Born in San Francisco, he studied at the Mark Hopkins Art Institute for six months, started his career as an unpaid cartoonist for The San Francisco Examiner. The Honolulu Advertiser was among the other newspapers art departments that he served in. He also contributed to the San Francisco Evening Post. He also worked as an itinerant actor (for both stage and screen), newspaper illustrator, and piano player. In 1906 he moved to the East Coast. In the 1910s he contributed many illustrations to both Red Book magazine and its sister publication, Green Book.

Before World War I, Irvin contributed illustrations regularly to Life, and rose to the position of art editor. (Life the humorous weekly, and not to be confused with the more famous magazine of the same name published by Henry Luce). Irvin also contributed to Cosmopolitan when it was a serious literary publication. He illustrated Wallace Irwin's "Letters of a Japanese Schoolboy" in Life. He would later incorporate Japanese imagery in satirical kakemono for The New Yorker.

He also created a series of humorous advertisements for Murad (turkish tobacco cigarettes).

He also contributed the illustrations for "Snoot If You Must," by Lucius Beebe, a noted raconteur of New York's cafe society (1943, D. Appleton-Century).

He was fired from his position as art editor at Life in 1924.

However, Irvin had joined an advisory board to help launch The New Yorker and then worked on the magazine's staff as an illustrator and art editor. When he had first taken the job, Irvin had assumed that the magazine would fold after a few issues, but his work would ultimately appear on the cover of 169 issues of The New Yorker between 1925 and 1958.

The magazine's first cover, of a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, was drawn by Irvin; the dandy replaced at the last minute a drawing of theater curtains revealing the skyline of Manhattan. The gentleman on the original cover is referred to as "Eustace Tilley," a character created for The New Yorker by Corey Ford. Another example is the piece known as The Unity of the Allied Nations, which appeared on the cover of the July 1, 1944 issue, and depicts the national personifications of the Allies (the American Eagle, the Chinese Dragon, the Russian Bear and the British Lion).

Besides covers for the magazine, Irvin also drew various illustrations, department headings, caricatures, and cartoons.

The New Yorker signature display typeface, used for its nameplate and headlines and the masthead above The Talk of the Town section, is called "Irvin" or "Irvin type," after him. An alphabet drawn by the American etcher Allen Lewis, who had received training in woodcutting in Paris, was used as the typographical basis for the "Irvin type." Irvin may have spotted Lewis' lettering, which was drawn to imitate a woodcut, in a pamphlet entitled "Journeys To Bagdad", and liked it so much that Irvin asked Lewis to create the entire alphabet. Uninterested in this project, Lewis suggested that Irvin create the alphabet himself –this became the "Irvin type."

Eustace Tilley is a caricature that appeared on the cover of the first issue of The New Yorker in 1925 and has appeared on the cover in various forms of every anniversary issue of the magazine except 2017. He was not initially named, but acquired the name from Corey Ford in subsequent issues as part of a fictional magazine history backstory included to fill the early issues of the magazine. The original cover was drawn by Rea Irvin, but a younger and more modern looking version of him as drawn by Johan Bull in subsequent months appeared throughout the magazine in its early years. This later version was given the name Tilley and subsequently the original cover was also declared to be Tilley. Because of the cover's prominence, almost all of the references to Tilley in the press discuss the Irvin version.

Until 1994, the original cover artwork was reproduced for the annual anniversary edition, but, since then, there has been significant variation in how his character has been embodied. He has become the mascot of the magazine and is described as a dandy. There have been two years without any anniversary issue and in other years when the anniversary celebration/remembrance has broken from previously-established tradition it has resulted in stories in publications such as The Washington Post and The New York Times. Since 2008, artist have competed in an annual Eustace Tilley contest with prizes that include the potential to have their artistic interpretation submissions chosen for the anniversary cover. All contest submissions are derived from Irvin's version.

