By Daniel Willis, Audiovisual Archivist

Ohio History Connection recently acquired a collection cartoon advertising artwork created by Cleveland artist Al Margolis during his career working in advertising agencies and greeting card companies. The Al Margolis collection features greeting cards and advertising art created during the 1960s and 1970s. Several forms of art are present in the collection including traditional hand-drawn art, airbrushed art, and even some early 3D work. The collection is an excellent window into how advertising looked and functioned before the adoption of computers. The collection also contains a large number of greeting cards from American Greeting Publishers.

Al Margolis was born in 1939 to parents Louis and Goldie Margolis. He was drawn to art from a very young age. After finishing school, he worked as a mechanic by day and attended the Cooper School of Art by night. There he developed the style and skills necessary to begin a career in the arts. After completing art school, he went to work for the Argus Communications Corporation which was an advertising agency in the area. He created art for numerous organizations and public relations campaigns including the Cleveland RTA. He also spent time working at the Cleveland Plain Dealer where he created a weekly cartoon. In addition to his advertising and cartoon work, he was employed by American Greeting Publishers, a Cleveland-based company, where he worked on art for their greeting cards. At American Greetings he created countless cards in their "Hi Brows" line which featured snarky and humorous messages for all occasions.

Al's cartoons and illustrations cover a wide range of ideas, from sports psychology to interpersonal relationships. His character work featured exaggerated big-nosed, bug-eyed characters and shared an authentic, humanist and humorous worldview to readers. While his work may appear simple, it was the result of a complex and laborious composition process. His greeting cards featured elaborate folds and cutouts to accentuate his punchlines. It is difficult to showcase the effect of these folds and cutouts in a static image. Al's work shares many similar elements across the many forms he worked in. Below we can see a few examples from his career ranging from his initial line work to finalized color image, newspaper comics, and a greeting card. These images represent a small sample of what is in the Al Margolis collection.

If you would like view AV 721, the Al Margolis collection, or any of our archival collections, please consider booking a research appointment at the following link: https://ohiohistory.libcal.com/

To find more collections related to Ohio’s rich history you can search the Ohio History Connection catalog: https://ohiohistory.on.worldcat.org/discovery

For further information on the library please visit https://www.ohiohistory.org/research/archives-library/