Mary Petty

Mary Petty (April 29, 1899 – March 6, 1976) was an illustrator of books and magazines best remembered for a series of covers published by The New Yorker that feature a family she invented and named, "Peabody", along with their household servants.

Early life Mary Petty was born in Hampton, New Jersey, to Florence Servis and Robert Davison Petty. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father was a law professor at the New York Law School and they lived in Manhattan.

Petty was a 1922 graduate of the Horace Mann School in The Bronx. She did not study art formally, but taught herself to draw. New Yorker publisher Harold Ross gave Petty's cartoons his top grade of "AAA". She portrayed upper-class families in scenes of wealth and privilege. While somewhat satirical, her drawings also were affectionate. One imaginary family recurred in her drawings, to which she assigned the name, "Peabody". Even after becoming a part of the office scene, few knew her well. Thurber said all he knew of her background was that she "was born in a brownstone house on West End Avenue. Her father was a professor. She did not have a particularly happy childhood. That's all, brother." Of note is that Petty was not born in Manhattan.

Petty contributed to the New Yorker for thirty-nine years, publishing 273 drawings and 38 covers. Her last New Yorker cover was published on March 19, 1966. The cover showed elderly "Mrs. Peabody" pulling on a broken calling cord.

Petty illustrated several books, including one of her New Yorker cartoons. The book was published in 1945. Petty rarely took ideas from outside sources (only twice, according to Thurber ).

Personal life On December 8, 1927, Petty married the cartoonist Alan Dunn (1900–1974) who had encouraged her to sell her illustrations professionally. He had a long relationship with the New Yorker as well. They lived in and created their work in a small apartment at 12 East Eighty-eighth Street in Manhattan. They had no children.

Injury and death Petty was assaulted and beaten on Ward's Island by a mugger on December 1, 1971, and was only found in a hospital by Dunn three days after the incident.

Permanently brain damaged she never fully recovered from the assault and spent the rest of her life in a nursing home, dying at the Pine Rest Nursing Home in Paramus, New Jersey on March 6, 1976.