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Quincy Scott (1882-1965) was an artist and editorial cartoonist for The Oregonian in Portland from 1931-1949. Scott studied at the Art Students' League in New York City and published cartoons for New York magazines and newspapers in his early career. In 1912, he and his family moved west and resided in both Washington and Montana. He had a variety of jobs while living in Montana and Washington which included working in municipal chambers of commerce, ranching, selling bonds, and an executive position with the Boy Scouts of America. Scott returned to working as a professional artist after moving to Seattle and joining the advertising firm Foster and Kleiser designing outdoor advertisements. In the spring of 1931, Scott was hired at The Oregonian on a trial basis, but was soon made a permanent staff cartoonist. His first cartoon in the paper appeared June 1, 1931. Scott was a politically active member of his community and the Republican Party. In 1941-1942, he took his only sabbatical from The Oregonian, when he was placed on active duty during World War II as part of Morale Division in Washington, D.C. Quincy Scott left The Oregonian in 1949, and died in 1965. [Source: Scott, Q., and Scott, H.A. (1980). The best of Quincy Scott: A picture panorama of the turbulent depression and World War II years. Portland, Or.: Oregon Historical Society.]
The bulk of the Quincy Scott political cartoon collection consists of original artwork for political cartoons for The Oregonian created between 1931 and 1949. These single-frame cartoons are primarily large-format pen and ink drawings on paper, though some works are smaller in scale or drawn on board. Additionally, some of the artworks incorporate collaged news clippings or reproductions of newspaper articles. Formal titles of cartoons supplied by the artist are contained in quotation marks and titles devised by the archivist are not. Dates correspond to those signed by the artist and may or may not reflect its publication date in the newspaper. In addition to The Oregonian cartoons, the Political Cartoons series also includes other undated cartoons, cartoons drawn for other organizations, pencil sketches, newspaper proofs, and memos related to cartoon reproductions. The Unpublished subseries reflects the artist's arrangement of a selection of cartoons separated in a folder he labeled "unpublished." The Comic Strips series includes original artwork drawn for magazines and newspapers during Scott's early career as an illustrator in 1906-1912. Dates, titles, and publishers are supplied where available. The Other subseries of comic strips includes newspaper clippings of Scott's earliest cartoons where the original artwork is not available. The Artwork series includes non-comic artwork created by Scott and is largely composed of original designs for book publications. Legacy finding aid is available upon request.