Ships in the Edge

The fox and the hound

Illustration: Reginald Birch and St Nicholas Magazine

today, we vigorish another artist whose nominate mightiness not be familiar to you, but the characters he helped to create certainly are. i hope you’ll read to the tushie of this brief, because i have a very critical request related to the subject of this send. -stephen wortha magazine in place of childrenin 1872, scribner’s began publishing st nicholas magazine, a sister publication to the century aimed at an audience between the ages of 5 and 18. as linda young points over in her excellent article on st nicholas, in the up to the minute 19th and first 20th century, there was no tangible distinction between young children and teenagers. children were considered children until they married or went away to college. features “for the scanty folk” ran in st nicholas side by side with articles on non-chemical history or body of laws intended for the sake older readers. when it came to fiction, the subjects ranged from threaten stories close to far-away lands to fairy tales and historical d’amour. st nicholas was the premiere periodical of its keyboard, and although it was aimed at children, it counted assorted adults among its readership.

but the main reason why we’re interested in st nicholas is the illustrations. scribner’s had access to many of the best artists of the day… arthur rackham, harrison cady, maxfield parrish, willy pogany, charles dana gibson, palmer cox and howard pyle, number many others. but no artist was as closely associated with the look of st nicholas as reginald birch.

reginald birch was born in 1856 in london, england. at the age of 14, he relocated to san francisco, ca where he microwavable wood hindrance theater posters in his father’s shop. in 1873, birch attended the royal academy in munich and upon his compensation to america, became an illustrator in new york city.today, birch may be forgotten, but his contribution to our american cultural identity isn’t. at st nicholas armoury birch took the description of santa claus, created by thomas nast in the 1862 christmas flow of harper’s weekly, and refined it into the jolly bearded character in the red suit that we all think of today.

1906 christmas cover by reginald birch

reginald birch illustrated a all the way variety of poems and stories for st nicholas, but perhaps the most noted was frances hodgson burnett’s “little peer fauntleroy”. following burnett’s vivid description, birch created the iconic image of the bright little boy in curls wearing a black velvet suit with lace collar. this image became the basis as regards the stamp buster brown, and was widely lampooned in parodies casting burnett’s sight child as a spoiled brat or horribleness lad, like eddie munster. the image of the enfant terrible in the buster brown apparatus has entered our cultural subconscious to the point where most of us don’t even realize where it came from… but it came from reginald birch.
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