Political cartoons represent the freedom of expression inherent in American democracy, echoing the Library of Congress' Bicentennial theme of 'Libraries, Creativity, and Liberty.' On the cusp of a new millennium Herb Block's drawings forcefully bring back the principal issues and events that shaped our world during the past century. Herblock's History celebrates his gift to the Library of Congress of more than one hundred works, spanning seventy years of world history and the astonishing breadth of his distinguished career. It is my great pleasure, as friend and admirer, to introduce this first exhibition of his original drawings in fifty years. And well it should, for no cartoonist or commentator in America has done more to educate and inform the public during the past seven decades than Herb Block. Numerous honorary degrees from institutions nationwide, most recently a 1999 Doctor of Arts from Harvard University, suggest academia has forgiven him for leaving college early to pursue a career as an editorial cartoonist.

In 2000, the Library of Congress named him a 'Living Legend' in recognition of his extraordinary contributions to the nation. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1994 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. He has received three Pulitzer Prizes for editorial cartooning (1942, 1954, and 1979) and a fourth with Washington Post colleagues for public service during the Watergate investigation (1973). Herb Block at the Library of Congress for the opening of the exhibit, October 16, 2000.įrom the stock market crash in 1929 through the new millennium beginning in the year 2000, editorial cartoonist Herb Block has chronicled the nation's political history, caricaturing twelve American presidents from Herbert Hoover to Bill Clinton.

Herbert block cartoons