has spent a lot of time collecting and studying the history of illustration, a category of artwork that art historians and art museums have often overlooked.
His interest was sparked when the son of illustrator offered to donate his late father鈥檚 papers to Washington University, where Dowd teaches illustration, design and cultural history.
When Dowd got a look at the materials, stacked in a California garage, he glimpsed artifacts from a once-prominent line of work that had become all but forgotten, he said, because it doesn鈥檛 fit into a history of fine art.
鈥淭here was nowhere for that stuff to go. It had no cultural home because it鈥檚 this in-between, deeply contingent stuff that illustration always is,鈥� Dowd said. 鈥淚 was fascinated by that reality. I was saddened and fascinated.鈥�
Dowd recommended that Washington University take the materials. It is the cornerstone of what became the school鈥檚 Modern Graphic History Library 鈥� a collection that was named after Dowd in 2016.
His own work includes , a blog where he鈥檚 published observations about visual culture since 2007; 鈥�,鈥� a book-length examination of the history of the art form; two collections culled from 鈥�,鈥� a pointed political cartoon series about race and class that he published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the late 1990s; and the newly released 鈥�,鈥� a full-throated indictment of Pres. Donald Trump communicated through the form of an alphabet book for very young readers. He authored it with designer .
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