SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — Political cartoons by Springfield’s longest-working cartoonist, Bob Palmer, will be available to be viewed by the public on September 5 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
According to the Springfield Art Museum, the featured 150 original works will go through decades of world events and hyper-local issues.
Palmer created over 10,000 political cartoons for the Springfield News-Leader beginning in April 1953 through July 1991 and was the last political cartoonist for the paper.
The artist’s career began in 1945, working as a ghostwriter for a comic strip and eventually drew political cartoons for the New York Daily News before moving to Springfield in 1953.
In 2008, the museum was gifted over 1,000 political cartoons first made for the Springfield News-Leader and an additional 30 were donated in 2018.
The museum says Palmer always claimed to be ideologically independent, saying, “Nobody knows my politics.”
The collection donated to the museum includes local, national and worldwide issues covering eight U.S. presidents, seven Missouri governors and numerous local personalities.