Biography
Based in Philadelphia for most of his career, Thomas Guernsey Moore was best known for his work as an illustrator, designer, and decorator. Born in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Moore obtained an early education at Germantown Academy before attending the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1891. After his time at the Academy, Moore briefly worked at the Philadelphia Press, where he worked in the art department. Moore made his Saturday Evening Post debut with his cover for the June 1900 issue. During this time, he was also sharing a studio with fellow Post illustrator and author George Gibbs. Prior to debuting his first cover, Moore redesigned the Post’s masthead, introducing a new style of lettering. He would go on to produce 63 covers for the Post, with his final cover appearing on January 19, 1924. In 1904, Moore was named as the magazine’s Fine Art Editor.
Between 1906 and 1908, Moore devoted himself largely to magazines, advertising, and other art work. In 1908, he aided in designing costumes and decorations for Philadelphia’s Founders’ Week alongside Ellis P. Oberholtzer. Moore also became the art director for Beck Engraving Company in 1909, and George L. Boyer Company and Calkins & Holden in 1912. As a designer and decorator, Moore worked on designing costumes and stage settings for various pageants and other productions. During his last few years, he devoted himself largely to decoration and design. Pageants and theater productions Moore worked on include Amulet, staged at Bellevue-Stratford in 1915, and a pageant depicting Women’s Suffrage in 1921. Perhaps his biggest achievement, Moore both designed and directed a pageant for the Red Cross in December 1917.
As an artist, Moore was considered to be an authority in Colonial art and lettering. An Associate of Moore’s, Charles D. Mitchell, goes on to say of Moore “He was an acknowledged authority on lettering and designing and decoration, especially of the Colonial period…He was also known as a colorist of rare ability; in fact, his delicate colors formed one of the chief charms of his work.” Some of Moore’s earlier work put an emphasis on graphic design, and his work tended to contain heavily outlined images with more of a two-dimensional, poster style. It featured elegant forms, dark outlines, and areas of flat, unmodulated colors.
During Moore’s last eleven years, he made a home in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. However, due to existing health conditions, Moore died in his sleep in 1925.
Illustrations by Thomas Guernsey Moore
![[Woman looking into distance]](https://www.illustrationhistory.org/images/uploads/Woman_Looking_Out.jpg)
![[British, French, and American soldier holding flags]](https://www.illustrationhistory.org/images/uploads/Soldiers.jpg)
Additional Resources
Bibliography
Cohn, Jan. Creating America: George Horace Lorimer and The Saturday Evening Post. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1990.
Falk, Peter H. Who Was Who in American Art. Madison: Sound View Press, 1985.
Finnegan, Cara A. “Appropriating the Healthy Child: The Child That Toileth Not and Progressive Era Child Labor Photography.” Making Photography Matter: A Viewer’s History from the Civil War to the Great Depression, p.81-124. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2015.
Glassberg, David. “Public Ritual and Cultural Hierarchy: Philadelphia’s Civic Celebrations at the Turn of the Twentieth Century.” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 107, no.3 (1983), p.421-48.
Reed, Walt and the Society of Illustrators. The Illustrator in America 1860-2000. New York: Society of Illustrators, 2001.
