Juanita Hamel

Juanita Hamel Early Fowle (April 27, 1891 – July 12, 1939) was an American artist and writer whose syndicated stories and illustrations appeared in newspapers across the United States in the 1910s and 1920s.

Juanita Hamel, from a 1922 publication.

Early life

Juanita Hamel was born in DeSoto, Missouri, the daughter of Frederick G. Hamel and Lucile McCormack Hamel (later Lucile Hamel Craven). She studied at the St. Louis School of Fine Arts, part of Washington University in St. Louis.[1]

Career
"Autumn!" (1920) by Juanita Hamel for the St. Louis Republic

By 1916, Hamel was employed as an artist at the St. Louis Times. Soon after, she moved to Chicago and joined the staff at the Chicago Herald. She moved to New York City by 1920. Her illustrations, often young pretty women with voluminous hair,[2][3][4] were syndicated nationally through the Hearst Newspaper Feature Syndicate.[5] She also illustrated magazines and sheet music.[6][7] Her style is sometimes considered as influenced by comic artist Nell Brinkley.[8]

She was quoted in 1921, summarizing her career path to that date:

I landed my first job on the St. Louis Times, and covered all sorts of assignments, from murder trials to interviewing Mrs. Woodrow Wilson. Then I went to the Chicago Herald where I wrote fiction in serial and short story form. Another short step and I was in New York drawing for the Newspaper Feature Service.[9]

Fiction by Hamel included The Girls of the Second Floor Back (serialized in 1916)[10] and The Straight Girl on the Crooked Path (serialized in 1917).[11]

Personal life

Juanita Hamel married twice. She married John Vinton "Tim" Early,[8] a fellow newspaper illustrator, in 1921.[12] She was widowed when Early died in 1925.[13] She later married Alison Fowle, an English lord, and lived in Hamilton, Bermuda, with regular visits back to the United States. She died there in 1939, aged 48 years.[14] Illustrations by Hamel are in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress.[5]

References
  1. Alex Jay, "Ink-Slinger Profiles by Alex Jay: Juanita Hamel" Stripper's Guide (December 4, 2013).
  2. Juanita Hamel, "Pearl" Norwalk Hour (July 26, 1922): 8.
  3. Juanita Hamel, "When They All Come Home" Evening News (February 1, 1919): 12. via Newspapers.comopen access
  4. Juanita Hamel, "Outrivalled" Lincoln Evening Journal (July 1, 1925): 7. via Newspapers.comopen access
  5. Sara Duke, Biographical Sketches of Cartoonists and Illustrators in the Swann Collection of the Library of Congress (Lulu.com 2014): 139. ISBN 9781304858887
  6. Dorothy Dale, "How to Be an Old Maid" Chicago Sunday Herald Fiction Magazine (October 21, 1917), illustrated by Juanita Hamel.
  7. "Famous Cupid Cartoons" Journal and Courier (June 13, 1921): 1. via Newspapers.comopen access
  8. "Newspaper Artists' Wedding Announced" Pittsburgh Press (August 6, 1921): 17. via Newspapers.comopen access
  9. "Our New Artists" Iowa City Press-Citizen (September 28, 1921): 6. via Newspapers.comopen access
  10. Juanita Hamel, "The Girls of the Second Floor Back" San Francisco Chronicle (October 15, 1916): 22. via Newspapers.comopen access
  11. Juanita Hamel, "The Straight Girl on the Crooked Path" Winnipeg Tribune (May 5, 1917): 58. via Newspapers.comopen access
  12. "Artist Home from Europe" Fourth Estate (October 22, 1922): 20.
  13. Obituaries, Pittsburgh Daily Post (October 7, 1925): 9.
  14. "Mrs. Allison Fowle, Former Newspaper Artist, Dies" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (July 12, 1939): 17. via Newspapers.comopen access
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