Grace Drayton

Drayton was born Grace Gebbie in 1878 in Philadelphia. Her father, George Gebbie, was an art publisher.

Drayton attended Drexel Institute (now Drexel University) and the Philadelphia School of Design for Women (PSDW). While at PSDW, she was a student of the American artist and teacher Robert Henri during 1893 and 1894.{{Cite book|title=American women modernists: the legacy of Robert Henri, 1910-1945|last1=Wardle|first1=Marian|last2=Burns|first2=Sarah|last3=Brigham Young University|last4=Museum of Art|date=2005-01-01|publisher=Brigham Young University Museum of Art in Association with Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, N.J.|isbn=0813536839|location=[Provo, UT]|pages=135, 192|oclc = 57557328|language=en}} Drayton began her career as a freelance artist in 1895. From 1905 to 1909, she was a member of The Plastic Club, an arts organization in Philadelphia.{{cite web|url=http://www.plasticclub.org/drayton.html|title=Grace Gebbie Wiederseim Drayton|website=The Plastic Club|access-date=15 March 2016}} She created the Campbell Soup Kids which was used in advertisements for Campbell's Soup beginning in 1904. The Campbell Soup Kids and Drayton's other children characters were drawn in a cute cherubic style often with round faces, plump bodies, and rosy cheeks.{{Cite web|url=http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2014/03/13/ask-the-archivist-grace-g-drayton|author=The Archivist|title=Ask the Archivist: Grace G. Drayton|date=March 13, 2014|website=Comics Kingdom|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}}

With her sister Margaret G. Hays (1874–1925) as writer, Drayton produced The Adventures of Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland and The Turr’ble Tales of Kaptin Kiddo in the period 1905–1909.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lambiek.net/artists/d/drayton_g.htm|title=Grace Drayton|website=lambiek.net|language=en|access-date=2017-03-11}} Drayton designed the popular Dolly Dingle paper dolls, which appeared in the women's magazine Pictorial Review.

She also created syndicated newspaper comic strips for Hearst/King Features such as Naughty Toodles, Dottie Dimple, Dimples, Dolly Dimples and Bobby Bounce, and The Pussycat Princess. Drayton was the first woman to be a cartoonist for Hearst. The Pussycat Princess was started in 1935. After Drayton's death in 1936, the strip was continued by Ruth Carroll and Ed Anthony.

In 1900 she married Theodore Wiederseim. In 1911, she divorced Wiederseim and married William Drayton, and started signing her work as Grace Drayton. She divorced Drayton in 1923. Grace Drayton died in 1936 and is buried at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Yeadon, Pennsylvania.

The Campbell Soup Kids were an iconic staple of Campbell's Soup advertising strategy for decades. The Campbell Soup Kids drawings and memorabilia remain popular with antique collectors. It is possible that Drayton's work had some influence on Japanese Shōjo manga in the late 1930s. Drayton's Dolly Dingle dolls are part of the Joseph Downs Collection at the Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library.{{Cite web|url=http://www.winterthur.org/html/downs_collection_and_winterthur_archives/xhtml/JDCMcKinstry.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111017223535/http://www.winterthur.org/html/downs_collection_and_winterthur_archives/xhtml/JDCMcKinstry.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=October 17, 2011|title=The Joseph Downs Collection and the Winterthur Archives|website=www.winterthur.org|access-date=2017-03-11}} Some of her work is also part of the collection at The Cartoon Museum.

as Grace G. Wiederseim:

• Toodles / Naughty Toodles / The Strange Adventures of Pussy Pumpkin And Her Chum Toodles! (Hearst, March 22, 1903–January 10, 1904)The Archivist. [http://comicskingdom.com/blog/2013/04/03/ask-the-archivist-toodles-and-pussy-pumpkin "Ask the Archivist: TOODLES and PUSSY PUMPKIN,"] Comics Kingdom (April 3, 2013).
• The Adventures of Dolly Drake and Bobby Blake in Storyland (The Philadelphia Press, 1905–1906) — written by Margaret G. HaysJohn William Leonard, Albert Nelson Marquis, editors. Who's Who in America, Volume 6 (Marquis Who's Who, 1910), [https://books.google.com/books?id=vEMzAAAAMAAJ&dq=Bobby+Blake+Grace+1900+Philadelphia+Press&pg=PA2078 p. 2078].
• The Turr’ble Tales of Kaptain Kiddo (Philadelphia North American Company, 1909) — written by Margaret G. HaysRobbins, Trina. Pretty in Ink: North American Women Cartoonists 1896–2010 (Fantagraphics Books, 2013), pp. 18-21.
• Dottie Dimple (Hearst, 1908–1911)

as Grace Drayton:

• Dimples (Hearst, January 1914–1918)
• Dolly Dimples and Bobby Bounce (King Features, 1928–Spring 1933) — with topper strip Kittens
• The Pussycat Princess (King Features, 1935–1947) — written by Ed Anthony; art continued by Ruth Carroll after Drayton's 1936 death

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{{commons category|Grace Drayton}}

• McGrath, W.E. (2006). [https://web.archive.org/web/20121104014436/http://home.comcast.net/~bluepatch/Biographies/Grace_Drayton_web.htm Grace Drayton, a Children's Illustrator Who also Painted Young Women -- A Biographical Sketch]
• [https://www.dbdowd.com/illustration-history/2015/11/13/grace-gebbie-drayton-wiederseim "Grace Gebbie Drayton (Wiederseim),"] with many images, at D.B. Dowd Studio Notes
• {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20110119141533/http://www.vintagevalentinemuseum.com/2011/01/artist-grace-drayton.html Drayton profile]}}, with many images, at Vintage Valentine Museum
• [https://www.ufdc.org/ufdc-museum-exhibit-campbell-kids-grace-drayton Grace Drayton UFDC Museum Exhibit] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190404173228/https://www.ufdc.org/ufdc-museum-exhibit-campbell-kids-grace-drayton/ |date=2019-04-04 }}
• WorldCat search [https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3ADrayton%2C+Grace&qt=advanced&dblist=638 Grace Drayton]; [https://www.worldcat.org/search?q=au%3AWiederseim&qt=results_page Wiederseim] (evidently not redundant as of September 2016, when her works seem to be the only hits for 'Wiederseim')
• {{LCAuth|n84034417|Grace G. Drayton|8|}} (see also 'Wiederseim' and 'Grace Gebbie' searches)

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Category:1878 births

Category:1936 deaths

Category:American women painters

Category:American women illustrators

Category:American comic strip cartoonists

Category:American women comic strip cartoonists

Category:American children's book illustrators

Category:American women children's book illustrators

Category:American female comics artists

Category:Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery (Yeadon, Pennsylvania)

Category:American female comics writers

Category:Artists from Pennsylvania

Category:Philadelphia School of Design for Women alumni

Category:Drexel University alumni