Chopin and His Birds

Oscar Chopin was born on September 24, 1873 in St. Louis.

He is listed as an artist in the Gould Directory in 1901 onwards, and specifically listed as working at the Post-Dispatch in the 1904 edition.

In 1903 he took over the job of drawing the Weatherbird, his first signed bird appearing January 11th. He continued as the primary Weatherbird artist until December of 1904. The 6th of that month he started a new job as illustrator for the Chronicle, a smaller St. Louis paper (which would become the Star-Chronicle after a merger in 1905).

In the 1905 Directory he is listed as working at the Chronicle, and '06 and '07 the Star-Chronicle.

He was married on Dec. 14, 1905 to Miss Louise Hinckley.

In August 1907 he moved to San Francisco. Before long, he began to work for the San Francisco Examiner, which coincidentally had a Weather Bear, one of the only two weather creature cartoons that predate the Weatherbird (as far as I have found). Chopin would even at least once draw the Little Bear (which was also a mascot of the paper) in an illustration:

Sep. 30, 1917 page 66

Chopin died in 1932.

Some references:

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Aug. 4, 1907 page 39

The San Francisco Examiner

Jan 7, 1917 page 13

St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Dec. 29, 1932 page 15

The book "Women's Issues in Kate Chopin's The Awakening" for birthdate

A Selection of Some of His Birds

All of Chopin's birds are amazing and I wish I could post all of them. But until I figure out a way to do that, here is a selection of some of his birds.

They start off imitating Martin's style, but over a few months develop into Chopin's signature 'funny baby bird' style.