Walt Disney

Walt Disney is known internationally for his transformation of the animation industry with iconic characters such as Mickey Mouse. Disney’s interest in animation started at a young age when he began to draw the animals on the family’s ill-fated farm in Marceline, Missouri. When the farm failed and the family relocated to Kansas City, Disney began attending Saturday classes at the Kansas City Art Institute. Disney enlisted in the Red Cross Ambulance Corps and worked in France after the end of World War I.

Returning to Kansas City at age seventeen, Disney struggled to find employment, eventually working at a commercial art studio, Gray Advertising. He then opened his own commercial studio with his partner and friend Ubbe Iwwerks. Disney eventually started the corporation Laugh-O-Gram, where he and his small staff created seven-minute animated fairy tales in their studio space located at 1127 E. 31st Street in Kansas City, Missouri. To distribute these films, Disney employed a New York company that didn’t return any profits from the films to Disney, pushing his business into bankruptcy in 1923. 

Hoping to start anew, Disney relocated to Los Angeles, and after a difficult start was able to find success with a series of animated cartoons including Steamboat Willie in 1928, which featured Mickey Mouse. In 1939, a new campus for the Walt Disney Animation Studios opened in Burbank, California.

The life and works of this artist have been extensively researched and documented. To find articles and books on this artist, visit the library catalogs of these partner institutions: St. Louis Public Library, Spencer Art Reference Library at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, and the Jannes Library at the Kansas City Art Institute.  To find other resources in your area, including those of public and academic libraries, visit WorldCat.org.