Scouting, Volume 74, Number 4, September 1986 Page: 27
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was a plaster angel holding a paintbrush. Nor-
man caught me staring at it when he came in,
and he pointed to it. "I need all the help I can
get," he said.
We laughed, shook hands. His face glowed
through a cloud of white smoke chugging from
his ever-present pipe. Edge wood tobacco. I'll
never forget that smell.
That was the beginning of an eight-year pro-
fessional relationship with the master illustrator
that grew into a wonderful friendship and even
stronger admiration for the man.
People often ask me what Rockwell was
really like. Well, that's easy, because one needs
only to look at his paintings to know the man.
His characters were reflections of himself in his
created world. He was kind, gentle,
unpretentious.
I can tell you I wasn't nervous after we
met. "So, Joe, do you think the heads on
this picture are a bit too warm?" refer-
ring to the possiblity that there was too
much red. He asked the question the way
a neighbor leaning over the backyard
fence might ask about the weather. Later
I found out that he often asked visitors
their opinions of what was on his easel.
After all, he reasoned, he was painting
for them.
The first day in Stockbridge I was
treated to lunch at his country club with
some stately New England gentlemen.
We drove over in Norman's old green
Chevy, and on the way he told me stories
At age 18, way back
in 1913, Norman
Rockwell got his
career going as the
first art director of
Boys' Life. And
what a bargain it
was for the BSA. In
three years he did
11 cover paintings
and more than 200
illustrations for
stories and articles.
In later years—from
'25 till '76—he
turned out
Scouting calendar
pictures that
helped make the
BSA an American
institution.
(Left) Rockwell's 1973 Scout-
ing calendar illustration was
titled From Concord to Tran-
quility. In it he refers to our
American Revolution that
began in Concord, Mass., and
the space age "revolution" at
the landing site of the moon:
"The Sea of Tranquility." Dur-
ing his lifetime, Rockwell did
50 Scout calendars for Brown
& Bigeiow, many of them used
as February covers for Boys'
Life. (Below) For his first Boy
Scout calendar, published in
1925, Brown & Bigeiow used
one of the pictures he had
painted a few years earlier for
the Red Cross Magazine,
called A Red Cross Man in the
Making. Its revised title—A
Good Scout. Dogs, most of
them mutts, showed up often
in his drawings.
ft
Scouting ♦September 1986
27
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 74, Number 4, September 1986, periodical, September 1986; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353661/m1/27/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.