{"id":120,"date":"2023-03-17T07:42:49","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T22:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/picto-study.com\/?page_id=120"},"modified":"2026-03-28T11:08:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T02:08:24","slug":"from-pictorial-statistics-to-pictographic-animation1934-1949","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/picto-study.com\/en\/from-pictorial-statistics-to-pictographic-animation1934-1949\/","title":{"rendered":"From Pictorial Statistics to Pictographic Animation: Philip Ragan\u2019s Investigation of Pictographic Animation to Dramatize facts (1934-1946)"},"content":{"rendered":"

1.Introduction<\/h2>\n\n\n

Isotype (International System of Typographic Picture Education), conceived by Otto Neurath (1882\u20131945) in the 1920s, became known worldwide in the 1930s as a statistical graphic method of using pictograms. Particularly in the United States, many \u2018imitations\u2019 influenced by Isotype emerged from around 1934 (Ihara, 2013). Concurrently, however, Isotype\u2019s popularity also encouraged a search for new methods of expression beyond mere imitation. At the forefront of this effort was Rudolf Modley (1906\u20131976), who had worked at the Gesellschafts- und Wirtschaftsmuseum in Wien (Social and Economic Museum of Vienna) in the 1920s before moving to the United States in 1930 and founding his own organization, Pictorial Statistics Inc., in 1934. Modley\u2019s first experiments with new representation methods were in what he called \u2018pictorial diagrams\u2019, which were not pictorial statistics. This experiment appeared as a cover design for Survey Graphic magazine, which began in 1937 and described it as \u2018a new development and is not concerned with statistics; it simplifies and dramatises facts\u2014the activities of an organization, the processes of soil erosion\u2014but must be accurate and informative\u2019 (Anon., 1937, p.489).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Worth noting is that this attempt is described as \u2018dramatizing facts\u2019, as facts-based creative expression was a widely common direction in the United States in the same period, characterized by the development of the documentary concept in photography and film (Stott, 1986). However, Modley\u2019s efforts to dramatize fact reflected another uniquely American feature: a focus on the characteristics of comic culture as represented by cartoons. Two years later, Modley further developed this direction in the form of \u2018picture books for grownups\u2019, writing:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Yet there is a strange limitation to this technique. It portrays almost exclusively facts and conditions that can be represented by statistical symbols. And while statistics go far to describe important aspects of our social life, they cannot, except in the special case of statistical time series, do more than give a rather static picture. Even when many statistical charts presenting such pictures are combined, they do not succeed in telling a continuous story. A new dynamic method of graphic presentation had to be developed to achieve this purpose.<\/p>\n(Modley, 1939, p.153)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 1. Sketches about social security in a cartoon-like pictorial diagram, 1939.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here, the \u2018new dynamic method of graphic presentation\u2019 refers to a pictorial diagram appearing as a continuation comic (Figure 1). Furthermore, Modley envisages that such a direction would lead to animation as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The development of pictograph technique toward more dynamic presentations has brought it very close to the motion picture\u2014a motion picture that opens new vistas to education. Mickey Mouse is about to get his Ph.D. and teach economics.<\/p>\n(Modley, 1939, p.155)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In 1937, Modley began experimenting with pictograph animation, but his attempts ended in mere experimentation; instead, he continued exploring pictorial diagrams in books, newspapers, and other printed media. Meanwhile, Neurath has also been interested in the potential of pictorial statistics as animation since the end of the 1920s, and after 1942, when he went into exile in England, he began producing Isotype animation in collaboration with the documentary filmmaker Paul Rotha (1907\u20131984) (Burke & Haggith, 1999). In this sense, Modley\u2019s suggestion regarding the prospect of animation was not his original vision but rather a widely common trend of his time. In fact, Modley and Neurath were not the only ones who envisioned animation as a direction for Isotype\u2019s development; at this time in the United States, a designer named Philip E. Ragan (1909\u20131989), who had also been aware of the direction of pictograph animation, tried to explore its possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Influenced by Isotype, Ragan produced pictorial statistics in the mid-1930s. In 1940, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), headed by John Grierson (1898\u20131972), asked him to produce propaganda animations, which Ragan began to work on using pictograms. Furthermore, he also produced and animated the well-known film One World or None, which was released in 1946 just after the war, calling for the worldwide control of the atomic bomb, in what has been described as the \u2018Disney of scientists\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This paper discusses one of the outcomes of the expansion of pictographic animation from Isotype to Ragan\u2019s work, which specifically marked the continuity between still graphics and animation. In addition, although pictographic animation is currently an extremely popular technique in contemporary information motion graphics, no historical research has been done on the subject, with a few exceptions (Ceccarelli, 2011; 2012), thus the focus on Ragan\u2019s work. However, in the absence of any thematic study of Ragan himself, and given the scarcity of material on his career, this paper will be limited to a general picture of his work, focusing on the process that led him from his early work in statistical visualization to animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