Tilley was born out of necessity when the coverless first edition of The New Yorker was set to print. After editor-in-chief and founder Harold Ross was unsatisfied by the array of artist submissions under the theme of "a curtain going up on Manhattan", Ross turned to art editor Rea Irvin with the directive to produce a cover that "would make the subscribers feel that we’ve been in business for years and know our way around". Irvin was The New Yorker's first employee and its de facto art editor. He drew the magazine's first cover of the character, modelling him on caricature of the Count d'Orsay in the December 1834 edition of Fraser's Magazine. This caricature can be found under the subject "costume" in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica published in 1910 ("Costume", Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, vol. 7 (New York: Encyclopædia Britannica Co., 1910), 244, fig. 47.). Irvin, who had 4 months earlier drawn a magazine cover of well-clad gentleman, added features to the 19th century stylistic source image: a monocle to represent erudite intellect as well as a butterfly for "whimsey".

Since advertisers were not filling the pages of the unfamiliar magazine at first, it commissioned Corey Ford to fill the pages with a series of humor pieces that "pretended to provide an inside look at the making of the magazine" with illustrations of the mascot, in which he was dubbed with the name Eustace Tilley. His appearances in the series is likened thematically to Where's Wally?/Where's Waldo?. Tilley was presented as the hero of Ford's series which was titled "The Making of a Magazine". He was introduced inside front cover of the August 8, 1925 issue with a more youthful appearance than that of the original cover art subject. Ford combined the last name of a somewhat humorous aunt of his with the name Eustace due to euphony. His top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a morning coat and striped formal trousers. The series ran for 21 chapters of pseudo-intellectual parody and first presented Tilley in close-up in Chapter XVII. The range of activities and duties held by Tilley within the magazine in the decades after "The Making of a Magazine" gave a reputation as a man of action on top of his erudite man of taste presentation. For the "The Making of a Magazine" chapters, Tilley was drawn with modern attire of the day by Johan Bull (whose tenure with the magazine seems to have ended in 1927), although each feature's layout was ornamented with Irvin's 19th century-cladded version at the top.[1] At some point well after Tilley was named on the inside we are told that he is the same named person in the original cover art that would be reused annually. In Chapter XX, we are told that Eustace was born to Mrs. Terwilliger Tilley on January 1, 1876.

Ross believed Tilley was the highlight of the inaugural issue and each year that the magazine managed to survive, he acknowledge this by putting him on the cover again. By appearing on the cover exactly as originally drawn every year for decades on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, Tilley has become a kind of mascot for The New Yorker. He has frequently made appearance within the magazine and on promotional materials, with occasional artistic license used to provide variation on his appearance. More recent anniversary editions have "parodied, subverted or deconstructed" the original artwork.

The New York Times described him as follows: "The enduring symbol of The New Yorker magazine — the aristocratic, top-hatted Regency dandy, Eustace Tilley, studying a fluttering pale pink butterfly through a monocle". The Comics Journal says his depiction is incongruous: "a seeming sophisticated man-about-town who is so vapidly empty-headed as to find a fluttering insect an object worthy of minute inspection." Crosstown rival magazine, New York describes him as a dandy who has always been somewhat condescending. ABC News describes him as "foppish". The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in their Nieman Reports stated that Tilley portrays the "essence" of the magazine—"a slightly condescending but consummately tasteful arbiter of the larger world" despite the fact that he was derived from a less than smart and jazzy source.

The New York Times noted that 1994 was the first anniversary edition that was celebrated with variation that was a mere resemblance, rather than the exact drawing of the original character. The similarities to the "staid, wing-collared" original that year included a "long neck, the pointy nose, the all-but-concealed eye, even the penciled arch of eyebrow". Twice in the late 1990s there was no anniversary edition.

