Disney Storybook Artists (1950's)

Throughout the 1950's the "Disney Studio Artists" consistently created what stands today as some of the best looking and most memorable work for children's storybooks. One of the main reasons for this was that Walt wanted to make sure that these books maintained (or in some cases exceeded) the level of quality & care seen in his animated theatrical shorts and features. He was able to do this by utilizing the already present and well honed talent that existed right within the walls of Walt Disney Studios. The only downside of this well implemented plan was that apparantly it must have become difficult to give credit to the artists as individuals, since most all of these books limit the ilustartion credit to being "created by The Walt Disney Studios" . Perhaps this was due to the fact taht several artists would often work on a the illustrations required to complete a single book. Or more likely it was simply a case of ego or marketing, whereby it was deemed that the "Disney brand" was viewed as being far more important than the simple task of giving proper credit to the artists responsible for creating the work - I don't know and cannot say any of these things for certain.

What I can say though is that I personally feel that it is a downright shame and a slap in the face that none of the brilliant artists who toiled over the beautiful images you see below ever recieved proper credit for their work. Furthermore, it makes it incredibly frustrating to see something so inspiring and wonderous, only to be stymied when going to try and research the artist responsible. I am fairly certain that the Peter Pan images posetd below might have been the work of Al Dempster, and that Tom Oreb was responsible for the gorgeous artwork in the "Once Upon a Wintertime" storybook, and I even believe that Mary Blair occasionally lent her hand to a Disney storybook here and there, but who are the rest of these amazingly talented men and women and what other sorts of work did they do over the course of their careers?

Perhaps some of you out there who are older and wiser than I am may just have a clue or some further insight into who created any of the work I have posted below. if so, please feel free to either add it in the comments, or send the information to me by e-mail.

"Johnny Appleseed"

"The Tortoise & The Hare"

"The Mad Hatter's Tea Party"

"Pinocchio"

"Sleeping Beauty"

"The Grasshopper & The Ants"
"The Three Little Pigs"

"Snow White"

"Peter Pan"