Edwina Dumm (1893–1990)

Edwina Dumm was born in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, and grew up mostly in Columbus. As a little girl, she loved to draw. She graduated from Central High School in Columbus and then took a correspondence course from the Landon School of Illustration and Cartooning, based in Cleveland. While enrolled in the course, she also took a business course and worked as a stenographer at the Columbus Board of Education. She became a professional writer-artist and America's first full-time female editorial cartoonist for a daily newspaper. She was hired by the Daily Monitor, where her work was first published on August 7, 1915. Her success at the paper gave her the experience and enough funds to fulfill her dream of moving to New York City. There she pitched George Matthew Adams, a newspaper columnist and founder of the Adams Syndication Service, on a new comic strip that she had created. Adams liked her work and offered her a contract to draw a daily comic strip that would run six days a week. In 1918, Edwina's comic "Cap Stubbs and Tippie" premiered, and she drew it for nearly 50 years. She also illustrated several books, such as Two Gentlemen and a Lady by Alexander Woolcott, and created a cover for Life magazine in 1930. She also produced a variety of drawings and paintings, most of which were done while traveling on the New York City subway. In 1978, she received the Gold Key Award from the National Cartoonists Society Hall of Fame.