January 7, 2013 was the deadline for the sixth annual Eustace Tilley contest in which readers submit their own interpretations of the magazine's mascot. This suggests the original annual contest was for the 2008 issue. User submissions for the original contest can be found online at Flickr. 9 winning entries from nearly 300 entries were announced in a published release dated February 4, 2008. The original contest earned coverage by outlets such as Gothamist. The 2008 cover was produced in homage to the ongoing 2008 United States presidential election cycle as a two-headed face card dubbed Eustace Tillarobama, with depictions of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. By the time of the sixth annual edition, editors selected 12 winners and readers subsequently voted to determine 5 readers choice winners. When interviewed by New York, 2013 contest winner Simon Greiner described his hipster work on updating of Tilley's physical cues based on the original as follows: "the sideburns into the beard, the monocle into the eyeglasses, the coat, and the hat".

In protest of Executive Order 13769 by Donald Trump, the newly seated President of the United States, Tilley was not depicted on the 2017 anniversary issue, instead appearing two issues later. That year's anniversary cover was art from John W. Tomac that was based on the hand and torch of The Statue of Liberty in an effort to stand behind American values that welcomed immigrants in contrast to the values Trump expressed via executive order. The March 7, 2017 cover featured a human observer resembling Vladimir Putin and the usual lepidopteran subject of observation with a Trump–based head to highlight the New Cold War. The work by artist Barry Blitt is titled "Eustace Vladimirovich Tilley".

By the time of the 2021 edition of the Eustace Tilley contest, there had been years in which none of the winners actually appeared on the cover and other years in which multiple covers with depictions of the character by multiple artists were published. The range of variations have been significant. The mascot had twice been manifested by contest winners as a femme-presenting Eustacia (once on an anniversary edition cover and once in the summer). Tilley has also been depicted by contest winners as a youthful punk and a youthful hipster as well as a wide variety of character contexts. The 2023 winner and anniversary cover veteran, Tomac, presented Eustace in canine form.

THE FIRST ISSUE COVER OF THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE WAS 21 February 1925.

The magazine's first cover illustration, a dandy peering at a butterfly through a monocle, was drawn by Rea Irvin, the magazine's first art editor, based on an 1834 caricature of the then Count d'Orsay that appeared as an illustration in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica. The gentleman on the original cover, now known as Eustace Tilley, is a character created for The New Yorker by Corey Ford. The hero of a series titled "The Making of a Magazine", which began on the inside front cover of the August 8 issue that first summer, Tilley was a younger man than the figure on the original cover. His top hat was of a newer style, without the curved brim. He wore a morning coat and striped formal trousers. Ford borrowed Eustace Tilley's last name from an aunt—he had always found it vaguely humorous. "Eustace" was selected by Ford for euphony.

The character has become a kind of mascot for The New Yorker, frequently appearing in its pages and on promotional materials. Traditionally, Irvin's original Tilley cover illustration is used every year on the issue closest to the anniversary date of February 21, though on several occasions a newly drawn variation has been substituted.

It is well known for its illustrated and often topical covers, its commentaries on popular culture and eccentric American culture, its attention to modern fiction by the inclusion of short stories and literary reviews, its rigorous fact checking and copy editing, its journalism on politics and social issues, and its single-panel cartoons sprinkled throughout each issue.

The New Yorker was founded by Harold Ross (1892–1951) and his wife Jane Grant (1892–1972), a New York Times reporter, and debuted on February 21, 1925. Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from perceivably "corny" humor publications such as Judge, where he had worked, or the old Life. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann (who founded the General Baking Company) to establish the F-R Publishing Company. The magazine's first offices were at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951. During the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine: "It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque."