2.Philip Ragan and Sociographics Philadelphia<\/h2>\n\n\n

As Isotype gained popularity in the United States in the 1930s, several designers inspired by this method emerged, one of whom was Philip Ragan, whose unique pictogram design stood out. A graduate of the School of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, Ragan studied theatrical design at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Based on strong geometric forms, his pictograms were reminiscent of the Art Deco style, which may have been influenced by his studies in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ragan\u2019s name did not appear in publications until July 1934, shortly after his graduation from university, in a special bulletin of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania\u2019s Department of Labor and Industry (Carr, 1934). This bulletin contained several charts that used Isotype-influenced techniques to visualize statistical data on the realities of the Great Depression, including unemployment and workmen\u2019s compensation, and the effects of measures to address it (Figure 2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bulletin also noted that these charts were produced by a group of unemployed architects mainly associated with the University of Pennsylvania\u2019s School of Architecture called \u2018Sociographics Philadelphia\u2019 (hereafter \u2018Sociographics\u2019) under Ragan\u2019s leadership. It also stated that the work was implemented as part of the Civil Works Administration (CWA), a public works project undertaken as a relief program for the unemployed. This suggests that Ragan and the other architects began producing pictorial statistics partly because of their problem with unemployment, as architecture was a Depression-hit profession with only a limited number of architects available for architectural work, many of them working in other fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 2. Pennsylvania\u2019s labor and industry during the Depression, 1934: cover (top left), pictograms showing types of labor statistics (top right), chart showing origins of disability (bottom left), and chart showing certificates of exemption (bottom right).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

