Herschel C. Logan

Logan was born on April 19, 1901, in Magnolia, Missouri, to Oliver Cary Logan (1877-1944)

and Leota Pinkie Bills Logan (1880-1902).{{cite web

| title = Ancestry.com. Leota Bill, Facts, from Opliger Whitney Framily Tree

| url = https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/13273859/person/26005500272/facts

| publisher = Ancestry.com Operations Inc.

| location = Provo, UT, USA

| access-date = 2 Jul 2022

}}

After the death of his mother in January 1902 his father took the remaining family, including his grandparents, to live on a farm near Winfield, Kansas.

{{cite web

| title = Kansapedia, Dust Storm Print

| url = https://www.kshs.org/kansapedia/dust-storm-print/10222

| publisher = Kansas Historical Society

| location = Topeka, KS

| access-date = 2 Jul 2022

}}

At Winfield High School he became the staff cartoonist for the school newspaper, The Oracle.

{{cite book

|first=Susan V.

|last=Craig

|title=Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active Before 1945)

|location=Lawrence, KS

|publisher=Susan V. Craig

|date=2009

|url=https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/bitstream/handle/1808/1028/BDKAversion2.pdf

|access-date=16 March 2022}}

After graduation in 1920 he studied commercial art at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts. He also took courses at the Olivet Institute in Chicago

{{cite web

| title = Olivet Institute sketchbook

| url = https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/7937

| publisher = Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art, Kansas State University

| location = Manhattan, KS

| access-date = 3 Mar 2022

}}

and through the Federal School (aka Art Instruction, Incorporated), a correspondence art school in Minneapolis.

{{cite periodical

| title = Drawing Turns Ink to Gold (advertisement for the 'Federal School of Illustrating')

| journal = Popular Science

| volume = 113

| issue = 3

| publisher = Popular Science Publishing Co., Inc.

| location = New York, N. Y.

| date = Sep 1928

}}

On June 20, 1924, Logan married his first wife, Susie Titus (1902-1990), in Wichita, Kansas.

From correspondence with son Samuel, March 20, 2022: "[My] Mother’s full name is Susie Titus ... She had no middle name. She was born January 25, 1902, in Waldo, Ks to Casper Grant and Lona May Crawford Titus. Susie and Herschel were married June 20, 1924, in Wichita, Ks. Mom died August 24, 1990. Susie and Herschel were divorced August 5, 1956

They had two children, Samuel Herschel Logan and Peggy Joan Logan.

After a year of studying art in Chicago, Logan took a position as branch manager for Salina Mid-Continent Engraving{{Cite news |title=Th' Colonel cal'ates thet ever'body ken be his frend |newspaper=The Salina Journal |date=13 Apr 1975 |page=7 |access-date=4 Mar 2022 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/8121258/the-salina-journal/}} before accepting a job as a commercial artist for the McCormick-Armstrong Lithography Company in Wichita. One of his contributions was a series of woodcuts offered as “Exclusive Holiday Greetings from Wood Cuts by Herschel C. Logan”.

{{Cite news

|title = Exclusive Holiday Greetings

|newspaper = The Wichita Eagle

|date = November 1, 1925

|page = 19

|access-date = 3 Mar 2022

|url = https://www.newspapers.com/image/718276799/?terms=%22herschel%20c%20logan%22}} {{Subscription required}}

Logan left Wichita in 1929 to work for the Consolidated Printing and Stationery Company in Salina, becoming its director in 1931. He stayed there until he retired in 1967, and soon after moved to Santa Ana, California. There he met and married his second wife, Anne Lawrence Serven, in 1970.{{cite web

| title = Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1960-1985 [database on-line]

| url = https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1726970:1144

| publisher = Ancestry.com Operations Inc.

| location = Provo, UT, USA

| access-date = 2 Jul 2022

}}

Soon after, Logan started a new career publishing miniature books (see below), and would travel around California drawing and painting trees and landscapes, typically ink or graphite with watercolor.

