Ada Johnson in 1918. During the 1920s the couple adopted three children. He served as constable of
Weston, Connecticut
Weston is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 10,354 at the 2020 census with the highest median household income in Connecticut. The town is served by Route 57 and Route 53, both of which run through the t ...
and ran for Congress as a Democrat. The campaign was unsuccessful, much to his relief, because he never left his house nor gave a speech.
After the stock market crash, he suffered a nervous breakdown, selling his home in Connecticut, which led to his divorce from his second wife. In 1932, Held married Miss New Orleans Gladys Moore in 1932, and had a daughter named Judy.
In 1942, he married Margaret Schuyler James, with whom he had a happy marriage. He spent the last years of his life on Old Schuyler Farm in
Belmar, New Jersey
Belmar is a borough in Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, situated on the Jersey Shore. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 5,794,[throat cancer
Head and neck cancer develops from tissues in the lip and oral cavity (mouth), larynx (throat), salivary glands, nose, sinuses or the skin of the face. The most common types of head and neck cancers occur in the lip, mouth, and larynx. Symptoms ...]
.
He is interred at
Woodlawn Cemetery in
the Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, New York City.
Legacy
In 1927, Held was nominated for the ''Vanity Fair'' Hall of Fame: "Because as a caricaturist, he invented the modern flapper; because last year he was almost elected a member of Congress from Connecticut; because he is a syndicated artist who has not lost his flair for drawing and satire; because he is a born comedian."
Even after his death he has been the subject of many galleries and exhibitions. In 1967, his work was showcased from October to November at the Art Association of Indianapolis in an exhibition titled, "John Held, Jr.". The next year, from November to December, the
Rhode Island School of Design
The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...
presented "The Jazz Age", featuring Held and two other artists. The
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...
featured a nationwide traveling exhibition from 1969 to 1972 called "The Art of John Held, Jr."
References
External links
John Held Jr. biography*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Held, John, Jr.
1889 births
1958 deaths
American cartoonists
American wood engravers
Latter Day Saints from Utah
Deaths from esophageal cancer
The New Yorker cartoonists
Artists from New Rochelle, New York
Latter Day Saints from New York (state)
American magazine illustrators
Artists from Utah
20th-century American artists
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York)
Harold B. Lee Library-related 21st century articles