History buff Dennis Ryan doesn't dabble in stamps, coins or bottles to chronicle America's past. His collection marches to different 'toons.
Ryan, 56, a Los Angeles-based senior vice president of investments for Paine Webber, has spent more than 10 years gathering 2,000 original editorial cartoons, dating back to the late 1800s, that capture historical moments in the United States. The compilation is considered by editorial cartoonists and historians to be one of the most complete and extraordinary private collections in existence.
Although Ryan, a soft-spoken stockbroker with the air of a college professor, began his hobby for fun, he now hopes to draw high school students to the collection, feeling that the cartoons would serve as a valuable tool to teach them about American history.
"These cartoons are very expressive and lively," said Ryan. "They might hold kids' attention span better than a textbook. The cartoons give a real immediate feeling of what was going on during those times, and how people felt about issues."
A package of about 300 selected cartoons that have been lithographed is already being used by teachers in Burbank, Compton high schools and Beverly Hills high schools. Ryan hopes to interest school systems around the country in the cartoons.
"After all, one picture is worth a thousand words," he said, smiling.
The collection dates to 1875 with a cartoon from the New York Daily Graphic detailing a controversy over currency--greenbacks versus silver. The most recent--a 1989 drawing by syndicated cartoonist Gary Markstein--shows a Zeus-like Ronald Reagan handing a smaller President Bush a can of Teflon and saying, "Use it well."
Ryan said he has spent about $500,000 putting the collection together, and estimated its worth "in the low seven figures."
He said he has original cartoons by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists and from more obscure artists. The collection includes caricatures of past Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and others.
Among Ryan's most prized drawings is an 1880 Harpers Weekly drawing by famed cartoonist Thomas Nast showing a depressed American Indian standing with a noose around his neck near the U.S. Capitol. The Indian is holding a ticket that reads "A vote." The caption: "Give the Red Man a Chance."
