WASHINGTON -- A Library of Congress exhibit opening Tuesday celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herb Block, an editorial cartoonist who drew for The Washington Post from 1946 until his death in 2001.
"Here's a wonderful opportunity to see original art," said curator Sara Duke. "Anybody can come to these galleries and see the original graphite, the original ink brush."
His Herblock cartoons reflected and helped shape public policy for several decades.
"It was important for him to be very well informed," said curator Martha Kennedy. "He read several newspapers every day. He was up to the minute on television coverage of everything."
Many Herblock cartoons remain relevant today as issues like oil crises, gun violence, gender-based wage discrimination and corporate greed repeatedly surface.
"He just knew and he spoke for the little man, and it turns out when you speak for the little man, sometimes it stays relevant for decades," Duke said.
