James Carroll Mansfield (1896-1957)

“Still Life with oranges and the Sacramento bee”

Born in Maryland in 1896, he knew from an early age he wanted to be in the arts. He was also an American History buff.  He served in WW1 in the 7th.Infantry in Europe.  He wrote a newsletter called the The Scars and Swipes.  When he returned to the USA he co authored a history of the regiment called the Blue and the Grey.  His illustrations from that time in Europe are an integral part of the text. He also free lanced for the Baltimore Sun Times as an illustrator.  He moved to NY in the early 20's and worked in  an advertising firm.  IN 1924 he began a daily comic strip for the Bell Newspaper Syndicate called High LIghts of History- America 1492-1763.

He added another comic strip in 1926 and they ran until 1942.  He was a prolific oil painter and the Maryland Historical society has 18 of his works. He painted many for family and fariends and often included detailed information about the historical event on the reverse of the painting.

In 1933 his syndicate then the world publishing syndicate in Chicago asked him to do a series of big little type books called the High Lights of History series. He publid Pioneers of the Wild West and Kit Carson that same year. In 1934 he published Daniel Boone Winning the Old Northwest and Buffalo Bill.  In the early 1940's he moved to Orlando where the first National Bank com. him to Orlando where the first National Bank com. him to paint a mural on its new main offices called "The History of the Citrus  industry in Florida" he lived throught the fourties inOrlando continueing his advertising career and reitred in the early fiffties to Atlanta. He died there in 1957