On Howard Pyle’s “Otto of the Silver Hand”

Sometimes known as the “Father of American illustration,” Howard Pyle (1853-1911) plays an enormous role in American art, illustration, and children’s literature. A deeply patriotic man, his desire to train up a generation of authentically American and successful artists and illustrators led him to found what became known as the Brandywine School of art. Pyle trained approximately seventy-five artists over a decade near the Brandywine River in Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware. Many of these artists, such as N. C. Wyeth, Frank Schoonover, and Anna Whelan Betts, were acclaimed for contributing to what became known as the Golden Age of Illustration in America.