Logan died on December 8, 1987, in Santa Ana, California.{{cite web

| year = 2014

| title = Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 [database on-line]

| url = https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=3693&h=37223350

| publisher = Ancestry.com Operations Inc.

| location = Provo, UT, USA

| access-date = 2 Jul 2022

}}

{{Cite news |title=Herschel C. Logan (obituary) |newspaper=The Salina Journal |date=20 Dec 1987 |page=7 |access-date=2 Jul 2022 |url=https://newspaperarchive.com/salina-journal-dec-20-1987-p-11/}}

It was at the Olivet Institute that Logan met fellow artists like Glenn Golton, Louis Grell, and Harry Muir Kurtzworth. A friendship with C.A. Seward,”Several accounts indicate that Logan met Seward after joining McCormick-Armstrong, however, according to a [https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/7937 sketchbook of Logan’s in the Beach Museum], the two met in Chicago while Logan was in school.” - From a staff annotated bio, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art at Kansas State University a well-known Kansas printmaker, heightened Logan's interest in woodcuts; it also put Logan in contact with other printmakers such as Lloyd Foltz, Charles Capps, Clarence Hotvedt, and Leo Courtney and painter Birger Sandzen from nearby Lindsborg. It was through these friendships that Logan learned the art of printmaking, and that eventually led to their founding, with others, the Prairie Print Makers society in 1930.{{cite book |last1=North |first1=Cori Sherman |title=In the Center of It All: 90 Years of the Prairie Print Makers |date=2020 |publisher=The Birger Sandzén Memorial Foundation |location=Lindsborg, Kansas |url=https://sandzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-Sandzen-Gallery-Prairie-Print-Maker-WEB-CATALOG.pdf|accessdate=8 January 2022}} There Logan “lent his skill as a craftsman and instinctive aptitude for carving wood blocks that had established his national recognition by the age of twenty-three.”{{cite web |url=https://www.cahotvedt.com/15-prairie-print-makers |title=Chapter 15: The Prairie Print Makers 1930-1966 |last=Hotvedt |first=Steve |date=2020 |website=C.A. Hotvedt, Prairie Print Maker |access-date=17 Feb 2022}}

Logan gained considerable recognition for his body of editioned woodcuts, most of them about Kansas. He was exhibited extensively in the Mid-West, but also at international exhibitions in Los Angeles and at the 1939 New York World's Fair. Logan worked from life, using photographs or sketches he made on location, often finding inspiration in simple structures by the roadside while driving. He would spend several days studying and refining a sketch before proceeding.

In 1938 Logan collaborated on a book entitled “Other Days in Pictures and Verse”. Presenting a nostalgic view of "The Good Old Days" in small town America, it incorporates 12 woodcuts, prose poems by Everett Scrogin, and decorations by C.A. Seward.{{cite book |first=Herschel C. |last=Logan |title=Other Days in Pictures and Verse |location=Kansas City, Missouri |publisher=Burton Publishing Co. |date=1928}}

Portraits were another favorite subject for Logan. Twelve prints of famous Americans were gathered into a book with short biographies,{{cite book |first=Herschel C. |last=Logan |title=12 Famous Americans |location=[Salina, Kansas] |publisher=Consolidated-Salina |date=1936}} and later reissued as a calendar by the Consolidated Printing Company.{{cite book |first=Herschel C. |last=Logan |title=12 Famous Americans Calendar|location=[Salina, Kansas] |publisher=Consolidated Printing |date=c. 1948}}

Famous printers and printmakers throughout history were another focus of Logan's portraiture. He produced over 100 portraits in pen in ink for a book project “Great Names in Printing Through Six Centuries” that was never realized despite having lithographic reproductions prepared and possible page mockups.{{cite web |url=https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/13084 |title=Great Names in Printmaking |author= |date=n.d. |website=Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art |access-date=15 Mar 2022}} Fifteen of these were published posthumously in the miniature book Portraits of Some Famous PrintersLogan, Herschel C, Bela Blau, Vance Gerry, and Patrick Reagh. Portraits of Some Famous Printers. Los Angeles: Zamorano Club, 1992. Print. as a keepsake for the 1992 joint meeting of the Roxburghe & Zamorano Clubs.

