Tom Thumb
1920
Imagine being so small you could stand on a fish for dinner—that's the perilous life of Tom Thumb in this 1920 illustration. A burly chef with a gleaming knife is about to carve up a massive ray, completely unaware that the tiny hero is posing right on the fillet. The surrounding kitchen staff is in a frenzy of reaction, from a shocked woman in the back to a girl in the foreground giving a confident thumbs-up. Created for the National Child Welfare Association, this scene perfectly captures the whimsical scale and danger of the classic fairy tale.