WALL STREET JOURNAL'S PEPPER…AND SALT CARTOONS DONATED TO HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL
Collection Exhibit Opening Today Through Oct. 2 in Harvard’s Baker Library
NEW YORK - The Wall Street Journal’s highly celebrated Pepper…and Salt cartoons have been donated to Harvard Business School’s Baker Library (HBS) by Charles Preston, founder and editor of the feature. The collection will be housed in the library’s Historical Collections and is on exhibition starting today through Oct. 2, 2006.
The daily business cartoon first appeared in the Journal in 1950 and continues to be a regular feature with a loyal following by readers. Currently appearing on the Leisure & Arts Page in the Journal, Pepper…and Salt is unique among newspaper cartoons in that it is drawn by many cartoonists. Many of the early Pepper...and Salt cartoons were destroyed in the Journal offices on 9/11. However, the cartoons on display in the HBS exhibit include dozens of originals, from the 1950’s to some of the most recently published.
“Pepper…and Salt is a fascinating reflection of changing social mores—from the role of women in business to grappling with technological change over the decades to perennial topics of business humor,” said L. Gordon Crovitz, executive vice president, Dow Jones & Company, and publisher, The Wall Street Journal. “Charles Preston is himself a fascinating figure and the cartoons have been a hugely popular feature of the Journal for more than fifty years.”
In 1950, Charles Preston – then a GI bill student at Columbia University who was also writing comedy bits and cartoon ideas as a freelancer – approached the Journal with the idea of running a daily cartoon on business themes in the paper’s editorial pages. A half century later, Mr. Preston is still the editor of Pepper…and Salt and the cartoons have been reprinted in more than 20 Pepper…and Salt books. Mr. Preston has also published 40 collections of crossword puzzles and written many articles on sailing and skiing for the Journal’s Leisure & the Arts page.
“The cartoonist brightens our day by providing a humorous perspective on what goes on in our lives and in the world,” said Mr. Preston. “Since it began in 1950, Pepper...and Salt has covered a broad range of topics - from office politics to the dotcom bubble to hedge funds. Any student of twentieth-century business and culture will get insights, as well as a good laugh, from viewing this collection. It is with great pleasure that I donate The Wall Street Journal Cartoon Collection to Harvard Business School’s Baker Library.”
“For many years, Pepper...and Salt has provided The Wall Street Journal readers with remarkable wit and insight into business trends. We are honored to add these cartoons – in their own distinctive way, a running commentary on a half century of what goes on in the business world – to the Baker Library’s Historical Collection, the finest of its kind in the world,” said Mary Lee Kennedy, executive director, Harvard Baker Library.
The core of the collection, which will be available for use in the de Gaspé Beaubien Reading Room at Baker Library, includes more than 200 cartoons and represents the work of approximately 80 artists. Mr. Preston receives about 1,000 submissions a week for three available slots and reviewed thousands of cartoons to select those that best represented the 1950’s through the 1990’s. Subsequently, from 2000 to 2004, he added cartoons that captured the early years of the twenty-first century. Mr. Preston will continue to add to the collection, building a unique archive of the social and cultural history of business across the decades.
About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ; www.dowjones.com), is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of nearly 2.1 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 31 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, the Journal seeks to help its readers succeed by providing essential and relevant information, presented accurately and fairly, from an authoritative and trusted source. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 600 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with total circulation of 2.7 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. In 2006, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the seventh consecutive year.
About Harvard Business School
Founded in 1908 as part of Harvard University, Harvard Business School (www.hbs.edu) is located on a 40-acre campus in Boston. Its faculty of more than 200 offers full-time programs leading to the MBA and doctoral degrees, as well as more than 40 Executive Education programs. For almost a century, HBS faculty have drawn on their research, their experience in working with organizations worldwide, and their passion for teaching to educate leaders who have shaped the practice of business around the globe.