Restrictions to Access

Researchers are encouraged to view more than 3,500 drawings from this collection online.

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Dwane Powell Papers #5589, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Alternate Form of Material

More than 3,500 drawings from the Dwane Powell Collection are available online.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Dwane Powell in April 2014 (Acc. 102027), December 2017 (Acc. 103290), and April 2019 (10374).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Jackie Dean, Amy Morgan, and Nancy Kaiser, June 2017

Encoded by: Mary Oliva and Nancy Kaiser, June 2017

Finding aid updated because of addition by Laura Smith and Clare Carlson, May 2019 and by Dawne Howard Lucas and Rebecca Stubbs, May 2022

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• American wit and humor, Pictorial.
• Editorial cartoonists--United States.
• Editorial cartoons--United States.
• News & observer (Raleigh, N.C. : 1894)
• Political cartoons.
• Powell, Dwane.
• United States--Politics and government--1945-1989--Caricatures and cartoons.
• United States--Politics and government--1989- --Caricatures and cartoons.

Drexel Dwane Powell Jr., an editorial cartoonist, was born 7 November 1944 in Lake Village, Arkansas. He began drawing editorial cartoons while in high school. After graduating from the University of Arkansas at Monticello in 1969, he was hired as a political cartoonist at the Hot Springs Sentinel Record (1970-1972). He later moved on to the San Antonio Light (1973-1974), then the Cincinnati Enquirer (1974-1975), and finally to the Raleigh News and Observer. Powell retired in 2009, but returned to drawing editorial cartoons in 2013. He has won the Overseas Press Club award for Excellence in Cartooning, the national Headliners Club award for Outstanding Editorial Cartoons,the Plott Hound Award, and the Raleigh Medal of Arts Award. In 2013 he was inducted into the North Carolina Journalism Hall of Fame. Four collections of his work have been published: Is That All You Do? (1979), Surely SOMEONE Can Still Sing Bass! (1981), The Reagan Chronicles (1987), and One Hundred Per Cent Pure Old Jess (1993). Powell lives in Raleigh with his wife Janice. They have one daughter, Devon.

The Dwane Powell Papers consist chiefly of his original editorial cartoons and other production versions, 1970s-2000s, that appeared in several Arkansas newspapers, the San Antonio Light, the Cincinnati Enquirer, and The News and Observer. Also included are his professional correspondence; an alphabetical subject guide to his cartoons, 1983-1993; articles about Dwane Powell that document his career as an editorial cartoonist; copies of his published books; photographs related to publicity for his published books; and miscellaneous other materials relating to Powell and editorial cartooning.

• Photographs (PF-05589/1-3)
• Oversize Papers (OPF-05589/1-13, OB-05589/348-433)
• Digital folder (DF-05589/1)