Information on this page derived in part from an article published in the March/April 1984 issue - volume 20 - of Yellowback Library and written and researched by Geoffrey S. Lapin who interviewed members of Tandy's family. Included here at the beginning are the pages of the article as reprinted in the May/June 2012 issue of The Sleuth. Click on the images to enlarge them for reading.

25 of the original Nancy Drew® books were illustrated by commercial illustrator, Russell H. Tandy from 1930 to 1949. These include the original art dust jackets for volumes 1-10, 12-26 as well as the internal illustrations for volumes 1-26. When the publishers switched from a glossy paper frontispiece to plain paper frontispieces circa 1941, beginning with The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion, Russell also revised the frontispieces of the first 17 volumes which were used in printings of these volumes from about 1943 onward. These frontispiece revisions updated the hairstyles, clothing, and accessories in the scenes and resulted in entirely new scenes for several frontispieces.

Russell was a friend of Edward Stratemeyer and had been illustrating some of the books for Edward's Books for Girls series. It was Edward, in the planning of his soon to be published Nancy Drew® series, who submitted the cover illustration of two artists to Grosset & Dunlap: Ernest Townsend's dust jacket art for Two Girls and a Mystery, 1928, and Russell's dust jacket art for Kate Martin's Problem, 1929. Both covers are shown below. Grosset & Dunlap chose Russell as the illustrator for the Nancys--a wise choice indeed, for it was Russell's classic and sophisticated portrayal of Nancy that helped make the series sell quite successfully.

Kate Martin was just an individual character and did not surface in any series of books. Kate Martin's Problem, was part of the Books for Girls series by May Hollis Barton which was a series of unrelated books. If you'll notice at left, Kate highly resembles Nancy Drew® from the cover of the first Nancy Drew® book, The Secret of the Old Clock, shown at right.

Russell's Nancy Drew® book covers:

The Secret of the Old Clock 1930	The Hidden Staircase 1930	The Bungalow Mystery 1930	The Mystery at Lilac Inn 1930	The Secret at Shadow Ranch 1931
The Secret of Red Gate Farm 1931	The Clue in the Diary 1932	Nancy's Mysterious Letter 1932	The Sign of the Twisted Candles 1933	The Password to Larkspur Lane 1933
The Message in the Hollow Oak 1935	The Mystery of the Ivory Charm 1936	The Whispering Statue 1937	The Haunted Bridge 1937	The Clue of the Tapping Heels 1939
The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk 1940	The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion 1941	The Quest of the Missing Map 1942	The Clue in the Jewel Box 1943	The Secret in the Old Attic 1944
The Clue in the Crumbling Wall 1945	The Mystery of the Tolling Bell 1946	The Clue in the Old Album 1947	The Ghost of Blackwood Hall 1948	The Clue of the Leaning Chimney 1949

Some of Russell's Nancy Drew® book internal glossy frontispiece illustrations:

The Secret of the Old Clock 1930	The Mystery at Lilac Inn 1930

Aside from children's book covers and internal illustrations, Russell worked for department stores as a fashion illustrator. He also drew some of the illustrations for Butterick Patterns and designed the logo for the Jansen swimwear line.

A drinking companion of Ernest Hemmingway and Salvador Dali, he also competed in a speed-painting portrait contest with Dali, Norman Rockwell, and other contemporaries. He won the contest for his artwork, The Ruffian. He published only one book, Tandy's Babies, a very rare book to find.

Some other samples of his series book artwork include the following(The Wind's in the West scans were donated by fellow Sleuth Rick Sayers):

Joyous Peggy 1931	Peggy Lee of the Golden Thistle Plantation 1931
The Girl in the Top Flat 1930	Sallie's Test of Skill 1931	Wind's in the West 1931
Beverly Gray's Adventure 1944	Beverly Gray's Challenge 1945

A sample of a non-Nancy Drew® glossy frontispiece:

Wind's in the West 1931

The following is a list of Russell H. Tandy's series book illustrations--dust jacket covers and internal illustrations--originally printed in Yellowback Library in 1985, compiled by researcher, Geoffrey S. Lapin, copyright 1984. I have added some things to this list that I have come across in my research, noted with an asterisk. If there is something I am missing from this list, please e-mail me here.