When the CWA closed in July 1934 and was taken over by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), one of the major unemployment agencies set up in the New Deal, Sociographics continued working on projects sponsored by the Department of Labor and Industry and approved by the Pennsylvania WPA as well as designs for printed materials and charts published by the department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Philadelphia WPA project, which ran from July 1937 to December 1938, for the survey and analysis of labor, was unique in that it was both a statistical survey and a graphic representation of that survey. The Department of Labor and Industry published several printed materials containing these charts, including its monthly bulletin, which temporarily changed its name to Laborgraphic in May 1937 and was designed entirely by Sociographics, including its charts and cover design (Department of Labor and Industry, 1939, p.32). When the bulletin ceased publication after eight issues, it was replaced by three issues of the bulletin Keystone Labor and Industry, whose overall layout, cover design, and chart designs were produced by Sociographics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As mentioned above, Ragan and Sociographics focused on local activities in the early 1930s, but by around 1938, they began working on a national scale. One such work was the editorial design and illustration for The Right to Work by Nels Anderson, a director of the labor relations section of the WPA, published in 1938 (Anderson 1938). Although uncredited, Sociographics may have also been responsible for the statistical illustrations in Inventory of the WPA, published the same year, which summarized the WPA\u2019s achievements (Works Progress Administration, 1938). In the late 1930s, Sociographics became known as a U.S. leader in using the Isotype technique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the themes of Sociographics\u2019s charts in their work around the WPA were socioeconomic issues, such as the reality of unemployment and work-related accidents and their guarantees, one may assume that Ragan\u2019s interest in Isotype was not only limited to graphics but was also guided by the ideas of Neurath, who proposed Isotype as a visual education method for teaching social and economic matters. This is evident in Neurath\u2019s arrival to the United States in September 1936 and his subsequent six-month stay. In November of that year, he lectured at the annual meeting of the International Industrial Relations Institute in New York. The lecture was titled \u2018The Rational Approach to the Future Problems of Production and Livelihood: Measurement-in-kind (Naturalrechnung) and Visualization\u2019, where Neurath discussed the visualization of social and economic issues, linking Isotype with his economy-in-kind theory (Neurath, 1936).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ragan, whose name was included in the guest list, attended this meeting and should have seen Neurath up close (Figure 3). Based on this fact alone, however, it is challenging to determine the extent of Ragan\u2019s interest in Neurath\u2019s thought, and it is also impossible to ascertain whether Ragan was particularly interested in Neurath\u2019s socialistic ideas. Nevertheless, it is certain that Ragan\u2019s interest in Neurath included the idea of visualizing social and economic issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 3. A page of the registrations list of the annual meeting of the International Industrial Relations Institute in 1936, in which Ragan\u2019s name appears (folder 6, box 77, Marry van Kleeck Papers, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College, Northampton MA).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Ragan seemed to have fostered some kind of relationship with Modley, as the chart design for Report of Mississippi Valley Committee of the Public Works Administration included not only the work of Modley\u2019s Pictorial Statistics Inc. but also that of Ragan\u2019s Sociographics (Mississippi Valley Committee, 1934). In his review of Sociographics\u2019s work, Modley noted that \u2018the artwork is very good, but the statistical transformations are not always clear\u2019 (Modley, 1937, p.134). Indeed, examining the large number of Sociographics charts produced between 1934 and 1937, one would observe some monotonous compositions and the problematic quality of some statistical graphs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In contrast to the issues surrounding Sociographics\u2019s pictorial statistics, the aesthetic of their work lies in their design of pictograms based on geometric abstract forms and whose diagrams and illustrations create a narrative out of factual information. For instance, The Right to Work, through pictorial diagrams composed of a continuous sequence, compares three cases in which U.S. support is directed to either the capitalist, the factory, or the worker, illustrating how the production and consumption cycle can be restored by increasing workers\u2019 purchasing power (Figure 4). A diagram that may have inspired these illustrations can be found in the booklet One Year of WPA in Pennsylvania 1935\u20131936, published in 1936 (Figure 5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 4. Pages from The Right to Work. These diagrams compare three cases involving U.S. support, demonstrating the effects of New Deal, 1938.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Figure 5. Chart demonstrating Works Progress Administration expenditures as purchasing power, One Year of WPA in Pennsylvania 1935\u20131936, 1936.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another notable work that is almost exclusively dedicated to illustration is Inventory: An Appraisal of the Results of the Works Progress Administration, also published in 1938, which summarizes the WPA\u2019s accomplishments. On the front pages of each section, an illustration symbolizes the type of work carried out by the agency. The bottom of the figure also includes statistical data showing the percentage of each type of work in the total budget but without any special effort as opposed to pictorial statistics (Figure 6).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 6. Illustrations symbolizing the type of work carried out by the Works Progress Administration at the front pages of each section, Inventory: An Appraisal of the Results of the Works Progress Administration, 1938<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n

