John E. Sheridan was an illustrator well known in his lifetime for his cover art for The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post

The Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...

, his illustrations for Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly

Collier's Weekly was an American magazine founded by Peter Fenelon Collier and published from 1888 to 1957. With the passage of decades, the title was shortened to Collier's....

and Ladies' Home Journal

Ladies' Home Journal

Ladies' Home Journal is an American magazine which first appeared on February 16, 1883, and eventually became one of the leading women's magazines of the 20th century in the United States...

, and his commercial advertisements. His obituary in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

states that he "was credited with the idea of using posters to advertise college sports."

Sheridan attended Georgetown University

Georgetown College (Georgetown University)

Georgetown College, infrequently Georgetown College of Arts and Sciences, is the oldest school within Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The College is the largest undergraduate school at Georgetown, and until the founding of the Medical School in 1850, was the only higher education division...

 in the late 1890s, graduating in 1901.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he created many patriotic posters in support of the United States' war effort as part of the committee of artists that also included Charles Dana Gibson

Charles Dana Gibson

Charles Dana Gibson was an American graphic artist, best known for his creation of the Gibson Girl, an iconic representation of the beautiful and independent American woman at the turn of the 20th century....

 (creator of the Gibson Girl

Gibson Girl

The Gibson Girl was the personification of a feminine ideal as portrayed in the satirical pen-and-ink-illustrated stories created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson during a 20-year period spanning the late nineteenth and early twentieth century in the United States.Some people argue that the...

) and James Montgomery Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg

James Montgomery Flagg was an American artist and illustrator. He worked in media ranging from fine art painting to cartooning, but is best remembered for his political posters....

 (creator of the iconic Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam

Uncle Sam is a common national personification of the American government originally used during the War of 1812. He is depicted as a stern elderly man with white hair and a goatee beard...

 recruiting poster).

Sheridan was art editor for the Washington Times (predecessor of the now-defunct Washington Times-Herald

Washington Times-Herald

The Washington Times-Herald was an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C.. It was created by Cissy Patterson, when she bought the Herald and the Times from William Randolph Hearst, and merged them. The result was a '24 hour' newspaper, with 10 editions per day, from morning to...

) and worked for the San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Chronicle

thumb|right|upright|The Chronicle Building following the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake|1906 earthquake]] and fireThe San Francisco Chronicle is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California, but distributed throughout Northern and Central California,...

in the development of its first color Sunday supplement. Between 1931 and 1939 he produced 13 cover illustrations for The Saturday Evening Post.

As an advertising illustrator, Sheridan produced a large number of advertisements, posters and seasonal style books for Hart Schaffner & Marx

Hartmarx

Hart Schaffner Marx, founded in 1887 and incorporated in 1911, is an American manufacturer of tailored menswear. Its headquarters is at 101 North Wacker Drive, Chicago, Illinois. Hart Schaffner Marx is the flagship brand of HMX Group, a holding company that engages in the manufacture and marketing...

, a Chicago-based clothier.
Sheridan was a member of the Dutch Treat Club

Dutch Treat Club

The Dutch Treat Club is a society of illustrators, writers and performers based in New York City. Primarily social in nature, the club has had as members such leading literary figures and humorists as Robert Benchley, Rube Goldberg, Robert M. McBride, and Ogden Nash.-Founding:In 1905, Tuesday was...

, and a frequent contributor to the program of their annual banquet and show, and was an instructor at New York's School of Visual Arts

School of Visual Arts

The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...

at the time of its founding.

Signatures and monograms

As an artist of advertisements and magazine covers, Sheridan was not always free to sign his full name to his art work. As a result, many of his illustrations contain only stylized monograms to identify the artist.