Today we will plunge into the history of the creation of the image of Nancy Drew, depicted outside the text.

We remind you that in honor of the upcoming birthday of Nancy Drew, we will publish short articles and interesting facts from the past of the book series during the week.

Mystery Makeovers

Of course, the illustrators of Nancy Drew also contributed to her image.

Fashion illustrator Russell H. Tandy drew for Butterick sewing patterns and the Sears Roebuck catalog before creating the covers and interior illustrations for the first twenty-six Nancy Drew volumes. His Nancy is glamorous, sophisticated, and adult-looking.

Bill Gillies, a magazine illustrator, portrayed Nancy as more girlish and innocent on his covers for volumes 27-29, and carried that look through on his revisions to covers of earlier volumes.

Rudy Nappi worked on the series the longest, illustrating volumes 30-56, as well as revising a fair amount of art in previous volumes. Nappi's Nancy resembles a typical pert, well-groomed teen of the 1950s or early 1960s.