Martin & Chopin

When did Oscar Chopin stop drawing the Weatherbird?

This page is intended to present and consider information I have found concerning the Weatherbird and its artist during 1904-1910.

The popular idea is that Chopin drew the bird starting in 1903, and finished in 1910, when he was succeeded by S. Carlisle Martin. The earliest reference to this timeline that I have found is in the book “The Story of the first 100 years of the Weatherbird”, published 2/1/2001. The Post-Dispatch article on the 100th anniversary (2/11/2001) states the same thing.

But in 2012 I was contacted by an amateur historian from San Francisco who claimed that Chopin had been living and employed in San Francisco a few years before 1910.

In 2025 I remembered this and I started looking for contemporaneous primary sources. Interestingly, newspaper articles published before 2001 which mention Chopin & the bird rarely mention a specific year for the transition. One Chopin obituary in 1932 does state he drew the bird until 1905, when he left for the Star-Chronicle. Most articles tend to vaguely refer to Chopin drawing the Weatherbird “for a few years” and SCM for about 20 years.

One Post-Dispatch magazine does mention 1912 (P-D Notebook, Volume 1, Number 12, February 1951; page 8: "When Chopin left the paper about 1912...). I believe this is an assumption based on the idea that SCM drew the bird for 20 years, subtracted from the 1932 year of his death. I don’t have an explanation for the 1910 date.

But what's this about Chopin and the Star-Chronicle in 1905?

Firstly, straight from the St. Louis Star-Chronicle itself. This is a relatively obscure paper which doesn’t yet have scanned archives online. Luckily the Missouri Historical Society Library & Research Center has an archive available for viewing. Here is a photo of an article from page 6 of the December 6, 1904 edition:

So it seems that Chopin was not drawing the Weatherbird, or even working at the Post-Dispatch, after December 1904. Presumably the obituary almost 30 years later got the year wrong due to the lateness in 1904 of the transition.

Chopin appears in the St. Louis Gould’s City Directory from 05, 06, and 07. He is not listed in ‘08.

I have found lots more contemporaneous references to Chopin, see them below at the end of the page. In summary, they agree that Chopin not only left the Post Dispatch in Dec 1904 (one reference to 1905), but left St. Louis for San Francisco by 1907.

So who was drawing the Weatherbird between Dec 1904 and 1910?

Well thanks to this Birthday feature in the St Louis Post-Dispatch on May 17, 1908 (Page 62), it is clear that S. Carlisle Martin for some time before this date. So that narrows it down some.

(Incidentally, my mind exploded when I saw this page. I had seen indications that Chopin was not really drawing the bird at this point but this was the first hard evidence I saw. Plus it is a cool feature. I hope to see it in color someday.)

Unfortunately, I haven't found any direct references to the bird artist before this date. But there are some clues if we examine the bird himself during the '05-'08 period.

First off, the bird seems to change stylistically starting Dec 1904/Jan 1905. The handwriting as well seems to change from Chopin's loose style to a more horizontal and careful style. However, this is more speculative evidence as art department members at the time often seem to change up their own handwriting styles to some degree, as seen when comparing other paper illustrations. But we can find something more telling:

LES Initials

On January 14th, 1905, this bird runs:

And soon a pattern develops where most birds are initialed in this way:

I believe that this is a signature of James Lesueur, abbreviated 'L' or 'LES', who was on the Post-Dispatch art staff at the time. Here is one of his illustrations from the 3/4/05 paper:

So this helps to demonstrate that Chopin was not drawing the bird at this time.

(For more about James Lesueur and his birds, see the Lesueur page. Although never considered one of the canonical Weatherbird artists, and not even mentioned in the 1908 article of the history of the bird, in my mind, at least, he is the 3rd bird artist, with his own distinct style, and era, although tragically short-lived.)

Unfortunately, after April 14, 1905 we don't see any initialed or signed birds until March 30, 1907:

And this starts to show up frequently afterwards, which indicates that at least by March 1907 SCM was regularly drawing the bird.

However, we have to be careful because although the style and handwriting seems consistent before and after this point, indicating that Martin has been drawing the bird for some time before and after, without a signature we can't be 100% sure of the artist, since these people were professional illustrators and probably could imitate stylings of such a simple cartoon. On the other hand, they often seem to not be concerned about maintaining a consistent style. See these birds from August 28th and 29th in 1905:

A dramatic shift in the bird in one day.

We see a similar stark change when Lesueur does 2 or 3 birds in early 1906.

And to illustrate why it could be dangerous to try to use handwriting as an indicator of the bird artist of the day, see these two birds, both signed LES:

4/4/05 and 4/6/05

And these, all signed by Martin:

And consider that one person might have drawn the bird and another lettered it. Actually, in my collection I have two original Al Schweitzer birds, both with a blank space where the birdline goes, and labeled on the back "Sat. bird". This indicates that Schweitzer drew some generic birds during the week and left them for someone else to add a birdline for Saturday's paper. They may have done the same thing back in 1905. (Actually, there seems to be a pattern where birds with seemingly discrepant handwriting are more generic illustrations, where the bird is simply standing there without props and could be saying anything.)

All that being said, I personally suspect that SCM began drawing the shortly or immediately after Lesueur's short term, and consistently up until 1932. But note this is speculation. Maybe someday we may find a piece of correspondence giving us more sure evidence.

For a detailed look at 1905 birds, see this page.

In summary, Chopin quit from the PD in December 1904 and at that time stopped drawing the Weatherbird (naturally). The job was picked up by the rest of the art department, notably by Lesueur in early 1905, and eventually by Martin, at latest by '07-'08ish.

The End.