The Cartoons Of Mary Petty

One of the artists featured in my documentary, Women Laughing

Next up in my series of short profiles of the women cartoonists of The New Yorker is Mary Petty! Petty sold her first drawing to The New Yorker in 1927.

Born in Hampton N.J. in 1899, Petty was raised by educated parents and was one of seven children. As a young woman, she wrote a lot in her diary, and always felt “like an outsider” in her own family. In a letter to her future husband, she wrote,

“It seems strange to me to watch these people—for though I appear to be one of them, I feel apart—a watcher— looking at people to whom I feel no call of blood.” This feeling of being an outsider had a political tone to it, she complained about her family’s “simple cares,” and lack of social consciousness. She writes of wanting to “climb ahead” and out of her family’s world (Cartoonists often feel like outsiders, observers).

Knowing this about her, it’s interesting to see the social commentary in her work. She loved to ridicule New York City’s upper class.

Her social consciousness was shared by her husband, Alan Dunn, and it was a way of looking at the world they both felt passionate about. Dunn and Petty most likely met at The New Yorker, Dunn began selling cartoons the year before Petty did. They had a close relationship, and shared a strong mutual interest in each other’s work, living and working together on East 88th Street in New York.

Petty was highly protective of her creative process, and was adamant about writing her own captions. Petty wrote, “This is not because I think my own ideas are that good, but because I have a fear that I might come to depend on others for ideas and therefore any ability I had in that line might become vestigial.”

After a few years of contributing to the magazine, Petty began drawing a character in her cartoons that she repeated, something that not many New Yorker cartoonist have been known to do. This character was a young woman who was a maid for upper class homes. Petty named her Fay; she and her voluminous bow outfits became so popular with the public that the fashion of children’s bows at the time were called “Mary Petty Bows.” Petty even had a doll made for sale—alas, I do not have a photograph of it.

Petty also painted a number of covers for The New Yorker, and many of them included Fay. The wonderful thing about Petty’s work, her covers in particular, is that in them she expresses a slight mocking tone, gently sharing her opinion. Although I don’t think she was mocking Fay, but rather those for whom Fay worked.

I also see a complex and nuanced feminism in her women. Petty was not classically trained, rather she was self taught. You can see it in her line work, which has wonderful personality, and her ideas clearly reflected her view of the world.

Once Petty received a letter from a reader in reaction to the cover below.

“Is the artist being merely funny, or is she trying to portray the Oedipus complex and the emasculating, domineering female? Frankly, I was surprised to find that the artist was a woman. The conception and the portrayal is more in line with the masculine approach.”

Sadly, Petty was assaulted on the street in 1971 and never fully recovered from her injuries. She died in 1976.

Thanks for joining me on this little trip into history. Petty has so many great drawings; it was wonderful to look at them all again in order to share with you.

If you would like to help our film, Women Laughing, get completed, you can go to the link below for more information, and to donate whatever you can. Or just sharing the link would be wonderful, thank you!

Women Laughing Kickstarter

Thank you for being here, see you tomorrow!