Harry Martin and His Birds

Horace "Harry" B. Martin created the Weatherbird and drew it up to around January 1903.

Selection of H Martin Birds

Here is a gallery of my selection of some H Martin birds that I think are especially interesting. (Unfortunately I can't include all of them. Maybe someday.)

Feb. 2, 1901, Page 6

A precursor to the real bird

Feb. 11, 1901

The famous original bird

Feb. 12, 1901, Page 8

Does this count as a Weatherbird?

Feb. 13, 1901

The second regular front page Weatherbird

Feb. 14, 1901

The third. This one will be reused several times.

Feb. 15, 1901

A caricature of Dr. Hyatt, the P-D weatherman, often mentioned in the weather column. No bird this day. In fact it will be several years before a bird is printed literally every day. Though very soon it becomes rare to see no bird two days in a row.

Feb. 16, 1901

Another classic, will be reprinted.

Feb. 18, 1901

Another classic, will be reprinted.

Feb. 19, 1901

Another classic, will be reprinted.

Feb. 20, 1901

Another classic, will be reprinted.

Feb. 21, 1901

The first reprint. This and the next day back up the story of how Martin originally planned a small set of birds for printing rather than a new bird daily.

Feb. 26, 1901

The third and last "Classifiedsbird" that I am aware of.

Mar. 5, 1901

A funny bird

Mar. 7, 1901

One of my favorites

Mar. 8, 1901

An unusual box

Mar. 11, 1901

Mar. 14, 1901

Mar. 18, 1901

The first Ms. Bird

Mar. 21, 1901

The first collar and tie

Mar. 23, 1901

In a box

Mar. 25, 1901

On a branch

Mar. 28, 1901

"This is spring for you."

The bird's first words, I believe.

Apr. 4, 1901

Second talking bird.

Apr. 6, 1901

"This married life is strenuous", carrying a $40 hat.

Sometimes the bird is married, sometimes not, sometimes a child. Can there be said to be any continuity with the bird as a character?

Apr. 10, 1901

The second Ms. Bird. Or is it Mrs., with her new $40 hat? We may never know.

Apr. 12, 1901

Did Martin not have the weather report before drawing this one?

Apr. 18, 1901

Apr. 20, 1901

Another funny bird, and on a branch

May 1, 1901

May 11, 1901

May 14, 1901

May 17, 1901

Talking about a news story

May 18, 1901

May 22, 1901

A self referential and purely comic bird

May 24, 1901

May 25, 1901

May 27, 1901

Another backwards bird

May 29, 1901

Bird Family!

June 4, 1901

The bird flying

June 5, 1901

Another one of my favorites

June 24, 1901

June 29, 1901

July 6, 1901

July 10, 1901

July 15, 1901

A typical bird

July 16, 1901

A typical bird

July 17, 1901

July 20, 1901

You see lots of this king of flag in papers of this era. I'm not sure what they are.

July 23, 1901

July 25, 1901

July 31, 1901

Martin was into golf. I don't know what the bird is saying.

Aug. 5, 1901

Aug. 8, 1901

Aug. 26, 1901

Why is his suitcase labelled KT?

Sep. 3, 1901

Wearing his iconic big bowtie

Sep. 4, 1901

"I am not dead but almost."

Sep. 16, 1901

Another flying bird

Sep. 21, 1901

A missing bird... Someday I will compile a list of missing birds and try to find them in some other archive of the Post-Dispatch.

Oct. 7, 1901

I'm not sure what this is

Oct. 18, 1901

Oct. 19, 1901

Oct. 22, 1901

The weather column mentions the bird. He had gotten popular by this point.

Oct. 24, 1901

Nov. 4, 1901

Nov. 7, 1901

Dec. 14, 1901

Three birds in an expanded weather column

Dec. 16, 1901

Dec. 17, 1901

Bird and son, I guess?

Dec. 27, 1901

Jan. 10, 1902

Jan. 14, 1902

Feb. 4, 1902

Feb. 5, 1902

Feb. 7, 1902

Feb. 14, 1902

Feb. 26, 1902

Mar. 1, 1902

Mar. 12, 1902

Mar. 18, 1902

Mar. 26, 1902

Apr. 4, 1902

Apr. 9, 1902

Baby Bird

Apr. 12, 1902

Apr. 24, 1902

Apr. 25, 1902

Apr. 29, 1902

May 7, 1902

May 8, 1902

May 13, 1902

"This is picnic weather."

May 15, 1902

Bird in a car

May 24, 1902

June 5, 1902

What is he saying?

June 7, 1902

June 11, 1902

June 13, 1902

June 14, 1902

What is that?

June 16, 1902

June 18, 1902

June 19, 1902

June 21, 1902

The first 'out' bird

June 24, 1902

June 26, 1902

"PD Bird"

June 27, 1902

He's a bird, why can't he?

June 28, 1902

July 2, 1902

July 3, 1902

July 4, 1902

July 5, 1902

July 7, 1902

Bird mentioned in weather column

July 8, 1902

July 9, 1902

July 18, 1902

At least the third "This is great."

July 22, 1902

July 23, 1902

July 25, 1902

Aug. 5, 1902

Aug. 9, 1902

The suns speaks

Aug. 11, 1902

This is a good example of the funny weather columns at the time, and talks about Dr. Hyatt's sway over the weather. This pairing of whimsical comic and whimsical column is something never mentioned in discourse of Weatherbird history. Could this be a contributing factor to his development early on or his popularity?

Aug. 20, 1902