Homer Davenport
Encyclopedia
Homer Calvin Davenport was a political cartoonist from the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. He was known for his satirical drawings and support of Progressive Era
Progressive Era
The Progressive Era in the United States was a period of social activism and political reform that flourished from the 1890s to the 1920s. One main goal of the Progressive movement was purification of government, as Progressives tried to eliminate corruption by exposing and undercutting political...

 politics. A native Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

ian, he worked for several West Coast newspapers before being hired by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 and the New York Evening Journal
New York Journal American
The New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...

. He also was one of the first American breeders of Arabian horse
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...

s.

Early years

Davenport was born in 1864 in the Waldo Hills, several miles south of Silverton, Oregon
Silverton, Oregon
Silverton is a city in Marion County, Oregon, United States, along the 45th parallel. The population was 7,414 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Salem Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...

. His parents were Timothy W. and Florinda Davenport. His father was one of the founders of the Republican Party
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...

 in Oregon and served as an Oregon state representative, senator, and Indian agent, and ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Congress in 1874. His mother died of smallpox when he was only three years old, but had encouraged his talent for drawing. She was a subscriber to Harpers Weekly, an illustrated news magazine, and particularly admired the political cartoons of the German immigrant, Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast
Thomas Nast was a German-born American caricaturist and editorial cartoonist who is considered to be the "Father of the American Cartoon". He was the scourge of Boss Tweed and the Tammany Hall machine...

, who made his name in part by exposing the corruption of New York City government by way of biting satire. Before she died, Florinda had made it clear that her dream was to have her son become a great cartoonist and that his talent for art was to be encouraged. While he was perceived as idle and aimless by his neighbors during his teen years, and had no formal art training, Davenport ended up becoming one of the highest paid political cartoonists in the world at the time.

Career

Davenport's career was not immediately successful. His first job was drawing for the Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

 newspaper, The Oregonian
The Oregonian
The Oregonian is the major daily newspaper in Portland, Oregon, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 1850...

, where he was fired, it was said, for doing a poor job of drawing a stove for an advertisement. He later worked for the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

.
Ultimately, he came to the attention of William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...

 who recognized Davenport's talent for political cartooning and his tendency to attack corrupt political bosses. Hearst brought him to the east coast to work for the New York Evening Journal
New York Journal American
The New York Journal American was a newspaper published from 1937 to 1966. The Journal American was the product of a merger between two New York newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst: The New York American , a morning paper, and the New York Evening Journal, an afternoon paper...

in 1895. He later also worked for the New York Evening Mail
New York Evening Mail
The New York Evening Mail was an American daily newspaper published in New York City.The paper was made up of the New York Evening Express, which dated from 1836, and the Daily Advertiser. It was eventually merged with the Evening Telegram, which became the New York World-Telegram in 1927.From New...

, producing a continuing stream of highly detailed pen & ink caricatures of many of the leading figures of the day. His drawings left few public figures unscathed; he even caricatured himself and his boss, Hearst.

Ultimately, Davenport’s work became so well recognized for skewering political figures he considered corrupt, such as U.S. Senator Mark Hanna
Mark Hanna
Marcus Alonzo "Mark" Hanna was a United States Senator from Ohio and the friend and political manager of President William McKinley...

 and others, that his opponents attempted to pass a law banning political cartoons. The bill, introduced in the New York State Legislature with the prodding of U.S. Senator Thomas C. Platt
Thomas C. Platt
Thomas Collier Platt was a two-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a three-term U.S. Senator from New York in the years 1881 and 1897-1909 — is best known as the "political boss" of the Republican Party in New York State in the late 19th Century and early 20th Century...

, (R-NY), did not pass, but the effort inspired Davenport to create one of his most famous works: “No Honest Man Need Fear Cartoons."

He covered the elections of 1896 and 1900, satirizing William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...

 as corrupt and William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...

 as an anarchist. However, his 1904 cartoon "He's good enough for me," portraying Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam
Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...

 as appearing to endorse Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

, represented both Davenport's support of Trust-busting and his admiration of Roosevelt himself. Davenport also traveled worldwide, covering the Dreyfus affair
Dreyfus Affair
The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that divided France in the 1890s and the early 1900s. It involved the conviction for treason in November 1894 of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, a young French artillery officer of Alsatian Jewish descent...

, and caricaturing many of the leading political figures of Great Britain.

Davenport went on to author several autobiographical books and went on the lecture circuit, traveling the world speaking on cartoons, satire and Silverton. His books included The Diary of a Country Boy, and The Dollar or the Man. He also published a large-format book containing many of his cartoons in 1898. Titled Cartoons by Davenport, an annotated reissue was published in Silverton in 2006. Apparently as a joke, Davenport once included The Bell of Silverton and Other Stories of Oregon, in a list of his publications. A book of that name did not exist however. Some speculate that this was an early working title for The Country Boy.

His last assignment was to illustrate the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912. He caught pneumonia while waiting on the docks of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 for the arrival of the survivors, and died shortly after. Hearst paid for an elaborate funeral and had Davenport’s body returned to his native Silverton for burial.

