W.E. Hill (January 17, 1887 – December 9, 1962) was an American cartoonist and illustrator active in the first half of the 20th-century. He is best known for his weekly full-page illustration series "Among Us Mortals" published in the

New York Tribune The ''New-York Tribune'' was an American newspaper founded in 1841 by editor Horace Greeley. It bore the moniker ''New-York Daily Tribune'' from 1842 to 1866 before returning to its original name. From the 1840s through the 1860s it was the domi ...

from 1916 to 1922, and for creating the most popular iteration of the optical illusion '' My Wife and My Mother-in-Law'' (1915).

Biography

William Hill was born in

Binghamton, New York Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...

on January 19, 1887, to Marietta (Ely) and William Hill. Their only child, he would go on to graduate from

Storm King School The Storm King School (SKS) is an independent coeducational boarding and day school in the U.S. state of New York. Established in 1867, it is one of New York's oldest boarding schools. It is a college preparatory school for students in ...

and

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

. While in school, he was inducted as a member of the

Chi Phi Fraternity Chi Phi () is considered by some as the oldest American men's college social fraternity that was established as the result of the merger of three separate organizations that were each known as Chi Phi. The earliest of these organizations was for ...

on October 24, 1905. On June 11, 1918, Hill applied for a passport, stating his purpose was to "gather material for sketches." His employer at the time, the

, sent him with a note on company letterhead that insisted Hill was a unique talent whom the paper desperately needed to send abroad to capture the American war effort. The passport office appears to have agreed as Hill was allowed to travel, eventually resulting in war-based pieces making up a large portion of his portfolio. Hill was a signatory of '' The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door'', a sort-of "who's who" of Greenwich Village's creative scene from 1921 to 1925. Rescued from the demolition of Floyd Dell's home in 1921, the bright red door found new life at a 4 Christopher Street bookshop (Frank Shay's Bookshop) where it was repainted and became a makeshift autograph book for the over 200 authors, artists, poets, and creatives who passed through the shop. Hill's signature can be found on the second panel of the front of the door, near the signatures of Alexander Popini, Hendrick Willem van Loon, Charles R. Macaulay, and Oscar Cesare. The Greenwich Village Bookshop Door is held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. William Ely Hill died at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut on December 9, 1962, at the age of 75. He is buried at Spring Forest Cemetery in his hometown of Binghamton, New York.

Career

Best known for his satirical illustrations of everyday people, the preface to the 1917 collection of Hill's work said:

Originally drawn for humor magazine '' Puck'', Hill's illustration '' My Wife and My Mother-in-Law'' from 1915 remains an excellent example of an optically ambiguous image. When viewed from one angle you see a young woman wearing a necklace and facing away; from the other, an old woman in a veil, looking downward. Though he was inspired by an 1888 postcard and thus did not invent the design, Hill's version of the illustration is the one that became popular. Over a hundred years later, psychology textbooks still include his drawing and pop magazines use it for personality quizzes.

Puck Covers

For the first half of the 1910s, W.E. Hill designed illustrations for the cover of Puck magazine, the American answer to Punch. A 1912 article from his hometown newspaper, The Bingamton Press, reported that London-based Vanity Fair had commented on Hill's talent for the covers in a then-recent publication. File:Christmas Puck - W.E. Hill '13. LCCN2011649649.jpg, ''Christmas,'' Puck v. 74, Hill, December 3, 1913 File:Meet me at the station - W.E. Hill '11. LCCN2011649043.jpg, ''Meet Me At The Station'', Puck v. 69, July 12, 1911 File:The retort brutal - W.E. Hill 1913. LCCN2011649526.jpg, ''The Retort Brutal'', Puck v. 73, March 26, 1913 File:Made in America - W.E. Hill '14 ; painted by W.E. Hill. LCCN2011660517.jpg, ''Made in America'', Puck v. 76, December 26, 1914

Fitzgerald Dust Jackets

Hill was responsible for the dust jacket illustrations on the first editions of F. Scott Fitzgerald's first three books: This Side of Paradise and

Flappers and Philosophers ''Flappers and Philosophers'' is the first collection of eight short stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1920. All of the stories had been published earlier, independently, in either ''Saturday Evening Post'', or ''Scribner's Magazine''. ...

in 1920 and The Beautiful and Damned two years later in 1922. Fitzgerald apparently did not like that Hill's designs were beginning to look like him and Zelda by the third book, so he asked his editor Maxwell Perkins to find someone new for the job. File:Flappers and Philosophers 1920 cover.gif, ''Flappers and Philosophers'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, cover by W.E. Hill, 1920 File:This Side of Paradise Cover 1920 Retouched.jpg, ''This Side of Paradise'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, cover by W.E. Hill, 1920 File:The Beautiful and Damned Cover 1922 Retouched.jpg, ''The Beautiful and Damned'' by F. Scott Fitzgerald, cover by W.E. Hill, 1922

Among Us Mortals

The Books

In 1917, the

Houghton Mifflin Company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (; HMH) is an American publisher of textbooks, instructional technology materials, assessments, reference works, and fiction and non-fiction for both young readers and adults. The company is based in the Boston Financ ...

published a 150-page collection of illustrations by W. E. Hill with accompanying text by

