The quintessential American illustrator/artist is thought to be Norman Rockwell.
No doubt he was prolific, turning out 322 Saturday Evening Post covers, 49 Boy Scout calendars and dozens of other periodicals, children's books and advertisements.
And for the first 25 years of his career, he was illustrating America from New Rochelle, where he lived and worked.
In conjunction with the 325th Anniversary year celebration of New Rochelle, an exhibit of magazine covers Rockwell illustrated while he was living in the Queen City will be on display at the New Rochelle Public Library from Wednesday, Jan. 9 through Jan. 30.
Barbara Davis, the library's community relations coordinator and historian for the City of New Rochelle, said the illustrations are on loan from Jennifer Faulkner, a native of New Rochelle who has been collecting Rockwell's magazine illustrations for over 20 years.
Though the exhibit will also include covers Rockwell created after he left New Rochelle, many of the covers, primarily Saturday Evening Post magazines from 1917 to 1940, feature New Rochelle residents who posed for Rockwell.
Davis will give a gallery talk about the residents' stories and Rockwell's personal accounts of New Rochelle during a free public reception from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 13.
An additional exhibit—Norman Rockwell's New Rochelle Years—will also be on display. It was originally curated by Davis and Theresa Kump Leghorn for the Museum of Arts and Culture at New Rochelle High School. The exhibit includes images, anecdotes and a chronology of Rockwell's first 25 years as an artist and illustrator.
The exhibits will be on display during the library's regular operating hours: Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
