Although cartoonist W.E. Hill has now been largely forgotten, he was hailed as the artistic genius of his time--a man who dealt in “making the world safe from hypocrisy.” Every Sunday for years, Americans eagerly awaited “Among Us Mortals,” a full page of satirical illustrations devoted to the everyday citizen. The drawings were so believable that readers swore every sketch was modeled after someone they personally knew. Capturing every banality from Sunday mornings to the barber shop, Hill’s simple drawings give us “the most human conception of our national life ever traced by pen or crayon.” Read more about it!

The information in this guide focuses on primary source materials found in the digitized historic newspapers from the digital collection Chronicling America.

The timeline below highlights important dates related to this topic and a section of this guide provides some suggested search strategies for further research in the collection.