Cover image: The American Girl. Moffat, Yard and Company, 1906.

Cover image. Moffat, Yard and Company, 1906.

Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952) was an American artist and illustrator and one of the most popular artists in the American book and magazine market in the early 1900s up to the beginning of World War I. During this period, he created his famous “Christy Girl”—his interpretation of the ideal American woman. His illustrations graced the covers and pages of the most popular works of fiction and poetry of the day. Christy worked for a number of book publishers including Charles Scribner’s Sons, Bobbs-Merrill, Grossett & Dunlap, and Moffat, Yard and Company. The core collection came from Christy’s art studio in New York City. A recent donation by Helen Copley, a Christy collector, has added nearly 70 books to the collection.