Norman Rockwell, the American cartoonist and illustrator whose works featured on 322 “Saturday Evening Post” covers over 47 years and defined the image of the American family for generations was born on February 3rd in 1894. Rockwell’s idyllic paintings were so beloved, and so ubiquitous, that “Rockwellian” no longer just means “painted by Normal Rockwell” but rather a description of optimistically perfect family scenes of all stripes. The Rockwell name has become synonymous with American tradition.
Rockwell started his career as an illustrator as an artist for the U.S. Navy during the first World War. In 1913, a 19 year old Rockwell became the art editor for “Boys Life,” published by the Boy Scouts of America. He held the post for three years and, as part of the position, published his first ever magazine cover – Scout at Ship’s Wheel. His first cover of the Post came a few years later when, at age 21, Rockwell submitted Mother’s Day Off which was published May 20th, 1916. He was published on the Post cover eight more times in the next twelve months. Rockwell’s work was also featured in “The Library Digest,” “The Country Gentleman,” “Leslie’s Weekly,” “Judge,” “Peoples Popular Monthly” and “Life Magazine.” Rockwell also created images that still define iconic American companies like Coca-Cola and Ford today.
Google is honoring this American icon today by replacing its regular logo with a riff on his Little Spooners. This image of a boy and girl, lost in puppy love and enchanted by the setting sun, is typical of the author’s signature style of recording American life. Little Spooners was originally published on April 24, 1926. The Google tribute has created such a stir that excessive web traffic has crashed the Norman Rockwell Museum website.
