Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: J. Campbell Cory

An excellent profile of John Campbell Cory is at Yesterday’s Paper which was posted September 3, 2014. For this Ink-Slinger profile I will show what I believe were some of the source material for the profile; included are some “new” information and images.

Ancestry.com is a major source for census records, city directories, travel lists and military service. Birth information, occupations and addresses are usually found in such records. Cory was found in artist directories such as American Art Annual 1905–1906 and American Art Annual Volume 10 (1913).

The Arena profiled Cory in its January 1906 issue. The article has some birth information and said Cory was a self-taught artist who was interested in horses. It mentions his early newspaper work and whereabouts.

Several years later, The Scoop, March 6, 1915, profiled Cory in its article, “The Herald’s Cartoonist”, which was reprinted in Cartoons Magazine, May 1915.

Cory’s interest in horses appeared in the New York Press, January 12, 1896, which published his illustrated article, “Perfection in a Horse”. The newspaper reprinted it three days later.

Additional information about Cory and horses was published in the New York Morning Telegraph, February 8, 1900. The article also mentioned his sister, Fanny Young Cory.

Speaking of Fanny, her book-plate for Cory was reported in The Literary Collector, May 1904.

Cory’s publication, The Bee, was reported in the Fourth Estate, May 19, 1898, and The Printer & Bookmaker, June 1898.

Cory produced over 400 cartoons for the New York Evening World in 1901 and from 1905 to 1907.

Cory was one of a dozen cartoonists and illustrators pictured by J.S. Anderson in Success Magazine, February 1906.

Cory was a businessman. The New York Times, February 25, 1902, noted the incorporation of the New York School of Caricature.

Albany, Feb. 24.—The following companies were incorporated to-day:
New York School of Caricature of New York; capital, $20,000. Directors—Louis Dalrymple and Campbell Cory of New York, and S. B. Griffin of Mamaroneck.

The New York Sun, June 23, 1902, published this item about Cory’s gold.

J. Campbell Cory of the Cory Brothers Mining Company has returned from New York. The force at the mine will be largely increased and shipments made. The company owns a big vein of free milling gold ore which will be developed. A number of New York people are interested in this company.

In 1908 Cory published an open letter in the Chicago Tribune (below), February 5 and Golfers Magazine, March 14, where he offered to sell a portion of his land in the Pacific Northwest.

Cory’s second open letter appeared in the Chicago Tribune, February 11, 1908.

It seems Cory was a bit of a thrill-seeker. His November 1909 balloon ride in Cincinnati was described in Aeronautics, January 1910. Photographs of Cory and the balloon are in the 2009 book, Evans and Angola.

Cory’s book, The Cartoonist’s Art, was published in 1912. Cory’s drawings appeared in the Chicago-based publication, The Day Book in 1912 and 1913. In 1913 Cory’s portraits of President Wilson’s cabinet members appeared in the Sante Fe New Mexican. The Publishers Feature Bureau ran this advertisement in Cartoons Magazine, March 1917.

News of Cory’s passing in 1925 appeared in numerous publications. Cory was laid to rest in Millburn Cemetery.

Ad Sense 8/1905

—Alex Jay