Anne Briardy Mergen, 1906-1994

Anne Briardy Mergen Drawings WWP

Photo credit - LOC

An editorial cartoonist, the first and only woman editorial cartoonist in the US until the 1950s'.



Anne Briardy Mergen was born in Omaha, Nebraska. Discovering her love for art from a young age, she went on to study commercial art at the American Academy of Art in Chicago. At the age of 20, she moved with her family to Miami, Florida, where she worked as a fashion advertising artist for a local department store. At the age of 26, she married Frank Mergen, and the couple had two children.

In 1933, at the age of 27, Mergen tried her luck and submitted some fashion drawings to the Miami Daily News. Her unique perspective, style, and skill caught the editor’s attention, and the paper began publishing her cartoons. Her first published drawing was a one-page fashion story titled “Anne and Peg’s Scrapbook.” Soon, the strip was expanded into a two-page feature and published for three years.

In that same year, the newspaper published Mergen’s first political cartoon. After three years, she was appointed the editorial cartoonist of the newspaper, the first and only female editorial cartoonist in the US.

In her cartoons, Mergen covered local, national, and international political and social issues. From tourism in Florida to the Great Depression, World War II, the Polio epidemic, and the Iron Curtain. Her witty cartoons became the readers’ favorite, and Mergen gained national recognition.

At the age of 50, Mergen left the Miami Daily News but continued to create cartoons as a freelance for several more years. Throughout her career, she published more than 7000 cartoons, often highlighting topics she cared about, such as world peace, domestic problems, community well-being, and the importance of education. Mergen died at the age of 88. Her work paved the way for other female cartoonists.

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Fun Facts

  • In 1939, the Miami Daily News won the Pulitzer Prize for exposing local government corruption. Her cartoon for the piece was a significant element in the article. After the win, the editor said- "Don't let anyone ever tell you it wasn't Mergen cartoons that won the Pulitzer today."
  • She received fan letters from Eleanor Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover.
  • Two of her cartoons were kept in the Roosevelt Memorial Room in Hyde Park.
  • The Anne Mergen Collection is preserved at The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum in Columbus, Ohio.

Awards

  • The Wendy Warren Award from Today's Woman magazine (1953)

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Category: Arts and Media
Tags: Cartoonist and Painter

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