Vaughn Shoemaker
American, 1902–1991
John Q. Public had planned on buying a double-decked bed for his youngsters to celebrate his raise in salary, but gave up the idea upon discovering that the price of furniture had received about five or six increases on account of higher costs of production.
INV-2118
Vaughn Shoemaker
American, 1902–19911937, published April 27, 1937
John Q. Public had planned on buying a double-decked bed for his youngsters to celebrate his raise in salary, but gave up the idea upon discovering that the price of furniture had received about five or six increases on account of higher costs of production.
Vaughn Shoemaker American, 1902–1991 →mixed media
Date
1937, published April 27, 1937
Medium
Gelatin silver prints with paper and paint collaged
Dimensions
Image/paper: 21.3 × 28 cm (8 7/16 × 11 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Purchased with funds provided by Robin and Sandy Stuart
The editorial cartoonist Vaughn Shoemaker created the character of John Q. Public to represent the average American caught between bureaucracy, incompetence, and economic imbalance. John Q. Public first appeared in The Chicago Daily News, where Shoemaker—who later won two Pulitzer prizes for his cartoons—began his career in 1922. In numerous collage illustrations, Shoemaker's beleaguered fictional character intervenes in actual scenes documented by staff photographers. The combination of seemingly impartial photographs with an indignant sketched figure—all underlined by a pointed caption—vividly outlined imbalances of power and fairness. This 1937 image would otherwise have served as a perfectly lit advertising photograph, but the reaction of the flabbergasted drawn character to the increased cost of living is summed up in a caption suggesting the mismatch between his paltry raise and the skyrocketing cost of furniture.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
John Q. Public, who, as many Chicagoans, is a hay-fever sufferer, visits a lot at Ravenswood and Morse avs., and between sneezes wonders what is being done to enforce the law requiring property owners to cut the weeds.
Vaughn Shoemaker American, 1902–1991
John Q. Public, who is interested in seeing that his neighbors get a square deal from the city government, visits Oscar E. Hewitt, city commissioner of public works, and learns that if materials could be paid for on the cash on delivery basis contractors might not put their bids on public construction so high.
Vaughn Shoemaker American, 1902–1991
John Q. Public again went after Joseph Geary, president of the Civil Service Commission, to see why the patrolmen's list hasn't been posted yet. He missed Mr. Geary, but had an enlightening conversation with Mr. James S. Osborne, secretary, who placated the old gent somewhat.
Vaughn Shoemaker American, 1902–1991
