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In 1975, when Thomas Milton Kemnitz bemoaned the state of ignorance regarding Victorian cartoons, cartoonists, and periodicals, he might have been cheered had he known that subsequent decades of study would shed much light on his long-neglected subject. The chief cartoonists of 'Punch' are perhaps better known today than at any time since they flourished in the mid- to late nineteenth century, and in researching their work, historians have the benefit of the extensive 'Punch' archive at the British Library on which to draw. As such, Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914) boasts several volumes of biography and a great many scholarly articles devoted to his life and artistry. His successor - Linley Sambourne (1844-1910)- has recently been rescued from relative obscurity by Leonee Ormond, among others. This is largely thanks to the survival of Sambourne's diaries, papers, photographs, and house in Kensington. But beyond the 'Punch' table, a paucity of archival material has made it difficult to construct all but the briefest of surveys of key cartoonists' lives and careers. Matthew Somerville Morgan (1837-90) is perhaps alone in leaving sufficient material to merit several full-length studies, while John Proctor (1836-1914) and John Gordon Thomson (1841-1923) have been given at least some attention by scholars. However, our knowledge of one great Victorian cartoonist - William Henry Boucher (1837-1906)- is still very much limited to what it was fifteen years ago when Lucas Perry Curtis simply stated, "little is known." Boucher succeeded Proctor as chief cartoonist at 'Judy, or the London Serio-Comic Journal' in late 1868, and in this capacity, he provided a clear alternative to the politics of Punch and its more radical rival 'Fun' until 1888. |
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