Logan abandoned fine art printmaking in general after 1938. Logan himself recalled “...after my friend Seward’s long illness and death [Jan 31, 1939], I simply lost interest in making prints.”{{cite book |first=Barbara |last=Thompson |title=C.A. Seward Memorial Guest Print Maker Program |location=[Wichita, Kansas] |publisher=Wichita State University |date=2011}} “But perhaps more to blame were Herschel’s restless energies which were diverted to other enterprises.”{{cite book |first=Anthony L. |last=Lehman |title=Herschel Logan: Man of Many Careers |location=Los Angeles |publisher=Westerners, Los Angeles Corral |date=1986}} By then he had thoroughly explored his love of the Kansas countryside from farms to towns to landmarks, often revisiting scenes often in different seasons or different times of the day. Logan later reflected “After World War II, abstract art and painting became more popular and took over, and printmaking just kind of fell apart."{{cite news |last=Demuth |first=Gary |date=June 1, 2007 |title=Salina printmaker Herschel Logan captured Kansas in woodcut art |url=https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AMNP&t=&sort=YMD_date%3AD&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-0=%22herschel%20c%20logan%22&docref=news/11C568004F80CBB8 |work=Salina Journal |location=Salina, KS |access-date=13 Mar 2022}}

Logan did not completely abandon woodblock printing, nor its companions linocut and rubber plates. Throughout his career he advocated woodcut as a desirable medium for a straightforward presentation of an idea in his commercial work and designed many woodcut logos, emblems and bookplates.

{{cite journal

| last1 = Logan

| first1 = Herschel C.

| date = Spring 1931

| title = Woodcut Technique

| url = https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/11501

| journal = The Federal Illustrator

| location = Minneapolis, Minn.

| publisher = Federal Schools

| access-date = 12 Jul 2022

}}

This extended to a woodcut style – he emulated woodcuts in many of his commercial work and later drawings, a technique he developed for advertising purposes, “satisfactory and yet may be produced quickly and with less difficulty”.{{cite news |date=30 March 1933 |title=Herschel C. Logan of Salina, Kansas …] |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/513332892 |work=The Christian Science Monitor |location=Boston, Mass |access-date=16 Mar 2022|id={{ProQuest|513332892}} }} Logan continued to produce numerous portraits throughout his life, generally in pen and ink. A large collection is found in his “Little Portraits of Famous Americans”, a miniature book from 1973.

In 1939, Logan began hosting “The Consolidated Hour”, a weekly series of radio talks on KSAL in which he talked about Kansas industries. Starting January 2, 1939, he introduced “The Colonel” in advertisements for Consolidated Printing and Stationery.{{cite book

| first = Emmett William

| last = Burke

| title = The Story of The Colonel: as told by Bill burke in the Salina Journal

| publisher = Log-Anne Press

| location = Santa Ana, CA

| year = 1975

| website = Postcard History

| url = https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/11517

| access-date = 2 Jul 2022

}}

The Colonel was a dapper cartoon gentleman in a long black frock coat and vest, sporting a Kentucky Colonel necktie, a wide-brimmed Stetson hat, a handlebar mustache, and a goatee. He offered short bits of homespun philosophy, “sometimes serious, sometimes merely amusing, but never bitter”.

{{cite book

|last1 = Burke

|first1 = Bill

|last2 = Logan

|first2 = Herschel C.

|title = The Story of the Colonel

|location = Santa Ana, Calif.

|publisher = Log-Anne Press

|date = 1975

}} Logan himself describes The Colonel as a bit of Abe Lincoln, Will Rogers, Teddy Roosevelt and other characters he admired.