Table 1. The graphic works of Ragan and Sociographics Philadelphia<\/h3>\n\n\n
Year<\/th>Month<\/th>Title<\/th>Design Credit<\/th>Client<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1934<\/td>July<\/td>Pennsylvania Labor and Industry in the Depression, Special Bulletin no.39<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry <\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		September<\/td>Graphic presentation of the Pennsylvania workmen`s compensation system<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry  <\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		October<\/td>Report of the Mississippi Valley Committee of the Public Works Administration<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Mississippi Valley Committee of the PWA<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		December<\/td>Preliminary Report Pennsylvania State Planning Board to the Hon. Gifford Pinchot Governor of the Commonwealth and to the National Resources Board. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Harrisburg Pennsylvania, <\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry <\/td><\/tr>
1935<\/td>Jun<\/td>State Planning: a review of activities and progress<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>National Resources Board<\/td><\/tr>
1936<\/td>Jun<\/td>Accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration in Pennsylvania, July 1, 1935-June 30, 1936 , <\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Works Progress Administration for Pennsylvania<\/td><\/tr>
1936<\/td>
<\/td>		One year of WPA in Pennsylvania 1935 – 1936 <\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Works Progress Administration for Pennsylvania<\/td><\/tr>
1937<\/td>January<\/td>Poster for the Mercury Theatre <\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Mercury Theatre <\/td><\/tr>
1937<\/td>May- December<\/td>Laborgraphic<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry <\/td><\/tr>
1937-1938<\/td>December<\/td>Pennsylvania Labor and Industry in the Depression, Bulletin<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry <\/td><\/tr>
1938<\/td>Jun<\/td>Inventory: an appraisal of results of the Works Progress Administration<\/td>
<\/td>		Works Progress Administration<\/td><\/tr>
1938<\/td>October<\/td>Keystone Labor and Industry, vol.1 Graphic Supplement<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of  Labor and Industry <\/td><\/tr>
1938<\/td>
<\/td>		Nels Anderson, \u2018The right to work\u2019<\/td>Sociographics Philladellphia<\/td>A new modern age book<\/td><\/tr>
1940<\/td>January<\/td>Charts for \u2018War and Peace\u2019 <\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		February<\/td>Charts for \u2018THE U.S. vs. THE WORLD\u2019 etc<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		May<\/td>Chart for \u2018RFC’s Disbursements from February 2\u2018<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		October<\/td>Carts for \u2018U.S. LABOR POOL FOR DEFENSE: AT WORK AND UNEMPLOYED\u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>
1941<\/td>July<\/td>Chart for \u2018We Only Have Months \u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan Associates<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		August<\/td>Chart for \u2018Transport: The Peak Is the Problem\u3001THIS IS ALSO, AND CRUCIALLY, A WAR OF THE LIGHT METALS\u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>
1942<\/td>January<\/td>Chart for \u2018EUROPE\u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>
1946<\/td>January<\/td>Chart for \u2018American Productivity\u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr>
1947<\/td>October<\/td>Chart for \u2018THE RIGHT TO MOVE\u2019<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>Fortune<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Table 1 summarizes Ragan\u2019s and Sociographics\u2019s graphic works that we have identified so far, including those from 1940 onward. In the 1930s, mainstream projects included the abovementioned New Deal\u2013related work of the Department of Labor and Industry, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the WPA, but after 1940, no WPA-related work could be confirmed besides the sporadic work for Fortune magazine. Also, as the name \u2018Sociographics Philadelphia\u2019 could not be authenticated, one may assume that the group was dissolved; instead, some of the chart credits used the company name \u2018Philip Ragan Associates\u2019. Ragan\u2019s graphic work for Fortune, a prestigious magazine, also indicated that his efforts were gaining a certain level of national recognition during the same period. In particular, a chart in the February 1940 issue of Fortune showed the design for a well-known energy map under the direction of architect Buckminster Fuller, who had become the magazine\u2019s scientific advisor (Figure 7).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 7. World energy map designed by Buckminster Fuller and executed by Philip Ragan, Fortune, February 1940.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

3.From graphic design to animation<\/h2>\n\n\n

After 1940, alongside his work for Fortune<\/em> magazine, Ragan began receiving orders for propaganda and educational animations from the NFB, which was founded in Canada in 1939. In the late 1930s, as countries around the world focused on propaganda, publicity became an important issue in Canada as well, but the presence of Hollywood in the neighboring United States prevented Canada from developing a film industry. Therefore, the NFB was hastily established to meet the demand for publicity and education and to foster the film industry. John Grierson, a British documentary film theorist, was brought in as commissioner, and the organization was conceived and operated almost entirely according to his ideas. The need for animation, besides Grierson\u2019s specialty in documentaries, was recognized early on, but because establishing an animation studio would take time, an order was haphazardly placed with Disney Studio. In 1941, Disney held a screening for military personnel at their studios, and Grierson\u2019s attendance in the screening led to the conclusion of the Disney contract (Shale, 1976). However, since the number of Disney films was not enough to fulfill the contract with the National War Finance Committee, the need to hire additional animators arose, and Ragan was chosen to do the job. The current NFB homepage briefly explains this process as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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To fulfill the terms of his agreement with the National War Finance Committee, Grierson also called in Philip Ragan, an animation filmmaker from Philadelphia who specialized in cartoon animation. Between 1941 and 1945, Ragan would go on to produce around 30 films for the NFB featuring the Plugger family, who explained how the public could participate in the war effort, with emphasis on buying Victory.<\/p>\n(St-Pierre, 2011)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Here, Ragan is introduced as an \u2018animated filmmaker\u2019 who was \u2018specialized in cartoon animation\u2019. However, Ragan\u2019s work discussed in this paper so far does not include his involvement in animation at all because scarce information about it exists before the NFB. If Ragan was recognized as an animation production expert around 1940, as Marc writes, the time he started working in that field and the reason he was selected for the job remain in question. Hence, clarifying these necessitates a review of his activities, including those beneath the surface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One source may provide a hint: The Investigation and Study of the Work Projects Administration<\/em> (United States House Committee on Appropriations, 1939), a report on the use of WPA grants. This report contains a reference to Ragan\u2019s work on the project titled \u2018Project 6743, Graphical Presentation of Data and Statistics on Labor and Employment\u2019 undertaken in 1937, which he applied to the WPA. It states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Phillip E. Ragan and Dr. Stephen B. Sweeney apparently convinced the director of the Works Progress Administration in Pennsylvania of the desirability of developing Ragan\u2019s ideas in the presentation of statistics in animated form, produced on a motion picture film in a manner similar to that used for animated movie cartoons and comics, except that the objects and figures were to be cut from Bakelite and animated mechanically instead of by drawing separate pictures for each motion of the object.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

