Norman Rockwell Scout Art
Norman Rockwell was an American painter and illustrator. His works are very popular in the United States for their reflection of American culture. He is noted for his 64-year relationship with the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), during which he produced covers for their publication Boys’ Life, calendars, and other illustrations. These works include popular images that reflect the Scout Oath and Scout Law such as The Scoutmaster, A Scout is Reverent and A Guiding Hand, among many others.
First hired by the Boy Scouts of America to create a series of pen and ink drawings for The Boy Scout’s Hike Book, Norman Rockwell was appointed art editor of Boys’ Life magazine at the age of nineteen. In 1916, at the age of twenty-two, Rockwell began his tenure at The Saturday Evening Post, and although he resigned his salaried position at Boys’ Life to pursue new opportunities, he continued to include images of Scouts on Post covers and in the monthly magazine of the American Red Cross. A few years later, in 1925, Rockwell resumed work with the Boy Scouts of America, creating the first of fifty-one annual illustrations for Brown and Bigelow’s highly successful Boy Scout calendar.
1937 — A color lithograph based on a painting by Howard Chandler Christy, designed for a 1937 Boy Scout Jamboree. — Image by © Lake County Museum/CORBIS