{{cite web

| title = Jot It Down

| first = Herschel C.

| last = Logan

| date = c. 1955

| website = Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art

| url = https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/11495/jot-it-down/

| access-date=17 Mar 2022}}

A mainstay of Consolidated advertising, The Colonel appeared weekly in the Salina Journal for nearly 30 years. Logan both drew and wrote copy for the Colonel, becoming so identified with his creation that “The Colonel” became a widely used nickname among colleagues and friends. Indeed, as Logan himself was a Kentucky Colonel since 1934 and sometimes dressed the part,

{{cite web

|title = Herschel C. Logan dressed as The Colonel

|date = c. 1960

|website = Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art

|url = https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/12922

|access-date = 21 Mar 2022

}}

“The Colonel" was very much his alter ego.

Logan contributed a considerable amount of art to Consolidated's work products through the years, from small decoration to full illustrations. An advertising sheet contains numerous samples of his work.{{cite web |url=https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/12932 |title=A Complete Art and Advertising Service |date=c. 1952 |website=Kansas State University, Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art |access-date=21 Mar 2022}} A postcard illustration of the Brookville Hotel in Brookville, Kansas, shows his use of the woodcut style.{{cite web |url=https://postcardhistory.net/2021/09/herschel-logan-and-the-brookville-hotel-the-rest-of-the-story/ |title=Herschel Logan and the Brookville Hotel: the Rest of the Story |first=Ray |last=Hahn |date=2021-09-15 |website=Postcard History |access-date=19 Feb 2022}}

Since Logan was young he was interested in guns, whittling rifles and pistols as a boy on the farm.{{cite magazine |last=Baker |first=L.V. |title=Personality Profile : Herschel C. Logan |magazine=Arms Gazette |date=April 1986 |page=18 |location=North Hollywood, Calif. |publisher=Bienfeld Pub. Co. |url=https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/12806/arms-gazette-cover-story-sw-model-1-third-issue-part-1 |access-date=11 Mar 2022}} He collected his first antique firearm, a blunderbuss, in 1932.

{{cite journal

| last1 = Logan

| first1 = Herschel C.

| date = July 1962

| title = A Flintlock Blunderbuss Started It All

| journal = Shooting Times: Voice of the Gun Enthusiast

| pages = 18–21

}}

As his collection grew, Logan became an expert in firearms and ammunition, authoring and illustrating a number of books that continue to be standard historical references. He also contributed drawings and articles to the American Rifleman over a period of more than two decades. Logan became a popular lecturer in the Civil War Roundtable circuit as a noted collector and historian.

When Logan purchased a Smith & Wesson American .44 engraved “Texas Jack, Cottonwood Spring, 1872”, he learned all he could about John B. “Texas Jack” Omohundro, a colorful Old West showman and scout.A photo of the gun can be found at

{{cite web

| website = Texas Jack Association

| title = Texas Jack's Smith & Wesson First Model American Revolver

| url = https://www.texasjack.org/items/Texas-Jack%27s-Smith-%26-Wesson-First-Model-American-Revolver

| access-date = 5 Jul 2022

}} The result was the book “Buckskin and Satin: The Life of Texas Jack (J.B. Omohundro)”.

{{cite book

| first = Herschel C.

| last = Logan

| title = Buckskin and Satin: The Life of Texas Jack (J.B. Omohundro)

| date = 1954

| location = Harrisburg, PA

| publisher = The Stackpole Company

}} -- from the author's preface: "I chanced ... to acquire an interesting revolver ... engraved 'TEXAS JACK COTTONWOOD 1872'. This would be interesting enough for the average person, but to an arms collector of many years standing, it was a thrilling bit of good fortune in that it offered an ideal incentive to delve back into history. ... the question as to the identity of the man whose name appeared on the side of the gun became uppermost in my thoughts. ... [my search] uncovered what is to me a most absorbing story of ... two inherently modest young people [whose] accomplishments were such as to reserve them a place among the immortals of the plains and stage."

