An "unknown" Clifford Berryman self-portrait

This surfaced recently in the National Geographic archives before being sent out for deep storage. Berryman apparently drew it for the editor Gilbert H. Grovesnor as an RSVP to a luncheon invitation because it's on a piece of his stationary.

Berryman is hurrying to see artist / explorer Alexander Iacolevff who had worked on a story about Vietnam for them in 1935. Presumably he was back in the States by the beginning of the year, because Berryman's dated his cartoon to March 15, 1935 for a lunch on the 18th. Here's one of the artworks Iacolevff did at the time. Here's a painting that National Geographic used to own before they auctioned off a good bit of their patrimony in 2012, including more by him, and paintings (plural for both) by NC Wyeth, and dinosaur artist Charles Knight, and a lot of famous photographs. Browse the whole list here. They made $3,776,587 before selling themselves to Fox a few years later.

Cartoons in National Geographic's Jane Goodall exhibit

Patrick McDonnell of course, but also a Gary Larson mention.

Thompson art for National Geographic's New Everyday Science Explained

Thompson art for National Geographic's New Everyday Science Explained

https://richardspooralmanac.blogspot.com/2019/10/thompson-art-for-national-geographics.html

A blog post about more of Richard's illustrations that haven't been seen since being published in 2003.

Cartoon journalism in National Geographic's June issue

The magazine contains a two-page strip "Looting and Conflict: The Isis Antiquities Pipeline" by Matthew Twombly, looking at how the looting of historical sites is paying for war.

UPDATE: This isn't Twombly's first piece for them. According to his website, he also did "Fearless Rat" and "On Sinister Pond," for November 2014 issue of National Geographic. He's also done several illustrations for them.

Bethesda animation studio Pixeldust profiled

Animation is a career and a lifestyle for Andrade
Owner of Bethesda studio has won 15 Emmys
by Lindsey Robbins
The Gazette Feb. 18, 2011

OT: National Geographic and Google on Jacques Cousteau's 100th birthday

My wife, Cathy Hunter, blogs for National Geographic in between her archivist duties and also provides some news stories for them. Today, one of hers on Jacques Cousteau's 100th birthday was picked up, and appparently used as the basis for Google's customized logo.

OT: National Geographic's cover history

My wife helped out with the research for this article and is thanked at the end. Some cartoonists have worked for Geographic over the years, but I don't think they have any there. The children's magazine still has some freelancing for it.
 

Fauquier designer changed National Geographic's look
 

From February 1910 until August 1979, that most collectible of magazines, National Geographic, was recognizable by its yellow cover and its border of clustered oak and laurel leaves. Howard E. Paine of Delaplane removed them gradually, sometimes one at a time. He replaced the border with color...

 

Update - Richard Thompson wrote in to tell me that Paine hired him for jobs and is quite a cartoon fan.

OT: The Book of Marvels: An Explorer's Miscellany

A good friend of mine, Mark C. Jenkins, the unofficial historian of National Geographic, has a book coming out on April 28. It is a wonderful compendium of the best of travel writing through the centuries, and the accompanying illustrations are gorgeous.

Here is the link to Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1426204094/ref=s9_sims_gw_s1_p14_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0MMKCWA76E1352SH73N4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846

Searching inside the book isn't available yet, but the chapter titles are as follows:
1. Wild and Unfathomable Always--The Sea
2. The Mournful Kingdom of Sand--The Desert
3. One Boundless Pasture--The Grasslands
4. Arborious Wonders--The Forest
5. The Sublime Harp--Peaks and Chasms
6. The Mystic Circles--The Poles

Many thanks for taking the time to check it out! Cathy

March 21: Animated Environmental Film Features

National Geographic is showing two films - at noon, Spirit of the Forest with film maker Lucas Mackey of Spain in attendance.

At 2pm, Wall-E with Burt Berry, Shading Art Director for Wall-E.

Both are $5 tickets at http://www.nglive.org or 202-857-7700.