Robert Moore Brinkerhoff

Robert Moore Brinkerhoff
Brinkerhoff drawing a Charlie Chaplin cartoon for First National in the Exhibitors Herald. Vol. 6, no. 20. 11 May 1918. p. 40 – via Internet Archive (NYPL).
Born	Robert Moore Brinkerhoff (1880-05-04)May 4, 1880 Toledo, Ohio
Died	February 17, 1958(1958-02-17) (aged 77) Minneapolis

Robert "Bob" Moore Brinkerhoff (4 May 1880 Toledo, Ohio – 17 February 1958 Minneapolis), often credited as R. M. Brinkerhoff (also familiarly known as "Brink")¹, was an American newspaper cartoonist and illustrator active in the early twentieth century. In 1917 he joined the staff of the New York Evening Mail, where he worked as a political and editorial cartoonist.²³⁴⁵⁶

Robert Moore Brinkerhoff's father, Robert Alexander Brinkerhoff (1844–1917), with Henry Sheldon Chapin (1835–1915), founded the Toledo Post,⁷ which merged with the Toledo News-Bee.⁸⁴ R.A. Brinkerhoff, later (around 1900), had served as Advertising Agent with The Toledo Express.

R. M. Brinkerhoff, after graduating from high school, worked for the Toledo News-Bee. He later moved to New York, where, from 1900 to 1901, he studied at the Art Students League. In 1905 he studied in Paris at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière before returning to Ohio to draw political cartoons for the Toledo Blade. He subsequently worked for the Cleveland Leader and the Cincinnati Post. In 1913 he returned to New York and worked as a political cartoonist for the New York Evening Mail for about three years.

He was perhaps best known as the creator of the long-running comic strip Little Mary Mixup, which debuted January 2, 1918, and continued for several decades – distributed by United Feature Syndicate. Brinkerhoff also drew a Sunday topper strip, All in the Family, which ran from April 3, 1932, to July 21, 1940.⁹ He wrote instructional columns on cartooning for Tip Top magazine.⁶

Brinkerhoff produced editorial cartoons during the First World War period, though his reputation rests primarily on his newspaper comic strip work rather than wartime illustrations.

Brinkerhoff died February 17, 1958, in Minneapolis.¹⁰¹¹ He was survived by his second wife, Edna Patterson (maiden 1879–1961),¹² and his son, Robert Huston Brinkerhoff (1907–1998)¹³ from his first marriage to Jean Carrington Huston (1881–1934).¹⁴ He outlived his older sister, Esther Stewart Brinkerhoff (1875–1923), an artist and art educator.¹⁵