Other gun-related texts:

• Cartridges: a Pictorial Digest of Small Arms Ammunition
• Hand Cannon to Automatic: A Pictorial Parade of Hand Arms
• The Little Book of Guns: A Chronology
• The Muzzle Loading Rifle Then and Now
• The Pictorial History of the Underhammer Gun

Since his Consolidated Printing days Logan had been fascinated by the art and craft of printing and publishing. In 1940 he built a small-scale working model of Gutenberg's press out of wood for a display as part of the 500th Anniversary of Printing. In 1973 he purchased a Baby Reliance Hand Press and started a new career as a publisher of miniature books. The Log-Anne Press, named after him and his wife, operated out of a studio behind their Santa Ana home. The company published some 50 books.

Logan's interests were broad and found expression in a number of valuable collections. An early love was the Civil War, sparked when he learned his maternal grandfather had been active in that conflict. By 1967, he had a collection of over 600 antique guns and edged weapons, focused on the Civil War and other items. “My collection included … firearms, uniforms, badges, medical gear, battle rattle, souvenirs – anything that would present a picture of the times through the relics that were left.”

In the 1930s, Logan wrote to illustrators Herbert Johnson and J.N. “Ding” Darling, hoping to start a collection of cartoon art. He offered some of his work for theirs, and to his surprise, they agreed. He continued to barter his work for the works of others, amassing one of the greatest collections of cartoon and illustrator art from the 19th and 20th century. The cartoons are now in the special collections department at Kansas State University Library. Twelve oil paintings by American magazine illustrators are in the care of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.{{cite web |url=https://beach.k-state.edu/visit/news/newsletters/21006_ARTS_BeachSpring2020Newsletter_6_RB_SpellCheck_Minisa.pdf |title=Logans provide funding for conservation of American illustration collection |author= |orig-date=Winter/Spring 2020 edition |website=Kansas State University, InSIGHT (newsletter)|access-date=17 Feb 2022}}

His other collections included:

• Rare 18 and 32 pound Sibley stoves
• A set of John Rogers Civil War sculptures
• Civil War era sabers and swords, including a sword from the Quantrill raid on Lawrence, Kansas
• Dime Novels

As well as:{{cite web |url=https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/12651/herschel-c-logan-business-card |title=Herschel C. Logan business card |author= |date=c. 1965 |website=Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art |publisher=Kansas State University |access-date=11 Mar 2022}}

• Mustache Cups
• Relics and Curios

Except as noted, items are from “In Memoriam, Herschel C. Logan”.

Memorial Service Program, courtesy of Samuel H. Logan.

Salinas, Kansas 1929-1968

• Art Director, Consolidated Printing and Stationery Co. for 37 years
• Chief, Auxiliary Police, World War II
• President, Salinas Rotary Club,1949–50
• Director, Salinas Chamber of Commerce
• President, Christian Laymen's Association
• Member, City Planning Board
• Secretary, Board of Trustees, Salina Public Library

State and national activities

• Board of Directors, Kansas State Historical Society
• Vice-president, American Society of Arms Collectors, 1955–56
• President, American Society of Arms Collectors, 1957–58
• Member of Board of Directors, American Society of Arms Collectors
• Fellow of the company, Military Historians and Collectors
• Member, Arms and Armour Society of England
• Life Member, Muzzle-Loading Rifle Association
• Contributing Editor, “The American Rifleman”
• Member, Los Angeles Corral of the Westerners
• Member, Company of Military Historians and “fellow” of the company

Memberships

• Salina Lodge No. 60 A.F. & A.M.
• Salina Consistory
• Salina Chapter No. 18 Royal Arch Masons
• Askelon Commandery No. 6, K.T.
• Isis Temple Shrine
• El Bandito Shrine Club, Santa Ana, California
• Past President, Los Compadres con Libros
• Trinity United Presbyterian Church, Santa Ana

• See List of works of Herschel C. Logan

An extensive collection of over 1600 prints (published and unpublished), books, paintings, drawing, studies, sketchbooks, original wooden blocks and other artifacts, plus Logan's collection of cartoon and illustrator art, can be found at the [https://beach.emuseum.com/collections Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art], Kansas State University. All their holdings have been digitized.

