I Is for Ignatz
Date1940
Artist
Russell Patterson
(American illustrator, 1893–1977)
Illustration CitationDesign for Macy's Toyland Village Christmas Window, New York. Reproduced in Who's Who in Toyland, poems by Margaret Fishback (R.H. Macy, 1940)
MediumInk and gouache on illustration board
Dimensionssheet: 20 × 14 1/4 in. (50.8 × 36.2 cm)
Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. William Radebaugh, 1982
Object number1982-23
On View
Not on viewClassificationsDRAWING
Label TextThis drawing presents a design for Macy's Toyland Village Christmas promotion in 1940. Planned by illustrator Russell Patterson, the flagship New York store's windows were themed "Alphabet on Parade in the Land of Blocks." The window displays were part of an elaborate promotion that also included the publication of the picture book Who's Who in Toyland, which included poems by Margaret Fishback paired with alphabet vignettes, including this one, by Patterson. The book was given away to children who visited Santa Claus at the store. In addition, Macy's released the song "Down in Toyland Village: In the Land of Blocks," written by Gladys Shelley and Ruth Cleary; the cover of the sheet music also was designed by Patterson. All of this launched with an "Astounding Alphabet of Gargantuan Letters!" in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade on November 21, 1940.In the drawing, Russell Patterson uses the character of Ignatz, originated by the cartoonist George Herriman in his comic strip "Krazy Kat." Other alphabet-themed vignettes represented Aladdin, Babar, Superman, and Uncle Sam.
