Administrative Information

Access Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Use Restrictions

See the University of Virginia Library’s use policy.

Preferred Citation

Editorial Cartoons of Bob Gorrell, Accession #12424, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was given to the Special Collections Department, University of Virginia Library by Bob Gorrell, Richmond, Virginia, on November 16, 2002.

Biographical/Historical Information

Bob Gorrell graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia in 1977. He worked for two years at the Fort Meyers News-Press in Florida, and then moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to work for the Charlotte News . In 1983 he began working for the Richmond News Leader in Richmond, Virginia, and then for the Richmond Times-Dispatch in 1992. In 1998 he resigned from the Richmond Times-Dispatch in order to focus on syndicated editorial cartoons and comic panel features for Creators Syndicate. From November 2000 until August 2001, Gorrell served as editor at iPipe, Inc., where he managed the distribution of feature content to major Internet portals and where he developed the editorial cartoon site Edivu, which was named a Best of the Web winner by U.S. News & World Report . In October 2001, Gorrell was named Editorial Cartoonist for America Online News, giving him one of the nation's largest daily audiences through that outlet's 33 million subscribers.

Gorrell's work has appeared through syndication in hundreds of daily and weekly newspapers, including The Atlanta Journal , The Portland Oregonian , The Providence Journal , USA Today, The New York Post, The Washington Times, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times . His commentary has been featured in Time, Newsweek, National Review , and other prominent periodicals, and college papers receive his drawings through the U.S.I.C. Educational Foundation. Gorrell cartoons have been used on CBS television's Face the Nation and on C-Span, and he himself has guested on CNN's Crossfire as well as other television and radio broadcasts. His work has been included in numerous cartoon anthologies, and is available along with cartoons by Gary Brookins in their jointly-published Pen Pals. During 1995, Gorrell compiled a solo collection of his cartoons for national distribution titled Affairs of State.

He has won awards and citations for excellence from the Overseas Press Club of America, the Fischetti Editorial Cartoon Competition, the Mencken Awards, the Virginia Press Association, and the Dragonslayer Editorial Cartoon Contest. He also won the 1998 National Press Foundation Berryman Award for editorial cartoonist of the year. His cartoons have been published in over 400 different newspapers and magazines.

Scope and Content

This collection contains the editorial cartoons of Bob Gorrell; the cartoons included are mainly original drawings, with some photocopies and one aluminum plate. Bob Gorrell's career as an editorial cartoonist began in 1977 at the Fort Meyers News-Press in Florida; he has since worked at the Charlotte News , Richmond News Leader , and Richmond Times-Dispatch . Since 1998, he has worked on syndicated cartoons for Creators Syndicate.

There are 850 items in 6 boxes, equaling ca. 2 linear feet. Documents in the collection range from 1978 to 2001, although the bulk occurs from 1978 to 1979 and from 1996 to 2001.

Topics include the presidential elections of 1980, 1996 and 2000; the Equal Rights Amendment; the economy, inflation and taxes; the budget; energy policies; foreign relations, particularly with Middle Eastern nations and China; Kosovo; tobacco industry; gun control; and the internet.

Also Menachem Begin; Pat Buchanan; George W. Bush; Jimmy Carter; Bill and Hillary Clinton; Elian Gonzales; Al Gore; Saddam Husseim; John McCain; Ronald Reagan; Anwar Sadat; and O.J. Simpson.

Arrangement

This collection is organized chronologically by year, and then alphabetically by subject matter within years.