Charles Phelps Cushing

Born on October 21, 1884, in Mendota, Illinois, Charles Phelps Cushing built a varied career that mixed journalism, photography, and editing. Records gathered by the New York Public Library identify him as an American photographer, and note that his 1920 passport application listed him as a journalist for Collier's.

Contemporary and retrospective accounts show how wide his interests were. An American Heritage essay about his 1910 trip through the Ozarks describes him as a young Kansas City reporter who photographed the region in detail, and says he later became picture editor of Collier's. The same account says he served as a first lieutenant in the Marines during World War I, helped organize Stars and Stripes, and later became known for photographs of Main Streets and for writing on American history.

As an author, he is associated with books including If You Don't Write Fiction and A Birthday Book of Kansas City, 1821-1921. He died on August 13, 1973, in the Bronx, New York. Even from the scattered record that remains, he comes across as someone deeply interested in how Americans lived, worked, and told their stories.