George Mather Richards

George Mather Richards (1880-1958) was an illustrator and painter in the 1900s. Throughout his career, he illustrated many textbooks and children's books. Richards is the illustrator of the widely produced 1918 World War I poster titled, "Oh, Boy! That's the Girl!"

Early life and education "Oh, Boy that's the Girl" (1918) designed by George M. Richards

Richards was born on September 3, 1880, in Darien, Connecticut, the son of Zalmon Richards and Mary Mather Richards. He came from a line of scholars and educators.

His art education began at the Corcoran Art School in Washington, D.C. In 1904, Richards graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors He also met his future wife, Gertrude Lundborg of Kansas, at the art school. During this time, Richards illustrated college annuals and cover designs for magazines. The poster features a woman holding plate of doughnuts and a "Doughboy" eating a donut. He urges viewers to keep the "Lassies" on the job by donating to The Salvation Army. Lassies were women of The Salvation Army who performed duties like writing letters home, praying over fallen soldiers, and making doughnuts for the soldiers.

Richards exhibited his work for the MacDowell Club Exhibitions in 1917. In June 1919, Richards and Lundborg exhibited their artwork at the Paint Box Gallery. Richards' paintings, "Flame" and "Rain" were showcased at the Independent Artists show. He joined the latter guild in 1930.

As of 1919, Richards and Gertrude Lundborg were living at 112 West 11th Street in New York City.

Richards retired in Winter Park, Florida, and died in January 1958.

Friendship with Nicholas Vachel Lindsay While he was a student at Chase School, Richards met poet Nicholas Vachel Lindsay. The two were roommates in New York and became lifelong friends. Vachel described Richards as looking, "cold, sleek...panther-like" and like "Prince Regent of China." He was also described as being well-read and interested in the Middle Ages, often drawing pictures of ladies and knights. Later in life, Vachel would write to a friend that Richards was his "heart's best brother for [his] four years (1905-1908)."

Richards illustrated a few of Lindsay's poetry books including, Johnny Appleseed and Other Poems (1928), Every Soul is a Circus (1929), and the cover of The Golden Book of Springfield (1920). Richards' drawings even influenced Lindsay's poems, "The Queen of Butterflies" and "The Mysterious Cat." Vachel's "Art of the Moving Picture" is dedicated to Richards with the inscription, "Dedicated to George Mather Richards in memory of the art student days we spent together when the Metropolitan Museum was our picture-drama."

Vachel would go on to write a poem for Richards' daughter, Elisabet "Betsy," titled, "Some Balloons Grow on Trees."