Charles Dana Gibson

James Montgomery Flagg—himself a Life contributor and later famous for the Uncle Sam recruiting poster—here turns his pen on the magazine's reigning star, Charles Dana Gibson, creator of the iconic Gibson Girl. The drawing is a spare profile caricature in pencil or charcoal: Gibson's broad, nearly bald dome, strong nose, and high collar are rendered in swift economy of line, the face left largely blank to let silhouette carry the likeness. A wide-brimmed hat brim bisects the composition with deliberate wit. No caption survives. The signature reads C D Gibson / by J M F—one celebrity cartoonist anatomizing another, a collegial jest that circulated comfortably within Life's tight fraternity of illustrators who defined genteel American humor before the First World War reshaped the culture that sustained them.