A Guide to the Frederick Otto Seibel Papers, 1908-1968 Frederick Otto Seibel Papers M 23

A Guide to the Frederick Otto Seibel Papers, 1908-1968

A Collection in
Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library
Collection Number M 23

James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Contact Information:
James Branch Cabell Library
Box 842003
Virginia Commonwealth University
Richmond, Virginia 23284-2003
USA
Phone: (804) 828-1108
Fax: (804) 828-0151
Email: ulsjbcsca@hsc.vcu.edu
URL: http://www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/speccoll.html
Processed by: Martha M. Hall
Funding: Web version of the finding aid funded in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
© 2002 By Copyright Virginia Commonwealth University. All Rights Reserved.

Repository

Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Collection number

M 23

Title

Frederick Otto Seibel Papers, 1908-1968

Physical Characteristics

16.9 linear feet and oversize material

Creator

Frederick Otto Seibel

Language

English

Administrative Information

Access

Collection is open for use without restrictions.

Use Restrictions

None.

Preferred Citation

Box/folder, Frederick Otto Seibel Papers, M 23, Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University

Acquisition Information

The original collection was a gift to the Department by Mrs. Helen McCarthy in July 1970. Additional Seibel materials were donated to the Departement and intergrated with this collection by various individuals over the years.

Processing Information

Collection was processed in April 1981 and revised March 1987, May 1990, November 1994, and May 2000.

Biographical/Historical Information

Frederick Otto Seibel was born in Durhamville, New York, on 8 October 1886 and died in Richmond, Virginia on 19 June 1968. Siebel spent his childhood drawing sketches of the Erie Canal. He was married with no children. After Attending classes at the Art Students League in New York City for a short time. Seibel started his own commercial art business in the early years of the twentieth century. His first cartoon was printed in the Oneida Dispatch in 1908. He began his career as a cartoonist in 1916 for the Knickerbocker Press in Albany, New York. Seibel moved to Virginia in 1926 to become an editorial cartoonist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch and has been there for over thirty years. He did several shows at Metropolitan Museum Of New York, Art Institute of Chicago and Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. A biography is contained in the Spring 1977 of the Virginia Cavalcade (included in Box 1). Fred O. Seibel died in 1968 after completing nearly 16,000 cartoons. Most famous cartoon "Retreat from Moscow" (11-5-1936) depicting presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith as Napoleon after FDR's landslide victory in 1936.

Scope and Content Information

The Seibel Collection is comprised of two major sections: letters which Seibel received relating to his newspaper cartoons (including correspondence from Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Robert Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, Harry F. Byrd, John L. Lewis, J. Edgar Hoover and numerous members of the federal and state government), and a complete set of his published cartoons from both the Knickerbocker Press and the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Other items in the collection include drawing notebooks and early art school sketches, seven oil paintings thought to have been painted by Seibel, folios containing copies of sketches by Charles Dana Gibson and Frederic Remington, as well as folios containing newspaper clippings of major world events in Seibel's lifetime. There are also thirty-four original cartoons, some of which were autographed by Seibel.

Arrangement

Collection is arranged alphabetically.

Organization

The Special Collections and Archives Department has 34 Original Cartoons, some inscribed, Seibel's own clipping file, early drawings, oils and watercolors and some correspondence. The collection is divided into two groups: Seibel's oil paintings, folios, and oversized cartoons are stored separately; the newspaper copies of his cartoons and boxed in groups of fifty and are arranged, with few exceptions, chronologically. The cartoons were cut and numbered by Seibel in the order in which they were published, and that numerical order has been preserved.

