Pulitzer-Winning Political Cartoonist Collection Donated to Annenberg

From the proliferation of big data to the rapid circulation of information on digital networks to how citizens talk about what matters to them, understanding the media and communication environment we live in is essential to facing society’s most pressing challenges. Researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication take on communications questions at their roots — this means studying media and communication history, and archiving and preserving it for future generations. After all, new media and communication technologies emerge from those that came before them, making archives essential to both study and understand the present.  

Since its inception in 1980, with a gift of television scripts from Walter Annenberg's publication, the TV Guide, the Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives’ holdings grew to include diverse materials on the practice of journalism, the history of communication as an academic discipline, and media and entertainment in the 20th and 21st century. And now, alongside collections and oral histories of journalists, media executives, and filmmakers documenting the trajectories of their lives, their work, and the cultural movements of their times, we are incredibly fortunate to have the works of an editorial cartoonist providing powerful commentaries on the complexities of American culture.  

The newest notable gift to the School is the Tony Auth collection. Auth was a Pulitzer-prize winning American editorial cartoonist and children's book illustrator who is best known for his syndicated work originally drawn for The Philadelphia Inquirer (1971 to 2012). For more than forty years, Tony Auth’s cartoons appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer five days a week. These weren't merely illustrations, but powerful commentaries that captured the urgency and complexity of American culture — sharp, funny, and often heartbreaking.

His wife, Eliza Auth, has donated the extensive Tony Auth archive to the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, ensuring his artistic legacy will be preserved and studied.

“Annenberg has always been the place that connects media history to the most pressing challenges in our society now,” said Sarah Banet-Weiser, dean of the Annenberg School. “Adding an important local political cartoonist’s work to the archives enriches this community resource, and will help the next generation of scholars and students make clearer meaning of culture and role of the press in it.”

This collection is a trove of artistic and historical significance, encompassing more than 10,000 original editorial cartoons; correspondence with editors, colleagues, and readers; ink and watercolor illustrations; studies and prints; and teaching cartoons. In addition, the library also received a grant from the Philadelphia Foundation for the care and preservation of the Auth materials. At Annenberg, the Tony Auth collection will be preserved and made available to scholars, students, and the wider community.

When asked whether his work had any effect, if his cartoons brought about change, progress, or reform, Tony had replied: “Yes, but only in the sense that any of us contributes one particle a day to the torrent of news, opinion, argument, spin, exaggeration, and lies that people are exposed to constantly. All that any of us who comment on 'current events' want to do is to be part of the robust and ongoing conversation of American democracy.” 

For Dean Banet-Weiser, the gift is an important contribution to the curating and archiving of media history that is so important to Annenberg. “Thanks to Eliza, Annenberg will steward a body of work that contributes to our growing archive of media history, a history that reflects and challenges American culture for more than four decades,” she said. 

After the collection is catalogued, Samantha Summerbell, archivist for Annenberg School, says that it will be shared through exhibitions, programming and classes at the university. “This incredible corpus of work offers countless opportunities for research in a number of fields, from communications to history, political science to art. It is a wonderful opportunity to be the stewards of such a legacy, and I am thrilled to work with students, scholars, and members of the community, incorporating Tony’s work into new works of scholarship,” she said.

“Tony was a very deft draftsman,” said Eliza, “but it was his ability to almost instantly condense a complex event into a small clear drawing with a sharply defined point of view, beautifully drawn, that made him the extraordinary cartoonist that he was. He read voraciously about many subjects, science, politics, current events which he said was necessary because one never knew when there would be a Three Mile Island meltdown or some other complicated event. He needed to be prepared to understand the issue and be able to explain it to his readers but also have a well thought out opinion about it." And with this gift, Auth’s collection and Annenberg School for Communication Library Archives will open new paths for students and scholars making meaning.