Anna Andrews - PEGGY LEE (Cupples & Leon)

Peggy and Michael of the Coffee Plantation
Peggy Lee of the Golden Thistle Plantation
Peggy Lee and the Mysterious Island
Peggy Lee, Sophomore

May Hollis Barton - BARTON BOOKS FOR GIRLS (Cupples & Leon)

Hazel Hood's Strange Discovery
Kate Martin's Problem
The Girl in the Top Flat
The Search for Peggy Ann
Sallie's Test of Skill
Charlotte Cross and Aunt Deb

Lilian Grace Copp (Cupples & Leon)

Joyous Peggy

Frankin W. Dixon - HARDY BOYS (Grosset & Dunlap)

The Short-wave Mystery
The Secret Panel
The Phantom Freighter
The Secret of Skull Mountain
The Sign of the Crooked Arrow
*The Secret of the Lost Tunnel

Alice B. Emerson - BETTY GORDON SERIES (Cupples & Leon)
Interior Art Only

Betty Gordon and the Hale Twins
Betty Gordon at Mystery Farm
Betty Gordon and the Mystery Girl

Alice B. Emerson - RUTH FIELDING SERIES (Cupples & Leon)
Interior Art Only

This list is ever growing as it appears circa 1928-1934 that Tandy revised some frontispieces from earlier books and some appear in his style but a signature is lacking - it's a work in progress to uncover these "lost Tandys"...

Red Mill (revised frontis)
Briarwood Hall (revised frontis)
At Sunrise Farm (revised frontis)
And the Gypsies (revised frontis)
Moving Pictures (revised frontis)
Down in Dixie (revised frontis)
Red Cross (revised frontis)
Homeward Bound (revised frontis)
At Golden Pass (revised frontis)
Talking Pictures
Ruth Fielding and Her Double
Ruth Fielding and Her Greatest Triumph
Ruth Fielding and Her Crowning Victory

Elsie B. Gardner - THE MAXIE SERIES (Cupples & Leon)

Maxie, An Adorable Girl
Maxie, In Venezuela
Maxie, Searching for her Parents
Maxie At Brinksome Hall
Maxie and her Adventures in Spain
Maxie in The Jungle

Howard R. Garis - BUDDY SERIES (Cupples & Leon)

Buddy on the Farm
Buddy In School
Buddy and His Winter Fun
Buddy at Rainbow Lake
Buddy and His Chum
Buddy At Pine Beach
Buddy and His Flying Balloon
Buddy on Mystery Mountain
Buddy on Floating Island
Buddy and the Secret Cave
Buddy and His Cowboy Pal
Buddy and the Indian Chief
Buddy and the Arrow Club

Howard R. Garis - THE CURLEYTOPS SERIES (Cupples & Leon)
Dustjacket art only

Carolyn Keene - DANA GIRLS MYSTERY STORIES (Grosset & Dunlap)

The Secret in the Old Well

Carolyn Keene - NANCY DREW MYSTERY STORIES (Grosset & Dunlap)

The Secret of the Old Clock
The Hidden Staircase
The Bungalow Mystery
The Mystery at Lilac Inn
The Secret at Shadow Ranch
The Secret of Red Gate Farm
The Clue in the Diary
Nancy's Mysterious Letter
The Sign of the Twisted Candles
The Password to Larkspur Lane
The Clue of the Broken Locket (Interior Art Only)
The Message in the Hollow Oak
The Mystery of the Ivory Charm
The Whispering Statue
The Haunted Bridge
The Clue of the Tapping Heels
The Mystery of the Brass-Bound Trunk
The Mystery at the Moss-Covered Mansion
The Quest of the Missing Map
The Clue in the Jewel Box
The Secret in the Old Attic
The Clue in the Crumbling Wall
The Mystery of the Tolling Bell
The Clue in the old Album
The Ghost of Blackwood Hall
The Clue of the Leaning Chimney

Josephine Lawrence (Cupples & Leon)

Wind's in the West

Clinton W. Locke - PERRY PIERCE MYSTERY STORIES (Henry Altemus Company)

Who Closed the Door
Who Opened the Safe
Who Hid the Key

Fenworth Moore - JERRY FORD WONDER SERIES (Cupples & Leon)

Wrecked on Cannibal Island
Lost in the Caves of Gold
Cast Away in the Land of Snow

Frank Gee (Glines) Patchin - THE PONY RIDER BOYS SERIES (Saalfield)
Dust jacket art only

*Harold M. Sherman (Grosset & Dunlap)

Hold That Line

Ames Thompson - THE JEWEL SERIES (Cupples & Leon)

The Adventure Boys and the Valley of Diamonds
The Adventure Boys and the River of Emeralds
The Adventure Boys and the Lagoon of Pearls
The Adventure Boys and the Island of Sapphires

Janet D. Wheeler - BILLIE BRADLEY SERIES (Cupples & Leon)

Billie Bradley at Sun Dial Lodge
Billie Bradley an the School Mystery
Billie Bradley Winning the Trophy

Wayne Whipple - THE AMERICAN HISTORY MAKERS SERIES (Goldsmith)
Dust jacket art only

The Story of Young George Washington
The Story of Young Benjamin Franklin
The Story of Young Abraham Lincoln