Additional collections:

• Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Research Library. [https://libweb.lib.tcu.edu/F/?func=direct&local_base=MUS01&doc_number=000265057 Herschel Logan : Artist Files]
• [https://www.lib.uiowa.edu/sc/smith/ Charlotte M. Smith Collection of Miniature Books], University Archives, The University of Iowa Libraries: a large collection of Log-Anne Press and other miniature books
• Cleveland Museum of Art, Ingalls Library. [https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/946186519 Logan, Herschel C., 1901-. artist file]
• [https://smartify.org/artists/herschel-c-logan-2/artworks Emprise Bank Art Gallery]
• [https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-museum-of-history/19578 Kansas Museum of History]
• [https://sandzen.org Sandzén Memorial Art Gallery]
• University of California, Irvine, Langson Library.[https://uci.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CDL_IRV_INST/12i4laf/alma991013173949704701 The Westerners collection]
• Ablah Library. [https://libcat.wichita.edu/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=1279423 Wichita State University, Artist File: Herschel C. Logan]
• [https://wichitaartmuseum.org Wichita Art Museum], 170+ items including most of Logan's miniature books.

• Baker, L.V. “[https://beach.emuseum.com/objects/12806/arms-gazette-cover-story-sw-model-1-third-issue-part-1 Herschel C. Logan, Personality Profile]”, Arms Gazette. North Hollywood, Calif., Bienfeld Pub. Co., Apr 1971.
• Baldwin, Sara M, and Robert M. Baldwin. Illustriana Kansas: Biographical Sketches of Kansas Men and Women of Achievement Who Have Been Awarded Life Membership in Kansas Illustriana Society. Hebron, Nebraska: Illustriana Incorporated, 1933. Print.
• Conrads, David, and Pamela Evans (Editors). The Prairie Print Makers. Exhibits USA, 2001
• Craig, Susan. Biographical Dictionary of Kansas Artists (active Before 1945). Lawrence, KS: Susan V. Craig, 2009. Internet resource. url:https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/1028
• “[http://tampabookartsstudio.blogspot.com/2020/04/ From Printmaking to Making Books]”, Tampa Book Arts Studio, 1 Apr. 2020.
• Krause, Rachel. “Herschel Logan's Intricate Wood Prints Take Viewers Back to Kansas' Dust Bowl Days”. Medium, Medium, 14 Oct. 2018. url: https://medium.com/@rachel_krause/herschel-logans-wood-prints-highlight-scenes-from-kansas-farmland-bb5fe64bcf8.
• Lehman, Anthony L. Herschel Logan: Man of Many Careers. (Los Angeles: Westerners, Los Angeles Corral, 1986).
• Midwestern Artists’ Exhibition (Kansas City: Kansas City Art Institute, 1920-1942
• Mines, Cynthia. For the Sake of Art: The Story of an Art Movement in Kansas. s.l. Mines, 1979.
• North, Cori Sherman. “[https://sandzen.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/2020-Sandzen-Gallery-Prairie-Print-Maker-WEB-CATALOG.pdf In the Center of It All: 90 Years of the Prairie Print Makers]”, [Lindsborg, Kansas]: The Birger Sandzén Memorial Foundation, 2020.
• O'Neill, Barbara T, George C. Foreman, and Howard W. Ellington. The Prairie Print Makers. 1984. Print.
• Reinbach, Edna, comp. “Kansas Art and Artists”, in Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society. v. 17, 1928. p. 571-585.
• Sain, Lydia, comp. Festival of Kansas Arts and Crafts. Catalog: Arts and Crafts of Kansas: an Exhibition held in Lawrence, Feb. 18-22, 1948 in the Community Building. Lawrence: World Co., 1948.

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Category:1901 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:American printmakers

Category:20th-century American illustrators

Category:20th-century American printmakers

Category:Woodcut designers