Who invented the first clip art?

Who invented the first clip art?
No one knows, but we do know HOW it was invented.


In the late 1800s, companies like Dynamic Graphics and Dover Woodcuts published books of "art ideas" drawn by the very best graphic artists in America, that were sold to newspapers. Every newspaper had a staff artist, and the idea behind the books was, the artist can get inspired by these fine illustrations and become a much better artist. The books were sold by subscription; the one in June would be full of patriotic art you'd use to build 4th of July ads with.


The newspapers just cut, or "clipped," the art out of the books and pasted it into their layouts, and assigned their artists to draw things the art ideas books wouldn't contain. (Which is a better use of an artist's time: having him do a decent drawing of an apple and a decent drawing of the new factory downtown, or having him draw a really great picture of the factory and cutting a really great picture of an apple out of a book? Well, the newspapers thought the same thing.) Eventually the art ideas people realized newspapers were doing this and changed the name of their product from "art ideas" to "clip art."