Livingston Yourtee ('Hop') Hopkins (7 July 1846 – 21 August 1927) was a prolific cartoonist and caricaturist with successive careers in both the United States and Australia. Born in the American mid-west state of Ohio, Hopkins worked as a freelance cartoonist and illustrator in New York from 1870 to 1882, during a period of expansion of illustrated newspapers and magazines in America. His work was published in a wide variety of periodicals and specialty publications. Hopkins' A Comic History of United States, which he wrote and illustrated, was published in 1876. By the early 1880s he had established a reputation as a talented cartoonist and illustrator.
In September 1882 Hopkins was visited in New York by William Traill, part-owner of The Bulletin, a recently established illustrated journal based in Sydney, Australia. Traill offered Hopkins a position as a cartoonist for The Bulletin, on contract for two years, which he accepted and in February 1883 relocated to Sydney with his family.
Hopkins remained in Australia and worked full-time for The Bulletin for over thirty years, eventually becoming a part-owner of the journal and having occasional cartoons published up until 1921. Hopkins became a major figure in Australian cartooning in the period leading up to the Federation of Australia. Known by the public as 'Hop', his satirical illustrations were a significant factor in the steadily growing popularity of The Bulletin during the 1880s and its influential position in Australian culture of the 1890s.
Biography
Early life
Livingston Hopkins was born on 7 July 1846 in the United States of America, on a farm at Bellefontaine in Logan County, Ohio, the son of Daniel Hopkins and his wife Sarah (née Carter). The family, with Puritan roots, had migrated from the New England region to the Ohio frontier.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), page 114. Livingston was the thirteenth of fourteen children.B. G. Andrews (1972), 'Hopkins, Livingston York Yourtee (Hop) (1846 - 1927)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 4, Melbourne University Press, pages 421-422; retrieved 2 August 2009.'Hopkins, Livingston', page 424 (in) Mary Sayre Haverstock, Jeannette Mahoney Vance & Brian L. Meggitt (2000), Artists in Ohio, 1787-1900: A Biographical Dictionary, Kent State University Press. His father died in 1849 when Livingston was aged three years, leaving his mother a widow with nine surviving children. In 1850 the family was living at Lake Township in Logan County.1850 Census, Ancestry.com. In July 1854 the widowed Sarah Hopkins married Silas McClish at Shelby in Ohio.Family records, Ancestry.com. In 1860 the family was living at Kalida in Putnam County.1860 Census, Ancestry.com.
Young Livingston had an early interest in drawing and was educated at schools at Bellafontaine, Kalida and Toledo until the age of fourteen.The "Sydney Bulletin's" Caricaturist, 'Current History on Caricature', The Review of Reviews, vol. 6, Aug 1892-Jan 1893, page 672. Hopkins fondly remembered an early schoolmaster named Mr. Gudgeon. When Livingston began to draw caricatures of the teacher, Gudgeon received the drawings with tolerant amusement and encouraged his pupil to preserve his artwork in a scrapbook. In about 1853, when he was aged seven years, Livingston was placed into the care of an older brother and his wife at Toledo (at the western end of Lake Erie), where he attended a much larger school.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), pages 114-115. After leaving school in about 1860 Hopkins worked in a variety of positions, during which he continued to develop his artistic skills, producing sketches and illustrations for private circulation.
In May 1864 Hopkins, then aged seventeen, left a clerical position and enlisted in the 130th Ohio Volunteer Regiment to serve in the American Civil War. The regiment was one of the volunteer units raised for 100-day service in the Union Army. The short-term lightly trained troops were placed in rear areas to protect communication and supply points in order to free regular troops for Ulysses S. Grant’s push on the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Hopkins' unit was initially stationed at Washington, D.C. The artist later recalled an occasion when President Lincoln and his officers rode through the lines of the regimental encampment. After the Union attack on Richmond had been resisted by the Confederate forces and opposing trench-lines were established in the vicinity of Richmond and Petersburg, the Ohio volunteers were sent behind the frontline to protect a semaphore station used for transmitting official messages.Frederick H. Dyer (1908), A Compendium of the War of the Rebellion, Des Moines, Iowa: Dyer Publishing Co.War Veterans: I. – Livingston Hopkins, The Sun (Sydney), 9 February 1913, page 13. During his military service Hopkins spent much of his time erecting pickets along the trench-lines near Petersburg and "relieving his boredom by drawing".Livingston York (Yourtree) Hopkins, The Harrower Collection website; accessed 18 March 2024. The regiment's period of service ended in September 1864, after which Hopkins re-entered civilian life.
