{"id":1256,"date":"2017-05-04T09:33:13","date_gmt":"2017-05-04T13:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/?p=1256"},"modified":"2017-05-04T09:33:13","modified_gmt":"2017-05-04T13:33:13","slug":"lil-orphan-annie-attends-purdue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/2017\/05\/04\/lil-orphan-annie-attends-purdue\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Lil Orphan Annie Attends Purdue"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Did you know that Harold Gray, the creator of ‘Lil Orphan Annie, was a Purdue grad?<\/p>\n

Harold Lincoln Gray was born near Kankakee, Illinois, on January 20, 1894, to Ira Lincoln Gray, a farmer, and Estella M. Rosencrans. As a child, his family moved to a farm near West Lafayette, Indiana.\u00a0Gray graduated from West Lafayette High School in 1912.\u00a0After graduation he entered Purdue University. Due to losing both parents before he graduated high school, Gray had to serve as a construction worker to pay his college tuition. During college he also worked for the Lafayette Morning Journal <\/em>creating cartoons and selling advertising.<\/p>\n

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Gray’s activities while a Purdue student. 1917 Debris yearbook<\/p><\/div>\n

Gray was assistant art editor for the Debris\u00a0<\/em>yearbook for three years and art editor during his senior year. He\u00a0drew political cartoons for the yearbook and\u00a0also for the Exponent <\/em>student newspaper. He served briefly as a reporter for the Exponent<\/em> as well.\u00a0Gray graduated from Purdue in 1917 with a Bachelor of Science degree. As was customary in yearbooks of the era, his name was listed along with nicknames such as “Grace” and “Cart.” Below his entry in the yearbook is the phrase “Oh! what a noble mind.”<\/p>\n

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Gray, 1917 Debris yearbook<\/p><\/div>\n

Gray’s early student artwork published in\u00a0the 1916 and 1917 Debris<\/em> yearbooks speaks to Purdue life from the\u00a0student perspective, and provides a glimpse of the\u00a0artistic style for which he would later become known. It has been said that his artwork “cast a spell that enhanced his story. Filling his drawings with solid blacks, heavy shadows, and darkly shaded nooks and crannies.” (Harvey, 2013)<\/p>\n

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From the 1916 Debris<\/p><\/div>\n

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Gray’s artwork from 1916 Debris<\/p><\/div>\n

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Artwork done by Gray for a Purdue Student Handbook<\/p><\/div>\n

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Gray’s artwork from the 1917 Debris (his senior year)<\/p><\/div>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

A week after graduating from Purdue, Gray accepted a job as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune,<\/em>\u00a0at a salary of $15 a week. He soon transitioned to the art department. Gray left the Tribune<\/em>\u00a0to enlist in the Army\u00a0during World War I. He\u00a0became a bayonet instructor, and rose to the rank of second lieutenant.\u00a0 After a short period in the Army he returned to the Chicago Tribune\u00a0<\/em>where he\u00a0began a 5-year apprenticeship as an assistant to Sidney Smith on the comic \u201cThe Gumps<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0Gray appreciated the training he received from Smith and began to develop some of his own ideas. At first he created a prototype boy hero and named him \u201cLittle Orphan Otto.\u201d At the suggestion of an influential friend from his days at the Tribune<\/em>, Joseph Medill Patterson, Gray drew a dress on\u00a0 the figure and renamed the character \u201cAnnie.\u201d Part of this was because there were 50 boy comic strips at this time and only 3 girl comics. Both the Tribune<\/em> and the New York Daily News<\/em> launched \u201cLittle Orphan Annie,\u201d on August 5, 1924.\u00a0 The main characters, \u201cAnnie,\u201d her dog \u201cSandy,\u201d and her billionaire foster father, \u201cDaddy Warbucks,\u201d soon took\u00a0a growing number of readers on adventures, many with a slant toward social commentary.<\/p>\n

Gray did not forget his Indiana and Purdue roots. Some of the strips from 1927-1929 featured adventures in Lafayette, Indiana and the vicinity, including Purdue University. Since Gray enjoyed exploring Happy Hollow Park as a boy, his comic strip often mentioned a fictional Happy Hollow Seminary.<\/p>\n

