McClelland Barclay #534: Charles William Burdick Family Papers

Published October 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM MDT

Painting by McClelland Barclay from the front cover of Sea Power magazine, September, 1943. Box 197, Charles William Burdick Family papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming. — Painting by McClelland Barclay from the front cover of *Sea Power* magazine, September, 1943. Box 197, Charles William Burdick Family papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

McClelland Barclay, or “Mac” as he preferred to be called, was born in Missouri in 1891. He developed an interest in art and design as a young man.

At the beginning of World War I he won a prize for a Naval poster he designed. It was the start of a lifetime association with the U.S. Navy. During the war he worked as a camouflage artist. In the 1920s and 30s he made a name for himself as an illustrator for magazines like The Ladies’ Home Journal.

Before World War II broke out, “Mac” joined the Navy, where he was commissioned as a Lieutenant Commander in the Navy Reserve. Assigned to paint recruiting posters, he was constantly trying to get closer to the action. He refused to paint anything he didn’t know about firsthand, which is how he found himself on a landing craft in the South Pacific. The boat he was on was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. “Mac” Barclay was declared missing in action on July 18^th, 1943.

Learn more in the Charles William Burdick Family papers at UW’s American Heritage Center