John T. McCutcheon

1981

John Tinney McCutcheon, the Pulitzer prize-winning cartoonist, was born on a farm near South Raub in Tippecanoe County, the son of John Barr and Clara (Glick) McCutcheon.

He received a B.S. from Purdue in 1889 and a D.H.L. in 1926. He was granted a L.L.D. from Notre Dame in 1931 and a D.H.L. from Northwestern University in 1943.

He married Evelyn Shaw January 20, 1917 and had four children: John T., Evelyn, Shaw and Barr.

He worked at The Chicago Record from 1889-1901 and at The Chicago Record-Herald from 1901-1903.

He then started with The Chicago Tribune July 1, 1903 and worked there until he retired from active work in 1946.

His first political cartoon work started in the campaign of 1896. He started on a trip around the world on the dispatch boat McCullough in January 1898, and was on that vessel in the war against Spain and in the battle of Manila Bay.

He traveled the world extensively and especially with many of the European armies in the battles of World War I.

He participated in exhibitions for wild game, crossing deserts, riding in zepplins across the Atlantic or covering occupied countries.

From 1909-10, he contributed articles and cartoons for The Chicago Sunday Tribune.
John McCutcheon was awarded the Pulitzer prize for cartoons in 1931 in the height of his career.

John McCutcheon was the author of eleven books: Stories of Filipino Warfare, 1900; Cartoons by McCutcheon, 1903; Bird Center Cartoons, 1904; The Mysterious Stranger and Other Cartoons, 1905; Congressman Pumphrey, The People’s Friend, 1907; In Africa, 1910; T.R. in Cartoons, 1910; Dawson III, Fortune Hunter, 1912; The Restless Age; and An Heir at Large.

John T. McCutcheon died June 10, 1949.