Arthur Edward Jameson was born on March 26, 1872 in Jarrow-on-Tyne, County Durham, England, which is east of Newcastle. His father, Edward Jameson, was born in 1849 in Blanchland, England. His mother Jane Anne Stephenson was born in 1848 in England. His parents married in 1870 and had nine children, of which only three survived infancy. He was the eldest. His younger brother Frederick was born in 1879 and his little sister Jane was born in 1880. They lived at 192 Richmond Terrace in Gateshead, England, which is south of Newcastle. His father was a bricklayer and a builder.
His father designed and built several houses and churches in the Counties of Durham and Newcastle. He also constructed brick linings for deep shafts of coal and lead mines.
In 1882 his father became severely ill of Typhoid. After his recovery he left England and sailed to America. In February of 1883 he settled in Leavenworth, Kansas, where a relative worked as a superintendent of a coal mine. Edward Jameson prospered in Leavenworth, where his construction skills soon developed into real estate interests. After one year he was able to send for his family.
In July of 1884 at the age of twelve, Arthur Jameson and his mother and two younger siblings emigrated to the U.S.A. on the Steam Ship "City of Chicago" from Liverpool to New York City. They were met at port by the father and traveled by railroad to Kansas, where they lived at 121 Fifth Avenue in Leavenworth.
All three of the Jameson children attended local public schools in Leavenworth, KS.
In June of 1887 Arthur Jameson completed the tenth grade of high school, after which he joined the work force, which was the custom for most American children at that time.
By 1888 at the age of sixteen he began to work as an illustrator at local newspaper, The Leavenworth Times.
In 1890 he opened his own independent freelance art studio at 1027 South Broadway in Leavenworth, KS.
In 1893 his father became a Naturalized Citizen of the United States, by which right his mother and the three children also received the same status.
By 1894 he was a staff artist at The Kansas City Star-Times in Kansas City, Missouri.
In 1895 he left Kansas City to seek his fortune as a free-lance commercial artist in New York City. He studied with George Bridgman (1865-1943) at the Art Students League at 215 West 57th Street. He lived in an apartment on 56th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, which is only two blocks away from the school.
In 1896 he began to work for The New York Journal, which was owned and operated by William Randolph Hearst (1863-1951). Arthur E. Jameson continued to work at this newspaper for many years.
In 1898 he married Arabella "Brownie" Duncan, who was born November 3, 1871 on Staten Island, NY.
His daughter Margaret Duncan Jameson was born July 15, 1899.
1902 the family moved to 338 Springfield Avenue in Summit, New Jersey, while he rented an art studio at 238 William Street in Lower Manhattan.
On September 30, 1903 his daughter Helen Duncan Jameson was born in Summit, New Jersey.
On January 9, 1907 his father-in-law, Thomas R. Duncan, died at the age of seventy at the Jameson home in Summit, NJ.
In 1918 during the Great War he registered at his local draft board as required by law. At that time he was forty-six years old, married and the father of two children, so he was not selected for service in the military.
On May 23, 1919 his father, Edward Jameson, died in Leavenworth, KS, at the age of seventy. According to his father's obituary in The Leavenworth Times, "He came to the United States in February 1883 and settled in Leavenworth. For some years after his arrival here he was engaged in his profession and erected a number of the most prominent buildings in Leavenworth. Later Mr. Jameson entered the real estate business and was actively engaged in this up until the time of his last illness. he was a very active real estate agent and negotiated the sale of much of the property that changed hands here in late years. Mr. Jameson was always a strong town boomer and a firm believer in a bright future for Leavenworth. He helped, both in writing and in his talk, any and everything that would build up the city. He was especially strong in his belief that the coal fields here should be developed, and was instrumental in the sinking of two shafts. Mr. Jameson was and advocate of planting orchards in this section of Kansas, He did much to encourage farmers to plant apple and fruit trees. He organized horticultural exhibits to be sent East in a Pullman Car displaying Kansas Fruits and Grain. He aided in bringing many people to Kansas. He was an ardent protectionist and Republican and was chairman of the Leavenworth County Republican Committee for a number of years."
By 1920 the family had left New Jersey and moved back into NYC, where they lived at 468 Riverside Drive on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, while he kept an art studio in Greenwich Village at 42 Barrow Street. His daughters were both accomplished young women. His eldest child, Margaret Jameson, studied at The Julliard School of Music, where she became an accomplished pianist.
In 1922 he and his wife became estranged when she moved with his two daughters to Paris, France, to oversee their finishing school educations in music and art for two years.
In 1924 his daughter Margarett married a lawyer named Henry Littlefield and moved to the fashionable Tudor Tower which is renowned for scenic views of the East River.
In 1925 his mother died at the age of seventy-six.
In 1925 he moved to an art studio at 282 West 4th Street in Greenwich Village, while his wife lived at 65 University Place, with their daughter Helen Jameson, aged twenty-two, was listed as a freelance commercial artist. Her graceful illustrations eventually appeared in fashion magazines such as Mademoiselle and Pictorial Review. She became the chief advertising illustrator at the fashionable NYC department store, Lord & Taylor. On January 18, 1927 she married the illustrator Arnold Hall. They moved to 1170 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
By 1930 his estranged wife lived at 125 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn, while his home address was 40 East 34th Street, near Madison Avenue, in mid-town Manhattan.
During the 1930s he illustrated and painted covers for slick magazines, such as Liberty, Collier's, and The Saturday Evening Post. He also worked for pulp magazines. His black and white story illustrations appeared in Blue Book and he painted covers for Street & Smith's Sports Story Magazine.
During World War II as many artists were drafted for military service, he began to draw comic books for Dell Publications. His work appeared in Fairy Tale Parade, Animal Comics, and Santa Claus Funnies. Other artists of his generation also worked for Dell during wartime, including Casper Emerson, George F. Kerr, August Lennox, and Oscar Lebeck.
His estranged wife, Arabella "Brownie" Duncan Jameson died on April 30, 1946.
On November 8, 1946, he married his second wife, Edith Marie Hemsley, who was born in Dublin, Ireland on September, 17, 1867. The groom was seventy-four and the bride was seventy-nine.
After the war he illustrated several children's books for Whitman Publications, including Tom Sawyer, Black Beauty, Heidi, and Hans Brinker.
In 1949 he retired from illustration.
He and his second wife enjoyed traveling and eventually rented a apartment in Rome, Italy, where they lived in retirement as ex-patriot citizens.
Arthur E. Jameson caught pneumonia and died of heart failure at the age of eighty-five on November 2, 1957 in the Hotel Le Palme in Lerici, Italy, in the provence of La Spezia.
© David Saunders 2013 |
