Biography
Born in Cambridge, Illinois, Louis Dalrymple had been cartooning and drawing caricatures since his early childhood. At the age of seventeen, Dalrymple attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts at night, while drawing for newspapers during the day. He also attended the Art Students League of New York. Between 1883 and 1885, Dalrymple found himself on the staff for Judge, then later, joining the publication of Tid-Bits with Charles Wolcott Balestier — an American writer, editor, and publisher. It wasn’t until 1885 when he became the chief cartoonist for New York’s Daily Graphic. [1][2]
Dalrymple’s personal life was a bit more complicated. His first marriage to Letia Carpenter was not a happy one, and friends said that they had noticed a change in his condition. He became violent, and soon Carpenter was awarded their home after obtaining a divorce. Seven years later, he met Mary Ann Good. The two married in New Jersey, as Dalrymple was denied from marrying again in the state of New York. The two later moved to Greenwich, Connecticut where he also contributed to other publications such as Judge magazine. However, his condition seemed to get worse, and friends noticed a change in his behavior. Dalrymple seemed to be more absentminded, unhinged and nervous. He was soon found to be insane, and he was institutionalized in a sanitarium on Long Island. He died in New York in December 1905 at the age of 39. [3]
Footnotes:
[1] “Louis Dalrymple.” RoGallery. Accessed 30 November 2021. https://www.rogallery.com/artists/louis-dalrymple/.
[2] Thomas E. Curtis, “Some American Humorous Artists.—II.” The Strand Magazine p.266-267, vol.25, 1903.
[3] “Cartoonist Dalrymple Goes Insane.” The World Saturday Evening, 25 November 1905. Library of Congress. Accessed 30 November 2021. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030193/1905-11-25/ed-1/seq-3/.
Illustrations by Louis Dalrymple
Additional Resources
Bibliography
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art and the Public Library of Fort Wayne and Allen County. The Image of America in Caricature & Cartoon. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, 1975.
Culbertson, Tom. “Illustrated Essay: The Golden Age of American Political Cartoons.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, vol. 7, no. 3 2008, p.276-95.
Nemerov, Alexander. Frederic Remington & Turn-of-the-Century America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995.
Shott, Brian. “Schooling ‘New-Caught, Sullen Peoples’: Illustrating Race in U.S. Empire.” In Reconstruction and Empire: The Legacies of Abolition and Union Victory for an Imperial Age, edited by David Prior, 264-86. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.
