Original works of art

Paul Bransom is perhaps best known today for his work for such magazines as "The Saturday Evening Post," but he was also a painter of note. Born in Washington DC, he left school at the age of fourteen to take a job at the U.S. Patent Office. He then became a draftsman with the Southern Railway and the General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York.

He joined "The New York Evening Journal" where he did the cartoon strip, "News from Bugville" and freelanced as an artist for the "New International Encyclopedia." Like many animal artists before him, he spent a great deal of time studying from life at the Zoological Park. In 1906, at the young age of 21, he sold four covers to "The Saturday Evening Post," and was commissioned by George Horace Lorimer to illustrate a story. His career was to include literally hundreds of illustrations for various magazines and more than forty books. Many of his works in the collection are of Bull Terriers, believed to be portraits of his own dog.