A cartoonist's career
After his Civil War service, Hopkins briefly worked as a railroad messenger. In Toledo Hopkins' drawing ability came to the attention of Dr. Miller, co-proprietor of the Toledo Blade newspaper. Miller's partner David Ross Locke, using the pseudonym 'Rev. Petroleum V. Nasby', had been writing a series of 'letters' that were published in the Blade and in separate volumes during and after the Civil War, satirising the slave-holding Confederate South and its Northern sympathisers.Joan Kerr (1996), Livingston Hopkins, Design & Art Australia Online website; accessed 20 March 2024. Hopkins received a job offer to provide illustrations for some of Locke's 'Nasby' publications. At about the same time, however, the aspiring cartoonist was offered a position with the Champaign Union newspaper in Champaign, Illinois. He accepted the position and moved to Champaign where he was employed as the "'local' editor and general utility man". In addition to his job at the Champaign Union, Hopkins also managed, while working after hours, to produce illustrations for the 'Nasby' books.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), page 116. His first drawing in print was published in the Champaign Union, with Hopkins also producing the woodcut block used to reproduce the illustration. The artist later wrote of his Champaign beginnings: "So long as I am able to remember anything, I shall never forget the happy days spent in the genial atmosphere of that little newspaper office, nor the valuable experience I gained there".Hop, His Confessions (part one), The Lone Hand, 1 December 1913, pages 18-21.
In 1870, when Dr. Miller (of the Toledo Blade) was in New York, he visited the offices of Scribner and Co. who were planning a new monthly illustrated magazine in competition with Harper's Monthly. Miller recommended Hopkins "as one who would suit them exactly to keep up a department of humorous sketches of one or two pages per month", in addition to other work as required. In early October 1870 Hopkins received a letter from Josiah G. Holland, a partner at Scribner and Co. and editor of the magazine then in the process of being established. Holland wrote enquiring about Hopkins' employment situation and offering the possibility of a job at the magazine. After an exchange of correspondence Hopkins was offered a position at the new magazine, to be called Scribner's Monthly, which he promptly accepted. When Hopkins arrived at the offices of Scribner and Co. in New York, Holland was absent and the young cartoonist was received by the business partner, Roswell Smith, "with somewhat pompous and... rather puzzled cordiality". Hopkins was then given over to Alexander Drake, in charge of the Art department. After examining Hopkins' portfolio of drawings, Drake told him "your drawings show much natural talent and considerable humour", adding "I have no doubt that with two or three years study under good instruction you will produce work that will be up to the required standard".Hop, His Confessions (part two), The Lone Hand, 1 January 1914, pages 92-94. Hopkins was then placed in a clerical position in the business department, on a salary of twelve dollars a week, and arrangements were made for him to study under a drawing teacher for two nights a week, at his own expense.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), page 117.
The drawing teacher was a German artist named Augustus Will, who taught illustration according to the 'Dupuis method', with its emphasis on mastering the principles of perspective. After about five months working as a clerk, Hopkins despaired of the meagre pay and lesser prestige than he had enjoyed in Illinois. His examination of cartoons by other artists in the illustrated journals had convinced him that he was already capable of matching what was being commercially published. After submitting a batch of his best cartoons to various publications such as Harper's Monthly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, nearly all were accepted at good prices. Hopkins also applied himself to mastering the process of engraving the wood-blocks used to print his artwork, thus being paid for both the illustration and its means of reproduction.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), pages 117-118. Encouraged by his successes as a freelance artist, Hopkins resigned from the clerical position with Scribner's and discontinued his attendance at Augustus Will's drawing school. He set up his own studio at 116 Nassau Street, Manhattan, "in a part of the city that was within easy walking distance of a ready market for comic goods". His studio had a sign on the door: "Livingston Hopkins, Designer on Wood"."Hop" As He Was, Evening News (Sydney), 26 October 1929, page 4.
Freelance During Hopkins' first few years working as a freelance cartoonist and illustrator, payments were often scanty and erratic, but there was a steady fiscal improvement as the years progressed. During the post-Civil War years the number of illustrated periodicals expanded rapidly, partly due to technological innovations relating to typesetting, printing and image reproduction.S. Mintz & S. McNeil (2018), 'The Rise of Mass Communication', Digital History website; accessed 25 March 2024. During this period the woodblock process of image reproduction was replaced by the introduction and development of commercial photo-engraving techniques, resulting in a more faithful representation of the original artwork.Hop, His Confessions (part three), The Lone Hand, 2 February 1914, pages 166-168. Many of the new periodicals addressed particular market niches, attracting advertising that kept the magazine's price low. The growth of railroads, public libraries and the postal service led to increased nation-wide access to the publications. Hopkins took full advantage of the expanding magazine market and established personal contacts in the New York publishing companies. His cartoons and illustrations began to be published in older established periodicals such as the Harper's stable of magazines (including Harper's Weekly and Harper's New Monthly). His work was also published in Wild Oats, a humour magazine established in 1870, as well as specialty publications from Wild Oats such as Life of Horace Greeley.Frederick D. Kershner, Jr. (1954), pages 119-120.The Comic Life of Horace Greeley, HathiTrust website; accessed 25 March 2024. An early commission that Hopkins received was to provide sixteen chapter illustrations for Cervantes' The Adventures of the Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote de la Mancha (translated by Peter Motteux), published in 1870 by Hurst and Co. of New York.Cervantes Collection, Cervantes Collection – Cushing Memorial Library & Archives website; accessed 25 March 2024.