Series comprises art and photographic records relating to the life and career of Richard Dennison Taylor. The material was acquired through several donations. The first acquisition comprises a small number of finished cartoons published in the Collier's, in the New Yorker, and, later, in Playboy Magazine; a very large number of cartoon pencil roughs for the same publications, many of which were published later in finished form; roughs for commercial work; original artwork and lay-outs for children's books; roughs and published greeting cards; and a substantial number of works relating to Taylor's surrealistic figures and landscapes which include prints, drawings, oil paintings and watercolours. Of note is a caricature of Adolf Hitler published in the New Yorker in April 1943.
An accrual, donated in 2003, comprises primarily the preliminary drawings and finished illustrations used in the publication of books, both for Taylor's own humour collection and in his collaborations with other writers. Titles of note are Fractured French (1950), By the Dawn's Ugly Light (1953), Never Say Diet (1954), and Nothing Brightens a Garden Like Primrose Pants (1955). Of particular interest are the page illustrations and roughs for his manual for would-be cartoonists entitled Introduction to Cartooning (1947). Further unique items include childhood drawings, additional work from the surrealistic series, a caricature of Taylor's father-in-law Newton MacTavish, and the linocut blocks used to make his surrealistic prints. Also retained as reference material related to this series of art and photographic records is a collection of Taylor's publications. A subsequent accrual in 2006 comprises forty original cartoons created for and published in the New Yorker.
Photographic material comprises mainly studio publicity photographs of Taylor, many taken of him working at his drawing board and in his art studio. Also included are a number of photographs of works from his surrealistic series which were exhibited at the Valentine Gallery in New York City in 1941 and, later, at the Whitney Museum.
A 2006 accrual added forty original cartoons published in the New Yorker Magazine. An additional acquisition in 2008 included illustrations for the New Yorker column "The Talk of the Town" and a further nineteen published cartoons.