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John Jonik papers
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
John Jonik was born on April 30, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Edward L. and Mary (Prior) Jonik. He attended Villanova University for a year before he transferred and studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts from 1961-1966. In addition to cartooning, John's artistic endeavors included: painting, wood sculpture, esoteric collection arrangements, and murals. Jonik exhibited his work in galleries in and around Philadelphia.
In the 1960s, Jonik focused on his cartoons which were accepted and published in a number of publications including: The New York Times, National Lampoon, Audubon, The New Yorker, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, Readers' Digest and Mad Magazine. His political work has appeared in Z Magazine, Earth First! Journal, The Ecologist, Funny Times, as well as many small activist publications.
In the late 1970s-early 1980s Jonik began drawing design ideas for various products and giftware collections. Companies such as Enesco and Silvestri sold a number of products based upon Jonik's work including snowdomes (water globes), mugs, hangers, clocks, and ornaments.
The John Jonik papers comprise: original drawings (monochrome and color), unpublished original drawings, tear sheets, correspondence with publishers, acceptance and rejection slips, sketchbooks, printed materials, correspondence, business papers and royalty statements, catalogs, and artifacts.
Series 1 comprises John Jonik's original artwork, some published cartoons; but the bulk unpublished cartoons and original sketches. This series also includes artwork from Jonik's childhood and time in school at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts.
Series 2 documents the publication and proliferation of Jonik's artwork. Comprised of tearsheets, newspapers, newsletters, and printed materials, this series provides a guide to his magazine publishing over the course of fifty years. Materials in this series are grouped into three subseries: correspondence, tear sheets, and books.
Jonik was an artist and entrepreneur. He sold a number of designs to companies like Ensco, the home décor and personalized accessory company in Illinois. Jonik designed water globes, pens, mirrors, mugs, ornaments, hangers, clocks and even games. Series 3 comprises his design ideas and artwork related to giftware as well as samples of products based upon his designs. This series also includes his business papers which comprise contracts, royalty states, correspondence, and notes.
The collection is organized into 3 series: Series 1: Artwork, 1950-2009, Series 2: Publications and printed materials, 1960-2022, Series 3: Commercial art, business papers, 1977-2011.
Gift of John Jonik, 2019-2021.
Accessioned as 2019.2019.000553; 2020.000109; 2021.000107. Samantha Dodd wrote and encoded the finding aid, 2023. Creator removed tear sheets from magazines and newspapers; staff continued this process for the remaining printed materials. Duplicate copies were removed from the collection.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Samantha Dodd
- Finding Aid Date
- 2023 July 19
- Access Restrictions
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This collection is open for research use.
- Use Restrictions
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Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.