Personal life

During his time in San Francisco, Davenport met and married his wife, Daisey Moore. Homer and Daisey had three children: Homer Jr., Mildred and Gloria. The family settled in northern New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, first in East Orange, then on a 27 acres (109,265.2 m²) estate in Morris Plains. They hosted large parties attended by both celebrities and many influential people of the day, including Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...

, Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell
Lillian Russell was an American actress and singer. She became one of the most famous actresses and singers of the late 19th century and early 20th century, known for her beauty and style, as well as for her voice and stage presence.Russell was born in Iowa but raised in Chicago...

, Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He developed many devices that greatly influenced life around the world, including the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting, practical electric light bulb. In addition, he created the world’s first industrial...

, William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...

 and even Buffalo Bill Cody. Davenport was also a lifelong lover of animals and of country living; the family raised horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

s, fancy poultry
Poultry
Poultry are domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of producing eggs, meat, and/or feathers. These most typically are members of the superorder Galloanserae , especially the order Galliformes and the family Anatidae , commonly known as "waterfowl"...

 and other animals.

Silverton, Oregon gives tribute to Davenport during its annual Homer Davenport Community Festival, held in August. The festival hosts the annual Homer Davenport International Cartoon Contest that attracts amateur and professional cartoonists. All entries are displayed during the festival in the Silverton Art Association's Borland Gallery.

Arabian horse breeder

In addition to his cartooning, Davenport is remembered for personally playing a key role in bringing some of the earliest desertbred or "asil
Asil
The word "Aseel" Is an Arabic Name and adjective that means: Original, Authentic, Genuine, Pure, Origin, Root, Unique.The word "asil" is Arabic in origin and means "pure"...

"
Arabian horse
Arabian horse
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses...

s to America. A longtime horseman, he had been captivated by the beauty of the Arabians brought to the Chicago World Fair
World fair
World Fair can refer to:* Expo , a large public exhibition* This World Fair, an American rock band...

 of 1893. Upon learning that these horses had remained in America and had been sold at auction, he sought them out, finding most of them in the hands of Peter Bradley, a millionaire and horseman who lived in Hingham
Hingham, Massachusetts
Hingham is a town in northern Plymouth County on the South Shore of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and suburb in Greater Boston. The United States Census Bureau 2008 estimated population was 22,561...

, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

. Davenport initially bought some of these horses outright, but then went into a partnership with Bradley.

In 1906, Davenport obtained financial backing from Peter Bradley and used his political connections, particularly with President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...

, to obtain the diplomatic permissions required to travel into the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...

. He gained support from key officials in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

, notably the Sultan himself. Combining his memory and cartooning ability with his international travels, in the process he produced one of the few images of the sultan, a man who was generally unwilling to be photographed or have his image drawn. With several associates, he traveled throughout what today is Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

 and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...

, and successfully brought 27 horses to America. Most were registered under the name of Bradley's Hingham Stock Farm.

Of note was that Davenport not only was able to purchase stallions
Stallion (horse)
A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded .Stallions will follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" neck, as well as a somewhat more muscular physique as compared to...

, which were often available for sale to outsiders, but also mares
Mare (horse)
A mare is an adult female horse or other equine.In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse age three and younger. However, in Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four years old; in harness racing a mare is a...

, treasured by the Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

 and often not for sale at any price. One reason was due to his (possibly accidental) decision to breach protocol and visit Akmet Haffez, a Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...

 who served as a liaison between Ottoman government and the tribal people of the Anazeh, before calling upon the Governor of Syria, Nazim Pasha. Haffez considered the timing of Davenport's visit to constitute a great honor, gave Davenport his finest mare, a war mare named Wadduda. Not to be outdone, Nazim Pasha gave Davenport the stallion Haleb, who was a well-respected sire throughout the region. Known as the "Pride of the Desert," Haleb had been given to Pasha as a gift in recognition of his liberal camel tax. Haffez then personally escorted Davenport into the desert, and at one point in the journey, Haffez and Davenport became blood brothers. Haffez helped arrange for the best-quality horses to be presented, negotiated appropriate prices, and verified that their pedigrees were asil
Asil
The word "Aseel" Is an Arabic Name and adjective that means: Original, Authentic, Genuine, Pure, Origin, Root, Unique.The word "asil" is Arabic in origin and means "pure"...

. Davenport chronicled this journey in his 1908 book My Quest of the Arab Horse.

The impact of these 17 stallions and 10 mares was of tremendous importance to the Arabian horse breed in America, and Davenport himself was one of the founding members of the Arabian Horse Registry of America
Arabian Horse Association
The Arabian Horse Association is the single national organization that is the only breed registry that registers Arabian horses in the United States...

, in 1908. The organization is now the Arabian Horse Association
Arabian Horse Association
The Arabian Horse Association is the single national organization that is the only breed registry that registers Arabian horses in the United States...

. While what are now called "Davenport" bloodlines can be found in thousands of Arabian horse pedigrees, there are also some preservation breeders
Preservation breeding
Preservation breeding is an attempt by many animal breeders to preserve bloodlines of animals, either of a rare breed, or of rare pedigrees within a breed. One purpose of preservation breeding is to protect genetic diversity within a species, another is to preserve valuable genetic traits that may...

whose horses have bloodlines remain exclusively descended from the horses he imported.
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