Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Edmund Frederick

Edmund Frederick was born on April 2, 1870, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, according to several passenger lists at Ancestry.com and his Social Security application which named his parents, Philip Frederick and Mina V. Tonndore.

In the 1870 U.S. Federal Census, Frederick was the youngest of three siblings. The family of five were residents of Philadelphia.

The 1880 census recorded the Fredericks in Philadelphia at 2235 Reese Street. Frederick’s father, born in Prussia, was a gas fitter, and mother a Saxony native.

Information about Frederick’s education and art training has not been found.

The Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, at Ancestry.com, said “Friederich” married Clara A. Huenke on September 14, 1890 at the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Egg Harbor City, New Jersey.

According to the 1900 census, artist Frederick, his wife and sister, Wilhelmina, also an artist, lived in Brooklyn, New York at 322 Fenimore Street, his address through 1925.

Frederick was a prolific newspaper and magazine illustrator. He had frontispieces in December 1902 issues of Cosmopolitan and the Delineator. Other magazines include The Saturday Evening Post, Munsey's Magazine, Hampton's Magazine, Motor and McCall’s Magazine. His artwork filled serialized stories in newspapers and graced weekly covers. 

Frederick illustrated numerous books including The Green Mouse (1910), The Seventh Noon (1910), The Haunted Pajamas (1911), Stanton Wins (1911), The Unafraid (1913), and Betty at Fort Blizzard (1916).

The Newspaper Feature Service produced a long-running series of romantic cartoons, by several artists, beginning in 1913. Frederick contributed to the series in 1926.

On March 29, 1920 Frederick, his wife and sister returned from Bermuda.

Frederick’s wife passed away August 25, 1924 in Brooklyn.

From 1925 to the mid-1930s Frederick made many visits to Havana, Cuba. A 1926 passenger list had Frederick’s address as 330 West 58th Street, New York, New York. It would remain the same through 1940. A 1941 passenger list said Philadelphia was Frederick’s address.

Frederick passed away May 26, 1949, in Manhattan, New York City, according to the New York, New York, Death Index at Ancestry.com.


—Alex Jay