Charles Dana Gibson

James Montgomery Flagg—himself a *Life* contributor and later famous for the Uncle Sam recruiting poster—here turns his pen on the magazine's reigning star, Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the iconic Gibson Girl. The drawing is a spare profile caricature in pencil or charcoal: Gibson's broad, nearly bald dome, strong nose, and high collar are rendered in swift economy of line, the face left largely blank to let silhouette carry the likeness. A wide-brimmed hat brim bisects the composition with deliberate wit. No caption survives. The signature reads *C D Gibson / by J M F*—one celebrity cartoonist anatomizing another, a collegial jest that circulated comfortably within *Life*'s tight fraternity of illustrators who defined genteel American humor before the First World War reshaped the culture that sustained them.