KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Knoxville News Sentinel announced Thursday that Charlie Daniel would no longer be the paper's editorial cartoonist.
Daniel drew cartoons for Knoxville papers for six decades. The Sentinel published a story online saying Daniel was retiring at age 89.
Although Daniel will soon leave the paper, local archivists are working to preserve his images.
"Just like a snapshot he distilled it down to one image and that's difficult to do," UT Archivist, Aleesha Shumar said.
Shumar overlooks the University of Tennessee's Charlie Daniel collection. She said it has about 20,000 of Daniel's drawings.
"Starting in 1958 we have his cartoons from the Knoxville Journal and the Knoxville Sentinel," she said.
The archives are stored at UT's John C. Hodges Library in 100 different boxes.
"It took us a little bit longer to process this collection because everyone had such a good time reading each of the cartoons," Shumar said.
Back in 2012, 10News caught up with Daniel as he reflected on his career as a cartoonist.
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"When I look back on some of my earliest days I say this is awful...why would they hire this guy," Daniel said.
But after 60 years of drawing, Shumar said Daniel's work is something people will never forget.
"Even though he's created them today, they are historical so we need to preserve them now so we have them 100 years from now," she said.
The Sentinel said Daniel's last day is Feb. 1.