Eustace Tilley
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Eustace Tilley is a caricature that appeared on the cover of the first issue of The New Yorker in 1925 and has appeared on the cover in various forms of every anniversary issue of the magazine except 2017. He was not initially named, but acquired the name from Corey Ford in subsequent issues as part of a fictional magazine history backstory included to fill the early issues of the magazine. The original cover, showing Tilley examining a butterfly through his monocle, was drawn by Rea Irvin, but a younger and more modern-looking version of him as drawn by Johan Bull in subsequent months appeared throughout the magazine in its early years. This later version was given the name Tilley and subsequently the original cover was also declared to be Tilley. Because of the cover's prominence, almost all of the references to Tilley in the press discuss the Irvin version.
Irvin drew three versions of the masthead artwork that featured Tilley in 1925 and 1926. Irvin's third version from 1926 was not updated or revamped until the May 22, 2017, issue with artwork by Christoph Niemann. In 2023, Niemann drew a robot named Till-E for the magazine.
Until 1994, the original cover artwork was reproduced for the annual anniversary edition, but, since then, there has been significant variation in how his character has been embodied. He has become the mascot of the magazine and is described as a dandy. There have been two years without any anniversary issue and in other years, when the anniversary celebration/remembrance has broken from previously-established tradition, it has resulted in stories in publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. Since 2008, artists have competed in an annual Eustace Tilley contest with prizes that include the potential to have their artistic interpretation submissions chosen for the anniversary cover. All contest submissions are derived from Irvin's version.
Tilley was born out of necessity when the coverless first edition of The New Yorker was set to print. After editor-in-chief and founder Harold Ross was unsatisfied by the array of artist submissions under the theme of "a curtain going up on Manhattan", Ross turned to art editor Rea Irvin with the directive to produce a cover that "would make the subscribers feel that we've been in business for years and know our way around".[1] Irvin was The New Yorker's first employee and its de facto art editor. He drew the magazine's first cover of the character, modelling him on a caricature of Alfred d'Orsay in the December 1834 edition of Fraser's Magazine.[2] This caricature can be found under the subject "costume" in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica published in 1910 ("Costume", Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, vol. 7 (New York: Encyclopædia Britannica Co., 1910), 244, fig. 47.).[3] Irvin, who had four months earlier drawn a magazine cover of a well-clad gentleman, added features to the 19th-century stylistic source image: a monocle to represent “supercilious intellect” as well as a butterfly for "whimsey".[1]
Since advertisers were not filling the pages of the unfamiliar magazine at first, it commissioned Corey Ford to fill the pages with a series of humor pieces that "pretended to provide an inside look at the making of the magazine" with illustrations of the mascot, in which he was dubbed with the name Eustace Tilley. His appearances in the series is likened thematically to Where's Wally?/Where's Waldo?[4] Tilley was presented as the hero of Ford's series which was titled "The Making of a Magazine". He was introduced inside front cover of the August 8, 1925, issue with a more youthful appearance than that of the original cover art subject. Ford combined the last name of a somewhat humorous aunt of his with the name Eustace due to euphony. His top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a morning coat and striped formal trousers.[5] The series ran for 21 chapters of pseudo-intellectual parody and first presented Tilley in close-up in Chapter XVII.[1] The range of activities and duties held by Tilley within the magazine in the decades after "The Making of a Magazine" gave a reputation as a man of action on top of his erudite man of taste presentation.[6] For "The Making of a Magazine" chapters, Tilley was drawn with modern attire of the day by Johan Bull (whose tenure with the magazine seems to have ended in 1927), although each feature's layout was ornamented with Irvin's 19th-century-cladded version at the top.[1] At some point well after Tilley was named on the inside we are told that he is the same named person in the original cover art that would be reused annually.[1] In Chapter XX, we are told that Eustace was born to Mrs. Terwilliger Tilley on January 1, 1876.[1]
Ross believed Tilley was the highlight of the inaugural issue and each year that the magazine managed to survive, he acknowledged this by putting him on the cover again.[1] By appearing on the cover exactly as originally drawn every year for decades on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, Tilley has become a kind of mascot for The New Yorker. He has frequently made appearance within the magazine and on promotional materials, with occasional artistic license used to provide variation on his appearance. More recent anniversary editions have "parodied, subverted or deconstructed" the original artwork.[7]
Persona
The New York Times described him as follows: "The enduring symbol of The New Yorker magazine—the aristocratic, top-hatted Regency dandy, Eustace Tilley, studying a fluttering pale pink butterfly through a monocle".[8] The Comics Journal says his depiction is incongruous: "a seeming sophisticated man-about-town who is so vapidly empty-headed as to find a fluttering insect an object worthy of minute inspection."[1] Crosstown rival magazine New York describes him as a dandy who has always been somewhat condescending.[9] ABC News describes him as "foppish".[10] The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in their Nieman Reports stated that Tilley portrays the "essence" of the magazine—"a slightly condescending but consummately tasteful arbiter of the larger world".[2]
