Albion native created Donald Duck, other Disney characters

Posted 28 June 2014 at 12:00 am

By Bill Lattin
Orleans County Historian

ALBION – In this photo from the mid-1940s we see Walt Disney looking over the shoulder of one of his chief illustrators, Henry L. Porter (1901-1951).

Porter was a native of Albion where he attended Albion High School. From there he studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and became a commercial artist. After working at his own business in Buffalo, he then joined the Disney Studio in 1936, working on cartoon films. He created many of the characters in Disney’s 1941 film “Fantasia.”

In fact it was Henry Porter who created the cartoon character Donald Duck. Because he worked for Disney, all credit went to the studio.