The State Historical Society of Missouri
Famous Missourians
Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick (1891 – 1969)
Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick
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Born in Superior, Wisconsin, in 1891, Daniel Robert Fitzpatrick studied anatomy and life drawing for two years at the Art Institute of Chicago before getting his first cartooning job at the Chicago Daily-News in 1911. Two years later he moved to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he remained until his retirement in 1958. Universally acknowledged as the dean of editorial cartoonists, “Fitz” strongly supported the rights of the underdog while attacking the conservative “establishment.” With cartoons on equal rights for women and blacks, a clean environment, and concern for the militarization of America's post-World War II foreign policies, he gained the admiration and respect of scholars, journalists, and statesmen the world over.
“Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse”
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“Man Against the Machine”
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Fitzpatrick won the Pulitzer Prize for cartooning twice—in 1926 for a cartoon lampooning America's preoccupation with prohibitive laws, and again in 1954 for a cartoon forewarning America's involvement in Indochina. Aware of his contribution to the recording of twentieth-century history, Fitzpatrick donated nearly 1,500 original drawings to The State Historical Society of Missouri in Columbia. He died on May 18, 1969.
Biography courtesy of The State Historical Society of Missouri, Manuscript Collection-Columbia