Although the magazine never lost its touches of humor, it soon established itself as a preeminent forum for serious fiction, essays and journalism. Shortly after the end of World War II, John Hersey's essay Hiroshima filled an entire issue. The magazine has published short stories by many of the most respected writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Ann Beattie, Sally Benson, Maeve Brennan, Truman Capote, Rachel Carson, John Cheever, Roald Dahl, Mavis Gallant, Geoffrey Hellman, Ernest Hemingway, Stephen King, Ruth McKenney, John McNulty, Joseph Mitchell, Alice Munro, Haruki Murakami, Vladimir Nabokov, John O'Hara, Dorothy Parker, S.J. Perelman, Philip Roth, George Saunders, J. D. Salinger, Irwin Shaw, James Thurber, John Updike, Eudora Welty, and E. B. White. Publication of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" drew more mail than any other story in the magazine's history. In its early decades, the magazine sometimes published two or even three short stories in an issue, but in later years the pace has remained steady at one story per issue.

The nonfiction feature articles (usually the bulk of an issue) cover an eclectic array of topics. Subjects have included eccentric evangelist Creflo Dollar, the different ways in which humans perceive the passage of time, and Münchausen syndrome by proxy.

The magazine is known for its editorial traditions. Under the rubric Profiles, it has published articles about prominent people such as Ernest Hemingway, Henry R. Luce and Marlon Brando, Hollywood restaurateur Michael Romanoff, magician Ricky Jay, and mathematicians David and Gregory Chudnovsky. Other enduring features have been "Goings on About Town", a listing of cultural and entertainment events in New York, and "The Talk of the Town", a feuilleton or miscellany of brief pieces—frequently humorous, whimsical, or eccentric vignettes of life in New York—in a breezily light style, although latterly the section often begins with a serious commentary. For many years, newspaper snippets containing amusing errors, unintended meanings or badly mixed metaphors ("Block That Metaphor") have been used as filler items, accompanied by a witty retort. There is no masthead listing the editors and staff. Despite some changes, the magazine has kept much of its traditional appearance over the decades in typography, layout, covers and artwork. The magazine was acquired by Advance Publications, the media company owned by Samuel Irving Newhouse Jr, in 1985, for $200 million when it was earning less than $6 million a year.

Ross was succeeded as editor by William Shawn (1951–87), followed by Robert Gottlieb (1987–92) and Tina Brown (1992–98). The current editor of The New Yorker is David Remnick, who succeeded Brown in July 1998.

Among the important nonfiction authors who began writing for the magazine during Shawn's editorship were Dwight Macdonald, Kenneth Tynan, and Hannah Arendt, whose Eichmann in Jerusalem reportage appeared in the magazine, before it was published as a book.

Brown's tenure attracted more controversy than Gottlieb's or even Shawn's, thanks to her high profile (Shawn, by contrast, had been an extremely shy, introverted figure), and to the changes she made to a magazine with a similar look for the previous half-century. She introduced color to the editorial pages (several years before The New York Times) and included photography, with less type on each page and a generally more modern layout. More substantively, she increased the coverage of current events and topics such as celebrities and business tycoons, and placed short pieces throughout "Goings on About Town", including a racy column about nightlife in Manhattan. A letters-to-the-editor page was introduced, and authors' bylines were added to their "Talk of the Town" pieces.

Since the late 1990s, The New Yorker has used the Internet to publish current and archived material, and maintains a website with some content from the current issue (plus exclusive web-only content). Subscribers have access to the full current issue online and a complete archive of back issues viewable as they were originally printed. In addition, The New Yorker's cartoons are available for purchase online. A digital archive of back issues from 1925 to April 2008 (representing more than 4,000 issues and half a million pages) was also issued on DVD-ROMs and on a small portable hard drive. More recently, an iPad version of the current issue has been released.  In 2014, The New Yorker opened up access online to all of its archives, expanded its plans to run an ambitious Website, and launched a paywalled subscription model. “What we’re trying to do,” said Nicholas Thompson, the editor of the Website, “is to make a website that is to the Internet what the magazine is to all other magazines.”

The magazine's editorial staff unionized in 2018 and The New Yorker Union signed its first collective bargaining agreement in 2021.

The New Yorker influenced a number of similar magazines, including The Brooklynite (1926 to 1930), The Chicagoan (1926 to 1935), and Paris's The Boulevardier (1927 to 1932).

