The cover art is by J. C. Leyendecker, just some dude who inspired Norman Rockwell. Rockwell would later be one of the pallbearers at Leyendecker’s funeral.
Do you remember the butterfly life cycle? It’s completely metamorphosis-y.
Where did the word “Easter” come from? Get your etymology on.
Lepidopterist? There’s a society for that.
J. C.’s brother, F. X., created the butterfly lady that was on an old Life magazine cover and later seen on the wall of the “Three’s Company” apartment.
Over time, sometimes the meanings of words have been known to change. Sometimes the changes are subtle. Sometimes the changes are more… interesting.
Exhibit A from my magazine collection:
Not to be confused with bootlicker.
A little bit and another little bit about artist Paul Stahr.
History not-so-fun fact:
This issue is dated December 4, 1919.
Prohibition began in the United States on January 17, 1920.
Along with ads of yore, I also love a good magazine cover.
From my collection, here’s The Countryside Magazine and Suburban Life’s cover for April 1917 (Spring Planting Number) with art by Paul Bransom.
The New York Times has a rather fine obituary/biography of the “Dean of American Animal Artists” here.
It’s been quite a week, so here’s the cover of my copy of January 1934’s Country Life magazine. The masthead has some design issues but the artwork is sublime.
In honor of Independence Day, here’s one of my favorite magazine covers in my collection — The July 1926 issue of The Country Gentleman with cover art by American artist (painter/illustrator/muralist) N.C. Wyeth. It was also one of the more elusive magazines for me to track down, but totally worth it.
It’s nice to see Wyeth’s biography is a lot more complete and accessible online than many other illustrators of the era, but sad to find his life ended by a freight train.
Also, it’s no surprise that horses really aren’t very fond of fireworks. Be kind, y’all.