New original cartoons added to our e-collection

The UWS Library has recently purchased ten rare Norm Mitchell original drawings for the Whitlam e-collection.

These cartoons cover a range of topics from the Whitlam era – women's issues, Sneddon and McMahon leadership of the Liberal Party and of course the election battles between Whitlam and Fraser.

This cartoon is a prime example and carries the caption "well … who do we get for Christmas" in a comment on December 1975 election following the infamous dismissal of the Whitlam Labor government by then Governor-General Sir John Kerr.

Norm Mitchell was born in Ballina NSW 1920, and died in Adelaide 1980, aged 60 years. He began working on newspapers in 1932 first as "Copy Boy" at NSW’s Smith's Weekly, then began a 4 year cadetship in their art department doing small illustrations, lettering, gags, retouching photographs etc.

During the Second World War, he served with the Army Service Corps Transport Unit as a driver/ mechanic and saw active service both in Darwin and in Asia. After the war, he took a job on the News (Adelaide) as a cartoonist and worked for them for over 30 years.

During this time his cartoons were also published in interstate and overseas magazines and newspapers such as the Washington Post.

In 1975 he won the Walkley Award for the best newspaper cartoon in Australia. His quoted ambition was "To keep people entertained in cartoon form and to do more ink and pen illustrations from life."