Wallace Morgan (American 1873-1948)

Wallace Morgan was born in New York City in 1874, a son of William Penn and Frances Ann Wallace Morgan. He was graduated from Albany High School and studied at the Academy of Design's Art School. He later became an instructor of the illustration class of the Art Student's League of New York.

Illustrations by Wallace Morgan have been appearing in American newspapers, magazines and books for half a century, beginning with the pages of the old New York Herald and Telegram in 1898. During this firt period of his career, Morgan made known the principal characteristic of his work, a faithfull rendering of nature. He would go out with reporters and detectives on stories so as to be able to present the scene and the characters in it as he knew them to have been, not as he might imagine them after reading the reporter's story.

Morgan first achieved fame in the early 1900's, as the creator of the Fluffy Ruffles girl for "The New York Herald". She became a national figure. Her creation came about by accident when Mr. Morgan received some verses sent to "The Herald" by Carolyn Wells and was told to illustrate them. The verses were about a blonde little scatterbrain called Fluffy Ruffles. Readers liked her immediately and Mr. Morgan kept her going long enough to make her a vogue.

Mr Morgan illustrated many of the magazine stories of P.G. Wodehouse, Somerset Maugham, Richard Hardin Davis, and many others.
He liked best, however, to do sketches on the spot. With the writer Julian Street, he travelled all over America, sketching mill towns, New Orleans Creole scenes, Mississippi floods and plantations. The partnership proved most successfull critically and artistically. This is why we have decided to present the wonderful (and numerous) illustrations for ABROAD AT HOME and AMERICAN ADVENTURES in this section.

In World War I Wallace Morgan had an opportunity to exercise his "on the spot" talent to the fullest. He was one of a group of artists who went overseas with the Amercican forces. He sketched noted battles on French soil, and was often under fire during his year in France.
During the next three decades, he was a preminent illustrator for Life Magazine, Collier's, The New Yorker, The Times Magazine etc.