From this description, Ragan seemed to have started studying the cutout-style animation technique around 1937. However, so far we have been able to confirm Ragan\u2019s involvement in only two films, Is Work Relief Better Than the Dole?<\/em> and Shock Troops of Disaster<\/em>, both of which were produced under the sponsorship of the WPA. Although Ragan was uncredited in the former, it was definitely Ragan\u2019s work judging from its design; meanwhile, the latter, a documentary on disasters and the activities of WPA emergency workers engaged in relief efforts, includes a small portion of graphs containing Ragan\u2019s figures.<\/p>\n\n\n

3.1.Is Work Relief Better Than the Dole? (1936) <\/h3>\n\n\n

This film is simply an animation of a diagram representing the results of a questionnaire survey on nine WPA policies. It has a band chart and numbers with a triangle indicator representing the boundary between the \u2018yes\u2019 and \u2018no\u2019 percentages for each chart. While the continuity between the graphics and the animation can be confirmed, no other movement can be observed besides the fade-in\/out of changing scenes, and because the animation is rudimentary, it can be considered an early experimental attempt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 8. Animation for the Works Progress Administration: Is Work Relief Better Than the Dole? 1936 (https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/IsWorkReliefBetterThanTheDole1936).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

3.2.Shock Troops of Disaster (1939)<\/h3>\n\n\n

The 1939 documentary Shock Troops of Disaster<\/em> depicts the tragic situation of the areas devastated by a hurricane that struck the eastern United States in 1938 as well as the WPA\u2019s efforts in providing relief. While this film was not produced by Ragan, in the transition from the disaster damage depicted in the first half to the WPA activities in the second half, there is an animation of a symbol of a worker swinging a hammer, zooming down to depict the number of dispatched support workers. One can almost be certain that Ragan was involved here, but no movement can be observed in the pictograms themselves; rather, it is a zoomed-in shot of a stationary statistical graph, and like the previous example, it is a rudimentary animation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 9. Animated scene in Shock Troops of Disaster, 1939
(https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/ShockTroopsOfDisaster1939).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Other than these two films, we could not confirm any other images in which Ragan may have been involved, but we cannot deny the possibility that he produced some kind of cutout-style animation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

4.Moving pictograms<\/h2>\n\n\n

Table 2 lists the films known to have been created or produced by Ragan. The NFB stated that Ragan made at least 30 films for them; therefore, including the period before and after the NFB, he may have made an estimated 50 films. Most of the films he made for the NFB were short, about two minutes each, and were projected along with news films in between the theatrical films.<\/p>\n\n\n

