Decades of Court Sketches Find a Home in the Pritzker Legal Research Center - Northwestern...

In the summer of 1969, Andy Austin, a mother of school-age children and former art school student, was bored of drawing at home, so she began wandering Chicago in search of artistic inspiration. What she found instead was a career.

“There was an important trial coming to Chicago known as the Chicago Conspiracy Trial, and I thought it would be a great place to draw,” says Austin. The trial, which saw the so-called Chicago Eight (later the Chicago Seven) face charges including conspiracy and inciting a riot for their role in demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, would come to be known as one of the defining legal cases of the turbulent ’60s.

For Austin, it was the case that launched her professional life. Upon arriving at the courtroom at the beginning of the trial, the marshal confiscated Austin’s art supplies because she wasn’t a member of the press. During the days following, she snuck them in and spent several weeks battling the crowds to find room to draw. Finally, Austin telegraphed Judge Julius Hoffman to help her get into the press section and, to her surprise, it worked. That was where she overheard an ABC reporter fretting about hiring a new courtroom sketch artist to cover the case. Austin seized the opportunity to show him her artwork and was hired on the spot. “It was pretty terrifying. I had no idea what I was doing,” she says. “That’s how I started.”