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Contributor
- Background
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In 1913, Ruby Campbell enrolled in a correspondence Commercial Illustrator's Diploma course with the Battle Creek School of Applied Art in Michigan, USA (est. 1898). She received books of instructions and exercises to complete and post back to the school, where her work was marked, and comments sent back to her in letters from her instructors. The exercises included technical drawing of machinery and parts, black and white line drawings of people and buildings, colour portraits like the one shown here, and political cartoons. Each exercise was numbered and labelled with Ruby's name and address. She completed the course and attained her Commercial Illustrator's Diploma in 1915.
Advertisement for School of Applied Art
The Battle Creek School of Applied Art advertised correspondence art courses in Popular Mechanics Magazine, which may have been how Ruby Campbell discovered the course. The link below is to a 1909 edition of Popular Mechanics.
- Additional image
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A Comment on US/British relations?
One of the Political Cartoons completed by Ruby for her Commercial Illustrator's Diploma. This one is clearly marked "Plate 9" on the bottom right corner, and her address is visible below the illustration. As the Battle Creek School of Art was based in the USA, most of the cartoons contain references to American politics of the late 1800's/early 1900's; some feature Theodore Roosevelt, but this particular one has Uncle Sam and a young woman (representing Britain) as the characters.
