Fritz

Dr. Seuss

Original Artwork

24×60 in

Crayon on Paper

Ted and Helen Geisel met Frank Vanderlip and his family through their friend Hugh Troy. They were soon included in the Vanderlip parties at the Vanderlip town house at 115 East Fifty-fourth Street and their fifty acre estate, Beechwood, in the Hudson Valley at Scarborough. Frank Vanderlip was president of National City Bank and was one of New York’s most powerful men. The Geisels were contemporaries of the six Vanderlip children and were especially close to Kelvin and Virginia. The Book Bartholomew and the Oobleck was dedicated to Kelvin and Virginia’s son, Frank Jr.

During WWII, Geisel served as an officer in the Information and Education Division, and found himself in Washington D.C. Vanderlip ran into Geisel at the Pentagon in 1944-45 and invited his old friend to come to his home for dinner.

When Vanderlip’s step-son Sheridan found out who Ted Geisel really was, he asked him to draw him a picture. The dog Geisel drew for the boy was a dachshund – a symbol he had often used to portray the Germans in his political cartoons. The Vanderlip family also had a dachshund, Fritz, as a pet.

Geisel started the drawing at the dog’s tail and worked up to the middle and then added the wheel and then the bee and then ended with the ears. The drawing was signed “Dr. Seuss” and he added his army service number.

Kelvin Vanderlip had homes in California and Washington D.C. After WWII, Geisel worked on his art in the Vanderlip home in Palos Verdes Estates in California. The Vanderlips and the Geisels had a long friendship.