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Walt Scott Cartoons

An inventory of his cartoons at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: MD
Date: 8 Apr 2009

Biographical History

Walt Scott (1894-1970) was an American cartoonist and creator of the newspaper comic strip The Little People.

Born in Sandusky, Ohio, Walt Scott started his newspaper career in the local printer's shop before pursuing formal art studies at the Cleveland School of Art. Scott paid his dues early as a staff artist for various Cleveland-area engraving houses and ad agencies, but it wasn't until after his service in the U.S. Army during World War I that his career began to take shape. In the early 1920s, he made a quick transition from the art department of the Cleveland Press to the art department of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, and it was here that the "little people" made their first appearance in a strip called The Doonks.

Scott worked for five years in the late 1930s for Walt Disney Studios -- working on animation features like Bambi, Fantasia, Pinocchio and Dumbo -- but it was his work with the NEA syndicate in Cleveland that really defined the bulk of his career. He originally signed on as magazine art director with NEA in 1935, but after his Disney stint, he returned to the syndicate to work on the Captain Easy Sunday page (for Leslie Turner). Despite a demanding and diverse range of assignments for NEA, Scott was eventually able to launch his own Sunday comic strip in 1952, The Little People (with companion strip Huckleberry Hollow). The feature was modestly successful over the years and yielded a number of comic book adaptations by Dell Comics written and drawn by Walt Scott. Scott continued to work on his signature creation until his death in 1970.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Walt Scott Cartoons collection contains original Sunday cartoons from the newspaper comic strip The Little People, with the companion strip Huckleberry Hollow. Sunday cartoon: traces of graphite, opaque white, pasteovers, brush, pen and ink on illustration board, dimensions vary approx. 17 x 25 in. to 19 x 26 in.

Arrangement of the Collection

Cartoons are in chronological order.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

The majority of our archival and manuscript collections are housed offsite and require advanced notice for retrieval. Researchers are encouraged to contact us in advance concerning the collection material they wish to access for their research.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.

Related Material

Special Collections Research Center has collections of over one hundred cartoonists. Please refer to the SCRC Subject Index for a complete listing.

Subject Headings

Persons

Scott, Walt.

Corporate Bodies

Newspaper Enterprise Association.

Associated Titles

Huckleberry hollow (comic strip)
Little people (comic strip)

Subjects

American wit and humor, Pictorial.
Caricatures and cartoons -- United States.
Cartoonists -- United States.
Comic books, strips, etc. -- United States.

Genres and Forms

Cartoons (humorous images)

Occupations

Cartoonists.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Walt Scott Cartoons,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition Information

Gift of Newspaper Enterprise Association, Inc., 1967-1969.

Table of Contents

The Little People cartoons

Inventory