John Emmet Sheridan

American illustrator

John Emmet Sheridan
Born	(1877-06-14)June 14, 1877 Tomah, Wisconsin
Died	July 3, 1948(1948-07-03) (aged 71) Roosevelt Hospital Manhattan, New York City
Education	Georgetown University

John Emmet Sheridan (June 14, 1877 – July 3, 1948) was an illustrator well known in his lifetime for his cover art for The Saturday Evening Post, his illustrations for Collier's Weekly and Ladies' Home Journal, and his commercial advertisements. He is "credited with the idea of using posters to advertise college sports."^[1] Sheridan was a member of the Dutch Treat Club, and a frequent contributor to the program of their annual banquet and show, and was an instructor at New York's School of Visual Arts at the time of its founding.^[2]

Biography

He was born on June 14, 1877, in Tomah, Wisconsin.

Sheridan attended Georgetown University graduating in 1901.^[3]

During World War I, he created many patriotic posters in support of the United States' war effort as part of the committee of artists that also included Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the Gibson Girl) and James Montgomery Flagg (creator of the iconic Uncle Sam recruiting poster).^[1]

Sheridan was art editor for the Washington Times (predecessor of the now-defunct Washington Times-Herald) and worked for the San Francisco Chronicle in the development of its first color Sunday supplement.^[1] Between 1931 and 1939 he produced 13 cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.^[2]

He died on July 3, 1948, at Roosevelt Hospital in Manhattan, New York City.^[4]^[1]

Signatures and monograms

As an artist of advertisements and magazine covers, Sheridan was not always free to sign his full name to his art work. As a result, many of his illustrations contain only stylized monograms to identify the artist.

Signature with an initial JS Monogram (Sometimes incorrectly interpreted as "Theridan")
Simple JS Monogram
Box JES Monogram
Color image of JS Monogram
Block JS Monogram
Monogram and Last Name

Work

Poster for University of Pennsylvania vs Georgetown University baseball game, circa 1901
Poster for Columbia University, 1902
Food is Ammunition, Don't waste it. (For World War I / US Food Administration), 1918
World War I Book drive for American Library Association c.1918
World War I War production (shipbuilding) c.1918
World War I Advertisement for Hart, Shaffner and Marx, 1919
Illustration of Joseph Cotten for The American Magazine, 1931

References

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d "John E. Sheridan, Illustrator, Dies. His Work in National Magazines Well Known. Made Patriotic Posters in 1st World War". The New York Times. July 5, 1948.
^ ^a ^b Curtis Publishing. News From Curtis Publishing
^ "The Power of Print". Georgetown University Library Associates Newsletter, Newsletter 80 (Summer 2006).
^ "John Sheridan". The Saturday Evening Post. May 13, 2015. Retrieved October 18, 2017.

Bibliography

Price, Charles Matlack (1922). Poster Design: A Critical Study of the Development of the Poster in Continental Europe, England and America. G.W. Bricka. OCLC 501514.