Contents List

Box-folder 1.1

Biography Virginia Cavalcade, Spring 1977

Box-folder 1.2

Yearbook (Oneida High School) 1908

Box-folder 1.3

German Notebook

Box-folder 1.4

School exercise book

Box-folder 1.5

Notebook, various topics

Box-folder 1.6

Notebook 1912-1919

Box-folder 1.7

Notebook 1912-1921

Box-folder 1.8

Notebook of quotations

Box-folder 1.9

Notes on caricature and cartooning 1915

Box-folder 1.10

Nags Head materials

Box-folder 1.11

Commemoration booklet of assassination of McKinley

Box-folder 1.12

Miscellaneous newsclippings

Box-folder 1.13

Ephemera

Box-folder 1.14

Correspondence: Crow Letters

Box-folder 1.15

Correspondence: Byrd, Harry F., Sr. 1926-1949

Box-folder 1.16

Correspondence: Byrd, Harry F., Sr. 1950-1962

Box-folder 1.17

Correspondence: A 1922-1952

Box-folder 1.18

Correspondence: B 1916-1955

Box-folder 1.19

Correspondence: C 1924-1954

Box-folder 1.20

Correspondence: D 1921-1951

Box-folder 1.21

Correspondence: E 1917-1952

Box-folder 1.22

Correspondence: F 1910-1950

Box-folder 1.23

Correspondence: G 1904-1965

Box-folder 1.23a

Correspondence: Goldwater, Barry 1965

Box-folder 1.24

Correspondence: H 1919-1959

Box-folder 1.24a

Correspondence: Hoffa, James R. 1959

Box-folder 1.24b

Correspondence: Hoover, J. Edgar 1940

Box-folder 1.25

Correspondence: I 1938

Box-folder 1.26

Correspondence: J 1930-1956

Box-folder 1.27

Correspondence: K 1916-1961

Box-folder 1.27a

Correspondence: Kennedy, Robert F. 1961

Box-folder 1.28

Correspondence: L 1933-1949

Box-folder 1.29

Correspondence: M 1929-1956

Box-folder 1.30

Correspondence: N 1919-1952

Box-folder 1.31

Correspondence: O 1935-1940

Box-folder 1.32

Correspondence: P 1917-1958

Box-folder 1.33

Correspondence: R 1931-1967

Box-folder 1.33a

Correspondence: Roosevelt, Franklin D. 1930

Box-folder 1.34

Correspondence: S 1930-1959

Box-folder 1.35

Correspondence: T 1930-1967

Box-folder 1.35a

Correspondence: Truman, Harry S. 1954

Box-folder 1.36

Correspondence: U 1932-1940

Box-folder 1.37

Correspondence: V 1931-1947

Box-folder 1.38

Correspondence: W 1916-1949

Box-folder 1.39

Correspondence: Y 1935-1937

Box-folder 1.40

Correspondence: Z 1937-1938

Box-folder 1a-1

Fred Seibel name plate for desk

Box-folder 1a-2

Two Wrva phonographs-recording of Seibel

Box-folder 1a-3

Audio Tape of Interview with Seibel, n.d.

Box-folder 1a-4

Articles with mentions of Seibel's name 1913

Box-folder 1a-5

Graphic Advertisement for Seibel

Box-folder 1a.6

Advertisements for Bustles, Cigarettes, Hammocks, Flour, Etc..., 1890s

Box-folder 1a.7

Cartoonists Who Helped Win the War 1919

Box-folder 2.1-2.32

Cartoons: Knickerbocker Press 1908-1919

Box-folder 3.1-3.33

Cartoons: Knickerbocker Press 1919-1926

Box-folder 4.1-4.24

Cartoons: Richmond Times Dispatch 1926-1929

Box-folder 5.1-5.26

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1929-1933

Box-folder 6.1-6.26

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1933-1937

Box-folder 7.1-7.29

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1937-1941

Box-folder 8.1-8.29

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1941-1946

Box-folder 9.1-9.28

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispactch 1946-1950

Box-folder 10.1-10.26

Cartoons: Richmond Times Dispatch 1950-1954

Box-folder 11.1-11.27

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1954-1959

Box-folder 12.1-12.26

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1959-1965

Box-folder 13.1-13.15

Cartoons: Richmond Times-Dispatch 1965-1968

Box-folder 14.1

The Hogarth Drawing Tablet 1898

Box-folder 14.2

The Hogarth Drawing Tablet 1898

Box-folder 14.3

Imperial Drawing Tablet 1899

Box-folder 14.4

Preliminary of Preacademic Certificate 1903

Box-folder 14.5

Loose Newspaper Articles 1913

Box-folder 14.6

Orson Lowell Prints 1913

Box-folder 14.7

Political Advertisements 1916

Box-folder 14.8

The Thomas School of Aviation Booklet 1916

Box-folder 14.9

Unidentified Advertisements 1916

Box-folder 14.10

Keystone Co./Oneida Co. 1916

Box-folder 14.11

Miscellaneous Advertisements 1916

Box-folder 14.12

Clothing Advertisements 1916

Box-folder 14.13

Seibel Advertising Cards, 1916

Box-folder 14.14

Charles D. Gibson Articles and Prints 1905-1944

Drawer 22.1

Scrapbook, Pulitzer Prize Competition 1951