News Humanities and Social Sciences Cartooning at UNC topic of April 17 lecture, exhibit
| Cartooning at UNC topic of April 17 lecture, exhibit |
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| Friday, April 04, 2008 | |
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Political cartoonist John Branch will speak about his career in “A Tar Heel Cartoonist in Texas: Drawing the Line in the Lone Star State” at 5:45 p.m. April 17 in Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A reception and viewing of the exhibition “Lines of Humor, Shades of Controversy: A Century of Student Cartooning at UNC” will begin at 5 p.m. in the North Carolina Collection Gallery of Wilson Library. Both events are free to the public. For information, contact Liza Terll at (919) 962-4207 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Branch has been the editorial cartoonist of the San Antonio Express-News since 1981. He graduated in 1976 from UNC, where he launched his cartooning career at the Daily Tar Heel. He then cartooned for the Chapel Hill Newspaper, then a daily except Saturday. Branch’s work has been reprinted in The New York Times, USA Today and Newsweek, and he has published two collections of his work: “Out on a Limb” (1976) and “Would You Buy a Used Cartoon from this Man?” (1979). Branch’s lecture is the fifth Gladys Coates University History Lecture sponsored by the North Carolina Collection in Wilson Library and Friends of the Library. The series honors the late Coates, an avid university historian who died in 2002. She and her husband, Albert Coates, founded UNC’s Institute of Government, which is now the School of Government. “Lines of Humor, Shades of Controversy,” to be on display through May 31, presents 177 cartoons from undergraduate publications at UNC between 1907 and 2006. The earliest cartoons appeared in yearbooks around the turn of the century and student humor magazines by the 1920s, said Linda Jacobson, assistant keeper of the North Carolina Collection Gallery and curator of the exhibit. The Daily Tar Heel first introduced student-drawn cartoons on its editorial page in the late 1950s. Jacobson said that many of the topics – first-year students, campus food, athletics – are quite consistent over time. But, she said, many of the older cartoons provide a window on attitudes that would today be considered racist, sexist or otherwise offensive. Other exhibit highlights include two original cartoons by the late Jeff MacNelly, Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist and creator of the comic strip “Shoe.” MacNelly attended UNC from 1965 to 1969. One cartoon depicts the student strikes and boycotts of the University’s dining services in 1969. The other is a watercolor painting featuring “Shoe” characters in front of Howell Hall to commemorate UNC’s bicentennial in 1993. Jacobson also contacted cartooning alumni and has included their reminiscences about cartooning at UNC as part of the exhibit. “I loved the freedom I had to try anything in that little square of newsprint and the fact that people would actually read it,” wrote Chris Kelly, who graduated in 1991 and is now with the Cartoon Network. “I still remember the jolting thrill when I first saw someone had put one of my cartoons on their dorm room door. It still makes me so happy!” Wilson Library is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays. Admission is free. For information or to schedule a tour, call (919) 962-1172 or visit http://www.lib.unc.edu/ncc/gallery.html . Images: “Co-Education as Developed at the University,” a 1907 cartoon by Charles Venable from the UNC student yearbook “Yackety-Yack.” Venable was the son of Francis P. Venable, president of UNC from 1900-1914: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/images/CartoonYY1907.tif “As State Pictures Carolina and as Carolina Pictures State,” a 1922 cartoon by John T. Barnes from The Carolina Boll Weevil, a UNC student humor magazine published from 1922-24: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/images/CartoonBollweevil.tif “Wake Forest 21, UNC 9,” a 1975 cartoon by John Branch from the Daily Tar Heel: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/media/images/CartoonBranch.jpg Web site: http://www.lib.unc.edu/spotlight/2008/cartoons.html Library contact: Linda Jacobson, (919) 962-1172, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it Interview requests: Judith Panitch, (919) 962-1301, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it News Services contact: Lisa Katz, (919) 962-2093, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it |
