Admittedly, we get to see a lot of great things in the museum collections department. Lately, we’ve been cataloging and digitizing our collection of artwork and studio objects from John Falter, a Nebraska native most famous for his Saturday Evening Post covers (for more detailed information about Falter and the collection, please go here http://www.nebraskahistory.org/museum/collect/falter.htm and for more information about the cataloging project, go here http://www.nebraskahistory.org/foundatn/newsletr/apr10.pdf). However, as these proofs illustrate, his artistic life didn’t begin or end with the Post and, quite honestly, we’re getting a big kick out of these.
In the early 1930s, Falter did illustrations for the pulp dandies The Master Detective and True Detective published by Macfadden Publications, and Western Story published by Street and Smith. This work is dramatic and filled with violence, danger, and intrigue, a contrast from his later style of family friendly panoramic views exhibited in his Saturday Evening Post covers.
Enjoy a few more–and beware the Murdering Monster of Fairmount Park!
–Deb Arenz, Senior Museum Curator & Karen Anderson, Intern