Table 2. List of films made or contributed by Philip Ragan<\/h3>\n\n\n
Year<\/th>Title<\/th>Credit<\/th>Length<\/th>Client<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1936<\/td>Is work relief better than the dole?<\/td>–<\/td>3min<\/td>Works Progress Administration, USA<\/td><\/tr>
1938<\/td>Shock Troops of disaster<\/td>–<\/td>
<\/td>		Works Progress Administration, USA<\/td><\/tr>
1940-41<\/td>Controls for Victory<\/td>
<\/td>		4min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1942<\/td>If<\/td>\u3000<\/td>3min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Empty Rooms Mean Idle Machines<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Unmanned Machines Mean Unarmed Men<\/td>\u3000<\/td>1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Unmanned machines mean unarmed men US NEWS REVIEW no,5 (1943?)<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>US Office of war information Issue no,5<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>National Income<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Rationing<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Price Shock<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Pieces in Wartime<\/td>
<\/td>		10min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		No More Kitchen Sopranos<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		The String<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Story of Wartime Controls<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Story of Wartime Shortages<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1943<\/td>Bits and Pieces Blues<\/td>
<\/td>		6min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Buying Fever<\/td>
<\/td>		3min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Curtailment of Civilian Industries<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Industry Wages War<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Price Shock<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>He Plants for Victory<\/td>\u3000<\/td>2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Nutrition<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		The Missus Beats Him to It<\/td>
<\/td>		1.5min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Voluntary vs Involuntary Savings<\/td>
<\/td>		3min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		\u00c9conomies de guerre n\u00ba 5<\/td>
<\/td>		3min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		What, No Beef?<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		A Wee Thing<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		The String<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1944<\/td>the Rainy Day<\/td>Philip Ragan, Norman McLaren,<\/td>1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		The Rug<\/td>
<\/td>		3min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Seaforth Commings<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>How Prices Could Rise<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		What Canada Does with the Money She Gets from You<\/td>
<\/td>		2min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Providing goods for you<\/td>
<\/td>		5min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>She Speeds the Victory<\/td>
<\/td>		1min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1943-44<\/td>Mutual Aid<\/td>\u3000<\/td>
<\/td>
<\/td><\/tr>
1945<\/td>Money, Goods, Prices<\/td>A Ragan Short<\/td>15min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Le contrle des prix et le rationnemen<\/td>Philip Ragan Associates<\/td>10min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Price Controls and rationing<\/td>Philip Ragan Associates<\/td>10min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>Canada Communique No. 15: The Road Ahead<\/td>Philip Ragan<\/td>7min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1945-47<\/td>which way this time?<\/td>Philip Ragan Productions<\/td>10min<\/td>Office of price administration, USA<\/td><\/tr>
1946<\/td>One World or None<\/td>Philip Ragan Productions<\/td>9min<\/td>National Committee on Atomic Information,USA<\/td><\/tr>
1948-9<\/td>Uncle Sam M.D.<\/td>\u3000<\/td>
<\/td>		\u3000<\/td><\/tr>
\u3000<\/td>The Employees\u2019Thrift Plan<\/td>\u3000<\/td>
<\/td>		\u3000<\/td><\/tr>

<\/td>		Of the people, by the people, for the people<\/td>
<\/td>
<\/td>		The U.S. Treasury Department<\/td><\/tr>
1948<\/td>Stuff for stuff<\/td>Philip Ragan Productions<\/td>16min<\/td>National Film Board of Canada<\/td><\/tr>
1949<\/td>Stuff for stuff<\/td>Philip Ragan Productions<\/td>16min<\/td>MGM USA<\/td><\/tr>
1953<\/td>TARGET YOU<\/td>Philip Ragan Productions<\/td>8.5min<\/td>The Federal Civil Defense Administration of the United States<\/td><\/tr>
1955<\/td>Front-lines of freedom<\/td>\u3000<\/td>14.5min<\/td>The Civil Defense Corps of Canada, The Federal Civil Defense Administration of the United States<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The first work Ragan produced for the NFB was Control for Victory<\/em> (Figure 10), which was divided into two major parts, the first half of which is reminiscent of a diagram in the above-mentioned booklet One Year of WPA in Pennsylvania<\/em> (Figure 5).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u56f312\uff0e\u300aControls for Victory\u300b\u3001 1940\u221241.
https:\/\/www.nfb.ca\/film\/controls-for-victory\/<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Since the release of this film, Ragan has made more than 30 short animations for the NFB, whose themes included wartime propaganda and education, such as buying war bonds, labor and wage control, fighting inflation, unemployment issues, saving money, and communal gardens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For propaganda work with the purpose to educate, Ragan created a unique worker character named Plugger. However, Plugger was not a unique entity, as it was the pictogram of a worker that was also used in Sociographics Philadelphia\u2019s emblem (Figure 11). Despite appearing as an anonymous person without eyes and a mouth but with strong geometric features, one may assume that people accepted it as a character because of its large thighs and peculiar walking stride. When he plays the role of a husband in the home, he is portrayed as authoritarian and patriarchal, while the female figure, who is supposed to be his wife, is represented as a rounded figure, emphasizing gender differences (Figure 14). In the environment outside the house, the large-legged walk evokes not only the worker but also the disciplined soldier, and when applied to the factory production scene, this powerful figure integrated with the war machine is depicted as a mechanical cyborg-like body (Figure 12).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"\"
Figure 11. Symbol of Sociographic Philadelphia, c. 1937.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"
Figure 12. Empty Rooms Mean Idle Machines, 1942.
Courtesy of National Film Board of Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Figure 13. He Plans for Victory, 1943. Courtesy of National Film Board of Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Figure 14. Money, Goods and Prices, 1945. Courtesy of National Film Board of Canada<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Figure 15. Mutual Aid, 1944.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite creating popular characters, Ragan should have focused on exploring new ways to depict social and economic structures through pictorial diagrams. Several films were produced to convey the fight against inflation and the need for price controls. In particular, Money, Goods and Price<\/em>s, a film made at the end of the war to explain the economic system, does not rely on the Plugger character but instead uses diagrams and combines them with live action (Figure 14). Worth noting is that Ragan himself appears in the film and explains that despite the difficulty in capturing the economic system in photographs, it may be clearly expressed in pictogram-based diagrams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, one cannot deny the significant limitations in the use of pictograms compared to other animation forms. Hence, some of Ragan\u2019s films attempted to overcome these constraints while maintaining a symbolic representation, as is the case with Canada Communiqu\u00e9 No. 15: The Road Ahead<\/em> (1944\u20131945). Aiming to publicize government services in rehabilitating and reemploying postwar veterans, the work is staged so that the viewer is led through a simplified, straight avenue, with a bird\u2019s-eye view of the service, and branch roads dotted with factories, universities, and retail outlets. The perspective flowchart of the road is shown mainly up close and panning, and as the viewer reaches the wharf at the road\u2019s end, the entire road zooms down to an image of a globe in the Northern Hemisphere, and the film ends with an appeal for a \u2018mutual understanding of the world\u2019. This seamless transition between scenes can be seen in Mutual Aid<\/em> (c. 1944) in a sequence in which a moving symbol of a ship transforms into an abstract arrow with a wake, which is then depicted as an abstract route on a world map (Figure 15). These attempts can be seen as an effort to overcome the limitations of representation using symbols, which are essentially static elements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an article introducing Ragan\u2019s work, Dugan (1944) cited Ragan\u2019s view that his work differs from Disney\u2019s in its treatment of symbols, as Disney creates pictures that imitate reality. In addition, given that his animations are just 80 seconds on average, he asks whether they could be \u2018one of the easiest means of spreading sound principles of international understanding throughout the world\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, with longer films such as Money, Goods, Price<\/em> (15 minutes), Ragan’s films seem to have taken a turn that was not in line with Dugan’s expectations, namely a more dramatic direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

