Charles Dana Gibson at the Drawing Board

This photograph — displayed here as artist documentation rather than a cartoon plate — shows Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944) in profile, working at an angled drafting board, pen in hand, a cloth or palette held in his left. His dark frock coat and close-cropped, receding hair match period portraits of the illustrator at the height of his fame. Gibson was *Life* magazine's defining talent, whose idealized 'Gibson Girl' set the visual standard for American femininity across two decades. His pen-and-ink work included comic illustrations of Irish, Jewish, and Black figures.