John Tinney McCutcheon, Sr. (May 6, 1870 – June 10, 1949) was an American newspaper political cartoonist, war correspondent, combat artist, and author who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1931 editorial cartoon, "A Wise Economist Asks a Question," and became known even before his death as the "Dean of American Cartoonists." The Purdue University graduate moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1890 to work as an artist and occasional writer for the Chicago Morning News. He was an avid philatelist which attracted collectibles from worldwide politicians and notables to him while working at the Tribune.

His parents were Civil War veteran Captain John Barr McCutcheon, Sheriff of Tippecanoe County, and Clara (Glick) McCutcheon. 

McCutcheon entered Purdue University and was a founding member of the University's first fraternity, Sigma Chi. He was also a co-editor of the University's first yearbook, the Debris. After graduating from Purdue with a B.S. degree in 1889, McCutcheon moved to Chicago and was hired to work for the Chicago Morning News (later known as the Chicago Record) as an artist. His first front-page cartoon appeared in 1895 and his first published political cartoon was published during the U. S. presidential campaign of 1896. In 1903, McCutcheon joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune and served in capacities as both an editorial cartoonist and occasional foreign correspondent until his retirement in 1946. As a cartoonist, much of his work appeared on the front pages of the Chicago Tribune, and the subject matter of his cartoons included issues on local, national, and international politics, war, journalism, societal changes, and economic hardships. 

As a war correspondent and combat artist, McCutcheon covered the Spanish American War, the Battle of Manila Bay and the Philippine–American War, and the Second Boer War in South Africa. He also reported from Europe during World War I, beginning with his eyewitness account of the German invasion of Belgium. In addition, McCutcheon, made several trips to Asia, Mexico, Africa, and the Bahamas, where he owned Salt Cay, now known as Blue Lagoon Island.

McCutcheon, Sr. married Evelyn Shaw and they were the parents of three sons, John Tinney Jr. “Jackie”, Howard “Shaw”, and George “Barr”. Evelyn’s parents were Howard Van Doren and Frances (Wells) Shaw. Howard was a noted Chicago architect who studied at Yale. She was active in many cultural institutions, including the Chicago Historical Society, the Field Museum, the Art Institute, and the Chicago Zoological Society which operates Brookfield Zoo. The McCutcheons were married in 1917 in the Fourth Presbyterian Church, the interior of which was designed by her father.McCutcheon traveled a great deal during his career, and covered many political events such as presidential campaigns, the Spanish-American War, and World War I. Additionally, the couple flew on the Graf Zeppelin and Hindenburg, sailed on the SS Lusitania and RMS Queen Mary. In 1925 they crossed the Gobi Desert from Peking to Urga now Ulan Bator, Mongolia, and in 1929 Evelyn became the first woman to fly across the Andes, making the trip in a single-engine airplane. John, Sr. groomed his son John Jr.’s interest in stamp collecting at a young age and regularly forwarded covers and collectibles to him in their formative and college years. John McCutcheon, Jr. became the managing editor of The Harvard Crimson while in school and then, after his graduation in 1939, began work as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune. After Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, he enlisted in the Navy where he met his wife, Susan (Dart), during training in New Orleans. He served in the Pacific Theater and stayed on for several months after the war to help stabilize Japan. His career in newspapers resumed after the war when he authored a popular humor column and rose to become an editorial writer. He collected a wide range of philatelic relics over his lifetime inspired by relics received from his father.