In the comic below, Little Orphan Annie prepares to go to Purdue.<\/p>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

In the following cartoons from 1928 and 1929, Annie again interacts with Purdue. Note the Purdue pennant in the first frame, and mention of “Happy Hollow” in the 3rd. Please click on the comic strips to get a better view.<\/em><\/p>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

In these comics, Annie studies hard, while\u00a0Gray reflects on his college days.<\/p>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

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Annie has a touch of spring fever, is happy Purdue beat its rival Indiana University, and learns about some famous Purdue alumni. Note the Purdue pillow that is prominently displayed.<\/p>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

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Bob Kriebel, a columnist for the Lafayette Journal and Courier<\/em> newspaper wrote that\u00a0Gray’s character, Annie, in many ways “reflected Gray\u2019s personal convictions that all Americans should act with honor, independence of thought and industry; mind their own business and remain true to the traditional pioneering virtues.” (Kriebel, June 3, 2016)<\/p>\n

The \u201cAnnie\u201d cartoon took on a more political\u00a0color\u00a0in the 1930s. \u00a0Eventually, the comic strip incorporated subtle commentary from Gray on income tax, organized labor, communism, left-wingers, food and fueling rationing, and public welfare. In regard to the latter, he named one of his characters Mrs. Bleeding Heart.<\/p>\n

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MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p><\/div>\n

By the late 1930s, hundreds of U.S. newspapers presented \u201cAnnie\u201d to tens of millions of readers.\u00a0<\/span>Gray was sometimes criticized for his use of the comic strip to voice his conservative Republican political and social views. When he died of lymphatic cancer on May 9, 1968, in La Jolla, California, Gray was a millionaire, owing much of his wealth to his creation of “Annie.” Other artists later tried to draw “Annie,” but not with the same success. In the fall of 1979, Leonard Starr began writing and drawing new adventures under the title \u201cAnnie.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In October 1995, the U.S. Postal Service chose \u201cLittle Orphan Annie\u201d as one of 20 \u201cComic Strip Classics\u201d in a series of commemorative stamps.<\/span>\u00a0 Gray was also part of a select group of artists inducted into the Hall of Fame of the\u00a0International Museum of Cartoon Art.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cLittle Orphan Annie\u201d as one of 20 \u201cComic Strip Classics\u201d in a series of commemorative stamps from 1995.<\/p><\/div>\n

Article by Mary A. Sego, Purdue Archives Processing Assistant.<\/p>\n

References:<\/em><\/p>\n

MSA 255, Collection on Harold Gray, Karnes Archives and Special Collections, Purdue University Libraries<\/p>\n

Harvey, R.C. (2013, May 13). “The Orphan’s Epic.” The Comics Journal. <\/em>Retrieved from http:\/\/www.tcj.com\/the-orphans-epic\/<\/p>\n

Kriebel, Bob. (2016, June 3). ‘Annie’ cartoonist got his start in Lafayette. Journal & Courier. <\/em>Retrieved from http:\/\/www.jconline.com\/story\/news\/2016\/06\/03\/annie-cartoonist-got-his-start-lafayette\/84825770\/<\/p>\n

Thomis, Wayne. (1968, May 10), “Harold Gray, Orphan Annie’s Creator, Dies in West at 74.” Chicago Tribune. <\/em>Retrieved from http:\/\/archives.chicagotribune.com\/1968\/05\/10\/page\/3\/article\/harold-gray-orphan-annies-creator-dies-in-west-at-74<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know that Harold Gray, the creator of ‘Lil Orphan Annie, was a Purdue grad? Harold Lincoln Gray was born near Kankakee, Illinois, on January 20, 1894, to Ira Lincoln Gray, a farmer, and Estella M. Rosencrans. As a child, his family moved to a farm near West Lafayette, Indiana.\u00a0Gray graduated from West Lafayette […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[5588,5919],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alumni","category-from-our-collections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8vDd5-kg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1256"}],"version-history":[{"count":80,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1357,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1256\/revisions\/1357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.lib.purdue.edu\/asc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}