The Rainovic papers contain over 600 pieces of original cartoon drawings, as well as
correspondence, and news clippings. The collection is physically arranged into three series:
Original Drawings, Newspaper clippings, and General Files. Many of the drawings depict
several individuals. The database contains the names of each person who was named and
depicted in the drawings.
The series of Original Drawings, found in boxes 1-21, consists predominantly of caricatures
of sports figures and athletic events, but also includes some political caricatures. Most of
these drawings date from the mid 1950s to mid 1970s. Baseball caricatures constitute the
largest portion of the series. Some of the most famous star athletes portrayed are Hank
Aaron, Ernie Banks, Ty Cobb, Dizzy Dean, Eddie Mathews, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Babe
Ruth, "Red" Schoendienst, and Warren Spahn. Rainovic drew fourteen images of Hank Aaron,
more than any other sports star in the collection, and of special note is image 74,
celebrating Aaron's Rookie of the Year award. Most of Rainovic's team drawings concern the
Milwaukee Braves and their opponents. Of particular interest are images 250-251, which
concern the court case and move of the Braves to Atlanta.
Football caricatures are the second largest segment of the series. Some of the most famous
players and coaches listed are Bart Starr, Vince Lombardi, Jim Taylor, and Liz Blackbourn of
the Green Bay Packers; Mike Ditka and George Halas of the Chicago Bears; Johnny Unitas of
the Baltimore Colts; and "Bucky Badger" from the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The
vast majority of the football images concern Green Bay Packer games and their opponents,
especially the Bears, Colts, and Rams. Of special note are images 386 and 391, concerning
the merger and organization of the National and American Football Leagues into the NFL.
The majority of the basketball artworks are devoted to high school and college games and
players, although Bill Russell and Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) appear as well.
The General Sports images depict a variety of the different sports intermingled within the
same original artwork.
Other sports documented in the collection include auto racing, basketball, bowling, boxing,
golf, hockey, horse racing, polo, skiing, tennis, and track and field. Most of these sports
are represented by less than twenty images. Several well-known sports figures in the
drawings include Cassius Clay, Larry Holmes, Leon Spinks, and Rocky Marciano (boxing);
Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player (golf); and Mario Andretti, A.J. Foyt, Al
Unser and Bobby Unser (auto racing).
Most of Rainovic's political caricatures are of national and international leaders from the
early to mid 1960s including Nelson Rockefeller, John Kennedy, and Paul Nitze.
The series of Newspaper Clippings contains Rainovic's drawings for which there is no
original artwork. The greatest number of clippings are from the Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee Sentinel, UWM Panther, and the Parkside
Ranger.
The series of General Files includes a full run (1975-1980) of The
Diamond Report, a national quarterly baseball publication which Rainovic edited
and published. The files also contain a small collection of photographs and rough drafts of
the columns he wrote for his own and other publications. This series includes Rainovic's
correspondence as a freelance caricaturist and writer, and his letters and annotated class
assignments from the Famous Artist Cartoon Course, taken as a correspondence course from the
American Academy of Arts (Chicago, Illinois).
