Thomas Handforth

{{Short description|American artist (1897–1948)}}

File:Portrait of Thomas Handforth LCCN2004662978.jpg ]]

File:"The Jar of Myrrh and Incense" by Thomas Scofield Handford.jpg

Thomas Scofield Handforth (September 16, 1897 – October 19, 1948)State of California. California Death Index, 1940-1997. State of California Department of Health Services, Center for Health Statistics. was an American artist and etcher. He wrote and illustrated the children's picture book Mei Li based on personal experience in China{{Cite web|url=https://www.hbook.com/?detailStory=thomas-handforth-china-and-the-real-mei-li|title=Thomas Handforth, China, and the Real Mei Li|last=Horning|first=Kathleen T.|website=The Horn Book|access-date=2020-01-14}} and won the 1939 Caldecott Medal for illustration.{{cite news|title=Librarians Honor Children's Books; Newbery Prize Given to Mrs. Elizabeth Enright, Caldecott Award to Thomas Handforth|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902E5DD1530E53ABC4951DFB0668382629EDE|accessdate=June 25, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=June 21, 1939}}

Mei Li is about a girl who escapes her traditional life in the Chinese countryside to visit a Chinese New Year fair. It has been reissued since 1938 and Handforth's magnificent drawings of China in the 1930s are still animated and compelling. In 1939, he was considered an expert on Asian art. Books he illustrated included in Sidonie, Totou in Bondage and Tranquilinas Paradise.

He was born in Tacoma, Washington, and studied art at the University of Washington. During World War I, he served in France with the anatomical unit in the Army's Sanitary Corps.{{cite news|title=Scofield Handforth Home on Furlough|work=The Tacoma Times|date=June 1, 1918|page=3}} He later studied art at L'Ecole des Beaux Arts in France. He lived in various locations, such as Paris, India, North Africa, Mexico, and China.