The John T. McCutcheon Digital Exhibit

John T. McCutcheon's illustrations of George Ade's New Fables in Slang comprise a significant portion of our collection. McCutcheon and Ade met as students at Purdue in the late 1880s; their friendship developed as a result of their membership in Sigma Chi fraternity. In his autobiography, Drawn from Memory, McCutcheon wrote of their relationship, "the greatest asset Sigma Chi gave me… was the friendship of George Ade" (44). "How could I have presumed to dream that there might come a time when 'Ade and McCutcheon' had as natural a connection as 'ham and eggs'?" McCutcheon reflected, acknowledging their frequent professional collaboration on the New Fables in Slang and many other projects (37).