biografia di Joseph, Carl J. BECKER (1841-1910)

Birth place: Pottsville, PA

Addresses: Brooklyn, NY

Profession: Illustrator, painter, engraver

Work: Gilchrease Inst.; MMA

Comments: Worked for Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, 1859-1900. During the Civil War, he went to the front as artist for the paper. In 1869, the paper sent him West on the first cross-Rockies Pullman train that traveled from Omaha to San Francisco in 81 hours (the illustrations appeared in issues from Dec., 1869 through the middle of 1870); on the same trip he made sketches of Chinese laborers in San Francisco and drew landscapes of the Salt Lake City region. When his illustrations of the Chicago fire of 1871 appeared in Leslies the circulation for that single issue jumped to 470,000. Becker served as the paper's art dept. manager from 1875 until 1900. Cf. Carl J. Becker.

Sources: P&H Samuels, 33-34; Dawdy, vol. 1, gives Becker's full name as Carl Joseph Becker.