5.In between Isotype and Disney<\/h2>\n\n\n

Besides his work for Fortune<\/em>, Ragan\u2019s postwar work included films for several clients. Perhaps the best known is One World or None<\/em>, commissioned by the National Committee on Atomic Information. Addressing the horrors of atomic bombings and their international control, the film combines live action and multistylistic animation. In the live-action footage, which includes scenes of the victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and in the animated sections, alongside the diagrams, we can identify realistic illustrations that had been absent in Ragan\u2019s earlier work as well as abstract illustrations representing nuclear fission. These illustrations were created by Sam Feinstein (1915\u20132003), who worked as an animator for Ragan Productions for a short time in 1946\u20131948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the war, Ragan was closely connected with the arts, opening the Ragan Art Gallery in Philadelphia in 1941 and publishing the art magazine Art Outlook<\/em> in 1943. Feinstein\u2019s employment may also have been motivated by this interest since he was a Russian painter who created abstract expressionist art. However, because he was not allowed to be credited in the film, Feinstein wrote to a newspaper reporter who had written an article praising the film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

These sequences were quite a technical tour de force, being scientifically accurate (the result of supervision by Dr. Leonard Schiffy of the University of Pennsylvania physics department), as well as dramatically visually, the result of darn hard work by me, in terms of creation and execution. <\/p>\n(Feinstein, 2008, p.46)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Feinstein\u2019s assertion was undoubtedly true, judging from the stylistic features of Ragan\u2019s films up to that point. The scenes depicting nuclear fission were accurate in that they were viewed by a physicist who was an expert in the field, and they also succeeded in creating dramatic visual effects. In the other scenes, Feinstein may have been responsible for realistically depicting people\u2019s fears superimposed on the atomic bombings. In contrast to this abstraction of fear, the film uses a symbolic form of circles, such as the transformation of the \u2018O\u2019 in the title to the earth at the beginning of the film, the conference table with a roundtable, and the circle around the skull that conveys the extent of the damage of the bomb. Simply put, the film communicates an overall impression of an unruly object of terror and its control. The circle is interpreted as a tool that controls the chaos (Figure 16).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Figure 16. Title scenes from One World or None (top left and right), 1946. Scene depicting nuclear fission (middle left), and the circle around the skull that shows the extent of the damage of the bomb (middle right). Scene of sabotage (bottom left). Global scene with human pictograms (bottom right) (https:\/\/archive.org\/details\/one-world-or-none-1946)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An article featuring Ragan in the November 1949 issue of the Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine,<\/em> a local newspaper, praised him as \u2018the Disney of scientists\u2019, as One World or None<\/em> was technically supported by the Federation of American Scientists, a group of eminent scientists, and even garnered praise from Albert Einstein and others ((Figure 17)). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This newspaper article quoted Ragan as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

