Education
The same year, he apprenticed under renowned sculptor, and fellow Worcester native, Andrew O"Connor (sculptor).
illustrator inventor painter sculptor teacher
The same year, he apprenticed under renowned sculptor, and fellow Worcester native, Andrew O"Connor (sculptor).
Wickham worked as an editorial artist for the New York Times from 1924-1956. His work included sports illustrations, window displays in Times Square, and promotional posters that were displayed on newspaper trucks. In addition to his job at NYT, he also taught advertising art and layout at Textile Evening High School (now the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex), on 351 West 18th Street.
In 1917, Wickham received training at Boston"s Normal Art School, now the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Being the "slimmest of the students," Wickham was O"Connor"s model for the Spanish War Memorial statue, 1898 Soldier (image), still on display in Worcester"s Wheaton Square. Before his career as an editorial artist, Wickham invented orthodontal devices, including a "trimmer for bad teeth," and an "Appartus for Trimming Ondontological Casts," for which he received a United States patent (March 21, 1919).
As a sculptor, Wickham was sought out and commissioned for projects. He struck the die for plaster casts commemorating the 160th anniversary of the American Whig Society, and the 50th anniversary of the graduation of Woodrow Wilson from Princeton University.
These casts were unveiled at the Whig-Wilson Anniversary Celebration at Princeton American Whig–Cliosophic Society on December 11, 1929.
In 1929, Wickham was commissioned by the American Geographical Society for medallion Medals commemorating aviator and Antarctic explorer Rear Admiral Richard East. Byrd. Six years later, in 1935, Wickham sent the original model of this medallion to President Franklin Doctorate. Roosevelt. Inspired by words as well as images, Wickham"s poem, "A Bookplate Speaks," originally published in the New York Times, anthropomorphizes steel engraving printmaking, and showcases the artist"s facility with language:
Although begot of polished, graven steel,
Entombed within thy lines do I conceal
A soul.
"twere better were I ruby red,
Perhaps, instead of black, so dead,
Foreign then, his every heartbeat I might feel
And breathe and speak and tell the ardent zeal
With which he studied, mastered every line
Embodied in my quaint, beloved design.
Thus now you well might look and long review
Your bookplate. Foreign the master"s hand that drew
This something which is me, for you to hold
He, too, regarded me far more than gold
Search long and well for him whose spirit lies
Within my lines, in raven black disguise.
