My Great-Grandfather on FOX TV

I was contacted by the art department of the FX TV show Damages, asking if they could use an illustration created by my great-grandfather about 100 years ago. It's a drawing of the New York Custom's House that appeared in Harper's Weekly. They wanted to enlarge it, and hang it on a wall of a judge's chamber behind Glenn Close. I guess they contacted me because I maintain a website dedicated to the artwork of my great-grandfather (www.ejmeeker.org). Unfortunately, I don't hold the rights to any of his work; it was all work-for-hire, mostly for the newspapers and magazines of the late 1800's. I was tempted to give them permission (not for the usage fee, but for my great-grandfather's memory), but thought better of it. I don't need any lawsuits for copyright infringement.
UPDATE: The FOX copyright clearance guy confirmed that Harper's still holds the rights to the drawing - so they used a photo of the building instead. Sorry, E.J.

Once upon a time, before there were pixels...

In my spare time I maintain a website dedicated to the artwork of my great-grandfather, E.J. Meeker. He was an illustrator for the major newspapers and periodicals in the late 1800's. That was before they could easily reproduce photos in the newspapers. I collect his work by scouring eBay for old issues of Harper's Weekly, Frank Leslie's Illustration Newspaper, and Century Magazine. Then I scan in his artwork, and add some of the text from the article to the webpage. Right now I have quite a backlog of articles to post, but you can view some of them at www.ejmeeker.org. I also take some of the more compelling (or weird) articles and turn them into YouTube videos. His watercolors of Cuba at the turn of the last century seem to be particularly popular on YouTube.

Here's a view of the "financial center of the world" (Wall Street) in 1902. I wonder how much longer that title will apply?