With Disney, education is a by-product of entertainment. With me it\u2019s the other way around. My movies are as objective and as factual as is humanly possible. They are animated facts without resource to fictional indirection that tells an amusing story and hopes the audience will absorb the message as a by-product of the laughs. <\/p>\n(McIlvaine, 1949)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
\u56f319 \u2018Facts can be interesting: the Disney of the scientist teaches by animated cartoon\u2019, Philadelphia Inquirer Magazine, 18 November.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here, Ragan cited Disney to explain the difference between entertainment and education. Meanwhile, Neurath is no exception in emphasizing the educational value of the Disney comparison. When he was approached by a magazine with the idea of combining Isotype animation with Disney\u2019s informational animation, he rejected the possibility:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

This mixture of Disney photos and our own drawings is unbearable -either- or. The reason is, that his maps and other drawings in principle do not intend, what we intend to do, i.e., giving some educational information. <\/p>\n(Neurath, 1942, cited in Burke, 2013, p.370)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Neurath was considered as taking a sensitive stance in setting boundaries with Disney, which he found difficult to reconcile with Isotype. Meanwhile, compared to this strictness, despite his arguments, Ragan was relatively wide open at least in terms of the form of expression. There was humor in the early movements of the Plugger character, and his late-war and postwar work showed a relative reduction in the weight of pictograms and the addition of shades of realism and abstraction. This difference may be partly due to Ragan\u2019s exploration of animation as a filmmaker. Monotony is unavoidable, especially in animations longer than two minutes. Meanwhile, Neurath was a theorist who directed Isotype and believed that visual design innovation was secondary; rather, education through visual argumentation was the most important goal, in which pictograms were an essential language-like element.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ragan\u2019s direction may be somewhat similar to that of Modley, who approached the realm of illustration by actively incorporating elements of cartoony culture and proposed the potential of pictographic animation as a \u2018new dynamic method of graphic presentation\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ragan\u2019s situation seemed good until about 1946, when he began expanding his business by building more studios. However, these circumstances would be short-lived; in around 1948, Ragan Productions went bankrupt and ceased to operate as a production company. Nevertheless, fragments of Ragan\u2019s animated films like Target You <\/em>can be observed after these events. Far from the images that were expected to convey \u2018sound principles of international understanding\u2019, these were gloomy, direct reflections of the political situation during the Cold War. The existence of such films is one reason why Ragan has since been forgotten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

6.Conclusion<\/h2>\n\n\n

In this paper, we have followed Ragan\u2019s activities from graphics to animation. Besides pictorial statistics, Ragan\u2019s focused his work on designing narrative diagrams and illustrations, which he structured in a narrative style with animation in mind. This direction was reinforced by animation through characteristic pictograms for the NFB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceccarelli (2012, p.139), in his historical overview of \u2018information animation\u2019, summarises its characteristics as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Once skilfully combined with clever exposition techniques and powered by storytelling, the realism of live action (from staged shots to crude library footage); the atmosphere of authenticity offered by clean scientific-like animation; the power of abstraction of graphical animation; the capacity of cartoons to engage the audience, represent as a whole a very powerful system.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

While Ragan\u2019s masterpiece One World or None<\/em> can certainly be regarded as a pioneer of a complex and sophisticated pictogram animation that combines these multiple patterns, such development is significantly different from the Isotype animation, which was uniquely a form almost exclusively incorporated into documentary film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As described above, Ragan\u2019s work was a distinct outcome of the \u2018dramatization of facts\u2019, which integrated pictogram-based graphic techniques inspired by isotype, a product of the European Modernism, with the entertainment animation culture in North America. Historically, it can be regarded as a notable experiment involving the potential and limits of pictogram-based animation, which was developed amidst several socio-political events such as the New Deal, war propaganda, the scientists\u2019 campaign to control the atomic bomb and the anti-communist propaganda of the Cold War.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Acknowledgments.<\/strong> This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number JP19K12660. <\/p>\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n