Cartoons - COMIC ART

The New Yorker has featured cartoons (usually gag cartoons) since it began publication in 1925. For years, its cartoon editor was Lee Lorenz, who first began cartooning in 1956 and became a New Yorker contract contributor in 1958. After serving as the magazine's art editor from 1973 to 1993 (when he was replaced by Françoise Mouly), he continued in the position of cartoon editor until 1998. His book The Art of the New Yorker: 1925–1995 (Knopf, 1995) was the first comprehensive survey of all aspects of the magazine's graphics. In 1998, Robert Mankoff took over as cartoon editor and edited at least 14 collections of New Yorker cartoons. Mankoff also usually contributed a short article to each book, describing some aspect of the cartooning process or the methods used to select cartoons for the magazine. He left the magazine in 2017.

The New Yorker's stable of cartoonists has included many important talents in American humor, including Charles Addams, Peter Arno, Charles Barsotti, George Booth, Roz Chast, Tom Cheney, Sam Cobean, Leo Cullum, Richard Decker, Pia Guerra, J. B. Handelsman, Helen E. Hokinson, Pete Holmes, Ed Koren, Reginald Marsh, Mary Petty, George Price, Charles Saxon, Burr Shafer, Otto Soglow, William Steig, Saul Steinberg, James Stevenson, James Thurber, and Gahan Wilson.

Many early New Yorker cartoonists did not caption their cartoons. In his book The Years with Ross, Thurber describes the newspaper's weekly art meeting, where cartoons submitted over the previous week were brought up from the mail room to be looked over by Ross, the editorial department, and a number of staff writers. Cartoons were often rejected or sent back to artists with requested amendments, while others were accepted and captions were written for them. Some artists hired their own writers; Helen Hokinson hired James Reid Parker in 1931. Brendan Gill relates in his book Here at The New Yorker that at one point in the early 1940s, the quality of the artwork submitted to the magazine seemed to improve. It later was found out that the office boy (a teenaged Truman Capote) had been acting as a volunteer art editor, dropping pieces he did not like down the far end of his desk.

Several of the magazine's cartoons have reached a higher plateau of fame. One 1928 cartoon drawn by Carl Rose and captioned by E. B. White shows a mother telling her daughter, "It's broccoli, dear." The daughter responds, "I say it's spinach and I say the hell with it." The phrase "I say it's spinach" entered the vernacular, and three years later, the Broadway musical Face the Music included Irving Berlin's song "I Say It's Spinach (And the Hell with It)". The catchphrase "back to the drawing board" originated with the 1941 Peter Arno cartoon showing an engineer walking away from a crashed plane, saying, "Well, back to the old drawing board."

The most reprinted is Peter Steiner's 1993 drawing of two dogs at a computer, with one saying, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". According to Mankoff, Steiner and the magazine have split more than $100,000 in fees paid for the licensing and reprinting of this single cartoon, with more than half going to Steiner.

Over seven decades, many hardcover compilations of New Yorker cartoons have been published, and in 2004, Mankoff edited The Complete Cartoons of The New Yorker, a 656-page collection with 2,004 of the magazine's best cartoons published during 80 years, plus a double CD set with all 68,647 cartoons ever published in the magazine. This features a search function allowing readers to search for cartoons by cartoonist's name or year of publication. The newer group of cartoonists in recent years includes Pat Byrnes, J. C. Duffy, Liana Finck, Emily Flake, Robert Leighton, Michael Maslin, Julia Suits, and P. C. Vey. Will McPhail cited his beginnings as "just ripping off Calvin and Hobbes, Bill Watterson, and doing little dot eyes." The notion that some New Yorker cartoons have punchlines so oblique as to be impenetrable became a subplot in the Seinfeld episode "The Cartoon", as well as a playful jab in The Simpsons episode "The Sweetest Apu".