Jack Coggins

Jack Banham Coggins (July 10, 1911 – January 30, 2006) was an artist, author, and illustrator. He is known in the United States for his oil paintings, which focused predominantly on marine subjects. He is also known for his books on space travel, which were both authored and illustrated by Coggins. Besides his own works, Coggins also provided illustrations for advertisements and magazine covers and articles.

During World War II, he served as an artist and correspondent for YANK magazine, capturing and conveying wartime scenes from the front lines. Over the course of his career, Coggins produced more than 1,000 paintings and taught art classes for 45 years. He retired in May 2001 and died at his home in Pennsylvania in January 2006.

Biography

Early life Coggins was born in London, England on July 10, 1911, the only child of Ethel May (née Dobby) and Sydney George Coggins. Sydney Coggins was Regimental Corporal Major of the First Regiment of Life Guards, the part of the Household Cavalry responsible for guarding the British Monarch; Jack Coggins was born in his father's barracks. During World War I, Sydney Coggins served with, and was commissioned by the regiment. After the war, he was appointed regimental Riding Master, but he was retired when the 1st and 2nd Life Guards were amalgamated into a single regiment under the Geddes Axe. A fellow officer, married to an American steel heiress, offered Sydney work as a secretary to his wife, and the Coggins family emigrated to Long Island, New York in 1923. They married in 1948 and moved to Pike Township, Berks County, Pennsylvania, where Coggins had purchased an old farm. Alma named their home "Crestfield," which, according to Jack, meant absolutely nothing.

He taught art classes at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts from 1957 until 2001, despite being handicapped by the loss of his left eye due to infection after an operation. a Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists, a member of the American Ordnance Association, the U.S. Naval Institute, and an adviser to the boards of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum and the Reading Public Museum. He died at his home in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the age of 94 and willed his body to medical science. Alma Wood-Coggins died March 4, 2007. Coggins was paid $250 for that work, a large sum at the time, which paid his rent for five months. Some of Coggins's works are in the Anne S. K. Brown Military Collection.

During the early 1940s, Coggins obtained more work producing war pictures for other magazines, including a series of double-page spreads for the controversial newspaper PM, and illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post. Koppers, US Steel, and Westinghouse. He also received commissions from the U.S. War Department for aircraft recognition charts, and he was intrigued to later find these charts used during his army basic training. He was pulled from basic training at Fort Eustis, Virginia before he could complete it to work as an illustrator for YANK magazine.

He served as an artist for British YANK in London until August 2, 1945, and was discharged from the U.S. Army on November 3, 1945. After serving as a Private for most of his time abroad, he finally made Corporal, and just before discharge, Sergeant. While in Britain, Coggins spent time on a Royal Navy convoy in the North Sea, witnessed the bombing of Saint-Lô,

Coggins was "bugged" by the fact that the Liberty Ship to which he had been assigned for the Normandy Landings got to Utah Beach only on D-Day plus one. He saw lively action, but bemoaned missing the big show.

Science and science-fiction illustrations

During the late 1940s and early 1950s Coggins's marine art was featured on covers of Yachting Magazine and other publications, as well as on advertising material, and his science-fiction art illustrated covers for pulp science fiction magazines. These included Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and Thrilling Wonder Stories.

Due to reduced interest in his pre-war work, Coggins applied for a position teaching watercolor at Hunter College. He taught watercolor painting there from 1948 to 1952. In New York, as a result of his friendship with Fletcher Pratt, Coggins was introduced to the members of the Hydra Club, where he met Judith Merril and L. Ron Hubbard. Coggins was also invited to join Pratt's Trap Door Spiders club, where he became closely associated with L. Sprague de Camp and Isaac Asimov. The contact with such visionary thinkers complemented his exposure to the German V-2 rockets in Europe and served to strengthen his growing interest in space travel, rockets, and science fiction. These books made the prospect of space exploration seem a practical possibility. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists used the books to demonstrate their ideas to Congressmen when seeking funding for the space program,

Books

Between 1941 and 1983, Coggins wrote or illustrated 44 books on a wide range of marine, military, historical and educational themes. Among his more famous works is the 1962 authoring and illustration of Arms and Equipment of the Civil War. Dale E. Biever, registrar at the Civil War Library and Museum in Philadelphia, described the work as "not about generals or battles but about the things one should know before delving into those areas ... a welcome addition to any Civil War library." It was republished several times, most recently in 2004. In 1966, Coggins wrote and illustrated The Horseman's Bible, which sold over 500,000 copies with a revised edition published in 1984. In this book Coggins acknowledges his father "whose twenty five years in the cavalry and lifetime interest in horses made his advice invaluable." Coggins's last book was Marine Painter's Guide, which was first published in 1983. After the book was published, he decided to stop writing to concentrate more on painting.

Other paintings and illustrations

In 1968, Coggins was invited to undertake part of a voyage on the NOAA vessel USC&GS Discoverer (OSS-02) from Barbados and commissioned to paint several images of the ship and crew. Harris B. Stewart was the chief scientist who commissioned and personally paid for the artwork, which remained his personal property; Stewart was the author of the cited report.

Coggins relied on a realistic style that was executed in oils, for which he had a preference. However, he also painted works in water colors and other media. The majority of his paintings have a maritime theme, about which he wrote "It seems strange that with so much of the globe covered by water, so few artists know how to paint it." A retrospective exhibition and sale of artworks found in Coggins's home after his death was held at the Wyomissing Institute of the Arts in late 2006. This consisted of about 300 previously unseen oils, watercolors, and other printed materials. An annual "Jack Coggins Award" to be given to a deserving local artist was financed from part of the proceeds from the sale of these works.

, Coggins's paintings are owned by the Philadelphia Maritime Museum, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Navy, and the United States Coast Guard, among many other institutions, corporations, and private collectors.

Recognition Coggins's work has been accepted for show by the American Watercolor Society, the Salmagundi Club, the American Artist Professional League, and the Pastel Society of America.