Dartmouth Football Poster
Bristow Adams, c. 1904-06

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Dartmouth Football Poster
Dartmouth Football Poster
Bristow Adams (1875-1957) (attributed to)
Dartmouth
H. M. Suter Publishing Co., Washington, D.C.: c. 1904-06
Andrew B. Graham, Photo-Litho, Washington, D.C. (printer)
Chromolithograph
22.5 x 14.25 inches, overall
21.25 x 13.25 inches, image
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A Dartmouth College football player stands poised to receive a pass on the lawn in front of two of the buildings of Dartmouth Row: Dartmouth Hall and to its left, Wentworth Hall. A Dartmouth sweater is lying in the grass. This poster was probably designed by Bristow Adams, who designed a series of college athletic posters for H.M. Suter Publishing Company, where he served as vice president from 1904. Cornell University has 18 such posters in its collection with Adams' papers.

Bristow Adams was multi-talented individual: a journalist, professor, forester and illustrator. While attending Stanford University, he studied art his first two years and English in his last two. Meanwhile, he edited Stanford publications and served as a correspondent for the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Boston Transcript. He returned to his native Washington, D.C. and worked as a freelance writer and illustrator. In 1904, he became vice president of the H.M. Suter Publishing Company in Washington, where he designed a series of college athletic posters, edited a forestry journal and was managing editor of the weekly Washington Life, later called American Spectator. In 1906, he was recruited to the U.S. Forest Service Office of Information, where he edited and wrote articles on forestry. He passed the civil service technical forestry examination and became a forester, as well as an officer in the Society of American Foresters. This led to a full professorship at the Agricultural School of Cornell University in 1914, where over the next 41 years he taught courses in both forestry and journalism, and was in charge of various publications. Always interested in athletics, he served as a referee at track meets for over 30 years at Cornell, for which he would dress in white tie and gloves, tails and top hat. He was honored for his achievements by the New York Press Association and belonged to several academic and journalistic societies. His papers are in the Cornell University Library.

Andrew B. Graham was a lithography firm active in Washington, D.C. c. 1890-1920.

Reference:

"Guide to the Bristow Adams papers." April 2003. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/RMM03205.html (30 April 2004).