John E. Sheridan (1880 – 1948)
World's Fair or Bust
4/22/1939
American illustrator John Sheridan was born in Tomah, Wisconsin and began his career as a poster artist while a student at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Sheridan supplemented his tuition costs by painting posters announcing sporting events. Sheridan’s skill as a poster artist was quite naturally transferred to magazine cover art, as evidenced by his work for The Saturday Evening Post, The Ladies Home Journal and Collier’s. He spent a year abroad at the Colorossi School in Paris. Sheridan eventually became the art editor of The Washington Times. John E. Sheridan was an active member of the Society of Illustrators, located in New York City, and taught at the School of Visual Arts in New York from 1945-1948.
From 1931 to 1939 Sheridan illustrated thirteen covers for The Saturday Evening Post with predominant sporting and military themes. Sheridan’s classy Saturday Evening Post cover of November 13, 1937 showcases three branches of the U.S. military, Army, Navy and Marines, striding in unison, powerfully forward, in resolute determination towards victory.
He died in 1948.