The Herb Block Foundation is committed to defending the basic freedoms guaranteed all Americans, combating all forms of discrimination and prejudice and improving the conditions of the poor and underprivileged through the creation or support of charitable and educational programs with the same goals.
The Foundation is also committed to providing educational opportunity to deserving students through post-secondary education scholarships and to promoting editorial cartooning through continued research.
All efforts of the Foundation shall be in keeping with the spirit of Herblock, America's great cartoonist in his life long fight against abuses by the powerful.
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October 13, 2009 would have been Herblock's 100th birthday!
To honor this centennial year, there was an exhibit at the Library of Congress which is still available online - http://myloc.gov/exhibitions/herblock/Pages/default.aspx
and the release of a book spanning his career. See below:
"Herblock!"
Exhibition at Library of Congress
He was a fearless crusader who condemned corruption and exposed injustice, inequality and immorality. Artfully and effectively wielding his pen, he influenced public opinion and jarred the lives of many elected officials. He was Herblock, the master of editorial cartooning.
The Library of Congress celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herbert L. Block, widely known as Herblock, with an exhibition that looked at his entire 72-year career, which began in 1929 under President Herbert Hoover and concluded in 2001 during the presidency of George W. Bush.
A companion book, "HERBLOCK: The Life and Works of the Great Political Cartoonist" has been published by the Library of Congress and the Herb Block Foundation, in association with W.W. Norton & Co. Written by Haynes Johnson and Harry L. Katz, the 304-page hardcover book features a DVD that contains more than 18,000 cartoons. Arranged chronologically, the book illustrates the influence of history on Block's work as well as his influence on historical events as they unfolded. http://www.amazon.com/Herblock-Works-Great-Political-Cartoonist/dp/0393067726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275055063&sr=1-1
The exhibition is organized similarly, with a chronological layout. The sections include: Herblock's early years, under the title "The Approaching Perils"; the rise of fascism and World War II, "Psychopathic Ward"; the Cold War, "White is Black, Black is White, Night is Day-"; McCarthyism, "Naughty, Naughty"; the 1960s, "Everything's [Not] Okay"; Richard Nixon, "Here He Comes Now"; the 70s and terrorism, "It Gets Into Everything"; Ronald Reagan, "Joy to the World"; Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, "Closing Years, Contrasting Styles of Leadership"; and some special pieces, "Classic Cartoons by a Master."
The 82 original drawings in this exhibition are new to the walls of the Library-they have never been previously displayed. The cartoons have been selected from the Library's Herb Block Collection, with a few iconic drawings loaned from the Washington Post collection. In 2002, the foundation donated Block's archive to the Library, and the collection includes more than 14,000 finished cartoons, in addition to preliminary sketches, files and manuscripts. The Library mounted displays of Herblock's work in 2000, 2003 and 2006.
Born in Chicago on Oct. 13, 1909, Block began his career as a professional cartoonist in 1929, working for the Chicago Daily News and the Newspaper Enterprise Association Service. In 1946, he joined the Washington Post, where he remained for 55 years until his death in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 7, 2001. Block won Pulitzer Prizes in 1942, 1954 and 1979. He shared a fourth Pulitzer with Washington Post colleagues for coverage of the Watergate scandal in 1973.
To view the Herblock collection on the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, visit http://lcweb2.loc.gov/pp/hlbhtml/hlbabt.html.
TRAVELING EXHIBITS:
The Herb Block Foundation presents four panel exhibitions to promote Herblock's efforts to defend the rights and freedoms of Americans through his political cartoons. Created by the Foundation's curator Harry L. Katz, these exhibitions can be used for teaching or promoting the American topics that reflect Herblock's passions - Education, Democracy, Civil Rights, and the Presidency.
No rental fee is required - only the shipping fees are charged. Shipped via Fedex or UPS, the panels come in shipping cases that are easy to move, set up, and store. Illustrated brochures come with the exhibitions and are available to give out free to visitors.
http://www.herblockexhibitions.org/