Pape, known in the press as “The Master of the Pageant,” had a lifelong working interest in the theatre and produced set and costume designs for on and off-Broadway theatrical productions. Pape was one of the earliest members of The Players, his membership having been seconded by his friend, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), in 1894. At the time of his death in 1938 he was the longest participating graphic artist with membership in The Players.

 

During the last years of his life Pape survived the economic deprivation of the Great Depression by producing over two hundred evocative personality portraits of prominent actors and actresses, politicians, scientists, writers and other celebrities of the time. Lithographic prints of these drawings were published in the New York Herald Tribune Sunday editions starting in 1927 and continued until his death in 1938. Many of the original portrait drawings from this series are now in museum collections around the world, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery,The National Gallery in London, The Freud Museum in Vienna, The U.S. Naval Academy Museum, The United States Supreme Court, The Ohio Statehouse Museum, Johns Hopkins University, The University of Texas, Princeton University, The Society of Illustrators in New York, the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge MA, the Annisquam Historical Society, the Belasco Theater in New York, and Ten Chimneys Foundation in Wisconsin.

 

The Players in Manhattan has one of the largest surviving collections of these drawings, which includes portraits of many noted early members of The Players.