The Rumsfeld Principle of Illustration

I never thought the day would come when I would find reason to quote - or at least paraphrase - Donald Rumsfeld, but believe it or not, today is that day. Because as confusing as the former U.S. Secretary of Defense might have seemed, he actually perfectly summed up this week's topic regarding a category of illustrators who did work for Robert C. Atherton at Cosmopolitan magazine in the early 50's.

You see, there are known knowns; these are illustrators we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some illustrators we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the illustrators we don't know we don't know.

And I would add yet another nuance to Secretary Rumsfeld's apt description: there are also unknown knowns... those illustrators we don't know we know.

Confused? Don't worry, by the end of the week it'll all make sense. Let's begin...