Robert Osborn Papers

Robert Osborn was an American satiric cartoonist, illustrator, and author. Osborn identified himself as “a drawer” motivated by political convictions.

Osborn was born on October 26, 1904, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He entered the University of Wisconsin in 1923, then transferred to Yale University later the same year. At Yale, Osborn was the art editor of the campus humor magazine The Yale Record. After graduating from Yale in 1928, he studied painting in Rome and Paris, then returned to the United States and taught art and philosophy at the Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, CT. During this time he made the move from painting to caricature.

Osborn enlisted in the Navy when World War II began, hoping to become a pilot. Instead, he was assigned to a special information unit that produced pilot training manuals. He learned the art of speed drawing and began drawing cartoons of an ignorant pilot, “Dilbert the Pilot,” who perpetually violated rules of military safety and put himself and his crew at risk. “Dilbert” caught on as a slang term for a sailor who repeatedly made mistakes and later developed into the term of a mistake made by a Navy pilot. Osborn was prolific, creating over 40,000 drawings for training manuals. The character Dilbert was used in educational posters for Navy pilots, appeared in New York Times and LIFE magazine.

In 1946, he left the Navy and a wrote the book, War is No Damn Good!. The book’s skull-like depiction of an atomic bomb's mushroom cloud gained Osborn national attention. Following its release, he started to draw political cartoons for Harper’s, Fortune, LIFE, House & Garden, and Look, and became a regular contributor to The New Republic. His cartoons frequently depicted politicians such as Senator Joseph McCarthy and several presidents, from Lyndon Baines Johnson through Ronald Reagan. During his lifetime, Osborn wrote and illustrated several of his own books and books by others. He was politically active, most notably in the nuclear disarmament movement.

Osborn continued to draw for the Navy until the late 1980s and his cartoons were published in Naval Aviation News. The character of Dilbert was replaced by a Navy pilot named “Grampaw Pettibone.” His drawings of Charles Chaplin were the basis of an art exhibition in 1987 and his work appeared in various exhibitions throughout the country.

Osborn lived in Salisbury, CT with his wife, Elodie, from 1947 until his death on December 20, 1994.