Franklin P. Adams Franklin Pierce Adams (November 15, 1881 – March 23, 1960) was an American columnist known as Franklin P. Adams and by his initials F.P.A.. Famed for his wit, he is best known for his newspaper column, "The Conning Tower", and his appearances a ...

titled "Among Us Mortals: Pictures and Legends by W. E. Hill." The book features 12 chapters that serve as organizational themes for collections of illustrations, titled in order: The Amateur Vaudeville, The Movies, The Burlesque Show, Afternoon Tea Hour, Modern Art, The Senior Hop, Summer People, War Stuff, The Apartment House, Opening Night, The Fraternity Banquet, and Christmas. Many illustrations initially published in the book would eventually be published in Hill's weekly illustration column. Following the success of his first book, Hill published "Among Us Cats" with Harper and Brothers on November 5, 1926. This book featured cat-focused cartoons, several in full color. File:Among us mortals; pictures and legends by W.E. Hill; (IA cu31924027252257).pdf, ''Among Us Mortals'' cover File:Among Us Mortals Book W.E. Hill 1917 p. 17.jpg, "Two women who hate each other saying "My dear! I've thought of you so often...," ''Among Us Mortals p. 17'' File:Among Us Mortals Book W.E. Hill 1917 p. 70.jpg, "Artist discovering the only one of his pictures sold has been hung upside down," ''Among Us Mortals p. 70'' File:Among Us Mortals Book W.E.Hill 1917 p. 94.jpg, "Hay fever - dobt cob dear be with that goldenrod!," ''Among Us Mortals p. 94'' File:Among Us Mortals Book Page W.E.Hill 1917.jpg, "Boys at the far table making sure of getting into the picture," ''Among Us Mortals p.146'' File:Among Us Cats Cover W.E. Hill November 5 1926.jpg, ''Among Us Cats'' cover

Weekly Series

Hill began publishing satirical illustrations of everyday people in the

on April 9, 1916, with his first small cartoon. Just a few weeks later on April 23 of that year, his work was picked up for a weekly series titled "Among Us Mortals" that ran until an abrupt end six years later on May 14, 1922. Highly successful at the time, the series has been largely forgotten in the decades since. Many Americans living abroad at the end of World War I treasured "Among Us Mortals" for how much it reminded them of home, with countless letters to the editor sent in thanks to the New York Tribune for running the collection. Every Sunday, a full-page of Hill's themed illustrations was published in the New York Tribune and, after 1917, The Washington Times. Everyday themes of the week included ''The Medical Profession,'' ''Men's Business Lunch,'' ''The Intellectuals'', ''The Soda Fountain,'' ''The Millinery Sale,'' ''The Suburban Station'', and dozens more. Occasionally Hill published "Among Us Mortals" pages with more specific or entertainment-based themes, like ''The War Play,'' ''The Sudden Shower,'' ''The Poetry of Motion,'' ''By The Sad Sea Waves'', ''The Amateur Vaudeville'', ''The Ladies' Choral Club'', and ''Between The Acts''. Dozens of "Among Us Mortals" spreads from both The Washington Times and the

have been preserved by the Library of Congress's Chronicling America project for online viewing. File:Among Us Mortals W.E.Hill The Millinery Sale 1917.jpg, "The lady who made her money in dressmaking saying "good morning" to the lady who inherited hers," ''The Millinery Sale'', November 5th, 1916 File:Among Us Mortals W.E. Hill Between The Acts 1917.jpg, "The man who comes back...and wants to show you snapshots of his baby," ''Between The Acts'', June 17, 1917 File:Among Us Mortals W.E. Hill The Soda Fountain 1917.jpg, "Jennie, who works at the cashier's desk, explaining to someone that she only has one pair of hands," ''The Soda Fountain'', August 12, 1917 File:Among Us Mortals Men's Business Lunch 1917 New York Tribune.jpg, "The overhanging warm and moist waiter," ''Men's Business Lunch'', October 28, 1917 File:Among us Mortals The Poetry of Motion W.E.HIll 1921.jpg, ""One and, two and, three and," - the awkward squad at dancing school," ''The Poetry of Motion'', February 20, 1921

Burlesque Controversy

On August 19, 1917, Hill found himself in a bit of a controversy after theming that week's illustrations on a local

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

show. He was never known for drawing people in a dignified or elegant fashion, so it was perhaps understandable when the performers were offended by his portrayal of them as what they considered to be "disillusioned, vain and hollow." In response, the performers at nearby Gayety Theater took out a full page-ad in The Washington Times to share their thoughts on the publication and to invite Hill to experience real burlesque at one of their shows. The title asked ''Is Mr. Hill's Earning Capacity Equal to That of The Following Artists Who Have Climbed The Ladder of Success Through Burlesque?'' and was followed by 21 portraits of successful burlesque performers on star icons. It was signed by the theater's manager, Harry O. Jarboe. Several interviews with local newspapers followed, where Hill largely laughed off the incident. It is unclear if he ever took the Gayety Theater up on their offer to visit and draw their performers, though he would publish several more burlesque pages once the controversy had settled.

Collections

In addition to private collections, William Ely Hill's work is currently held in the collections of the Delaware Art Museum, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum at Ohio State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Utah, and the Library of Congress.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill, William Ely 20th-century American artists American cartoonists 1887 births 1962 deaths