Story Hour Readings: Fourth Year

In contrast to the other things we’ve posted lately, this comes from the early part of Joseph Franké’s career.

In 1921 Earnest Clark Hartwell published a series of grade school readers for students, one for each of the first through eighth grades. Joseph Franké contributed to most of them.

That includes the fourth-year reader. Franké is explicitly mentioned on the title page for many of them but this one reads “Illustrations by E. A. Furman, B. Westmacott, E. B. Comstock, and others.” Franké is definitely one of the others.

Here are his illustrations that I was able to identify in this volume, separated by the stories that they illustrate.

The Magic Bowl

The Thanksgiving Gifts

The Miller of the Dee

How Crusoe Made Pottery

Try Again

Harry and the Guidepost

Uncertain Images

There are a number of unsigned images that could be Franké’s work. Here are the two most likely.

This one is unsigned, but it is also an illustration for “The Magic Bowl.” The rest of the volume has stories that are illustrated by a single artist; that may also be the case here.

The second picture appears with a story called “The Prudent Farmer.”

There’s a signature in the lower right-hand corner and it could say “Franké” but it’s hard to be sure.

The resolution here isn’t teriffic but for the moment we can at least see the images. Eventually I’ll have to buy a hard copy of this book so that I can get a better look at this signature and maybe find more. If the quality of the hard copy is good enough I’ll try to get better scans of these.

In the mean time you can check it out for yourself at the link below. The best way to see the pictures appears to be to download the pdf.

Story Hour Readings — Fourth Year (1921)

What do you think? Are these last two images his work? How about the other unsigned images? Did I miss any? Please tell us in the comments!