VO L. 1, N O .3 T HE CLEMENTS LIBRARY ASSO C IATES APRlL. 1995

AMERICA IN A MIRROR: CARICATURE AS HISTORY

Caricature has a long tradition in moralize, or to focu s public opinion on unexpected incongruitie s. "A good American popular culture. Pictures that any target he chooses. His only obliga­ caricaturi st needs no great talent in any use exaggeration and wit to make a tion is to use his art to express an idea, other artistic direction ," cartoonist political point, a social comment, or a and to make that idea accessible and Boh un Lynch insists. "He is governed moral judgment have had a peculiar engaging to the broadest audience. only by his own sense of truthful power over our imagination. misrepre sentation." Whatever the rhetoric, As rhetori c or pole mic, written or spoken, it has American caricature has an often been the cartoon, honorable tradition. journalism's most devastat­ Cartoonists have exposed ing weapon, that has made abuses of power, the an issue or an individual corruption of government, stick in the public mind. and the hypocrisy of "Caricature," according society. At their most to editorial cartoonist trivial, cartoons provide a Draper Hill,"is not a running commentary on synonym for satire, or even events, people, attitudes, a genre of drawing. It is a and preoccupation s, their language of exaggeration , a influence no more than one method of projecting inner factor in any given politi cal characteristics,' real or climate. They reflect the imagined, into appear­ momentary shifts in public ances ," The cartoonist sentiment. At its most combin es caricature with a skillful, American caricature code - a set of symbols or has been moral satire. When emblems, the visual Thomas Nast exposed the metaphors that speak to corruption of Boss Tweed, or people living in a particular . crusaded for minority rights, time and place. Conse­ or denounced the futility of quently, caricature is war, he followed a tradition ephemeral. When we no Cartoonist Grant Hamilton used nursery rhyme imagery to make a that began in the Reforma­ longer understand its code, simple point - corruption is bipartisan. Republican Boss Platt licks tion with Luther 's satirical when its message has lost the platter of New York state patronage clean; seated is Democratic woodcuts, and continued its immediacy, it loses its Boss Croker. his stomach bulging. From Judge, November 19, /898. with Bruegel, Callot, impact on our imaginations. Hogarth, Goya, and Yet, it is this transient Daumier. quality that makes cartoons so valuable Caricature, as art historian Ronald Although the idea of caricutura as historical evidence , as a vernacular Paulson has written, has two components exaggerating a human form for comic record of our political values and social - the repre sentational and the rhetori­ effect - began in late sixteenth century mores. Becau se caricature is designed cal. As pictu res of people, objects, or Italy. printed caricature , as a form of fur print, for popular con sumption in the scenes, caricature ranges freely around political and social commentary, is the cheapest format, it is the most genuinely artisti c conventions. It takes familiar invention of eighteenth century England. democratic art. It is the perfect device settings and human emotions or the As a popular political culture developed forcriticism. The cartoonist doesnot images of allegory, folklore, history, or in the relatively free climate of mid­ have to justify his point of view; he can fanta sy, compresses them into one eighteenth century England, the demand use his art to report , accuse, entertain, picture, and makes us laugh by the fur information and for comment grew.

- continued 011 page /2 Above: "A Conference between the Devil and Doctor Dove," by Henry Dawkins (Philadelphia, 1764), is one ofthe earliest American political cartoons. Doctor Dove, a writer ofscurrilous verse for Pennsylvania 's Proprietary Party, is shown kneeling before the Devil (his own demon's tail visible beneath his coatta ils), "Thou Great Prince ofDarkness, assist me in my Undertakings." Satan replies, "Well done, thou Good and Faithful Servant." From the origin ofcaricature in the satirical woodcuts ofthe Reformation, the Devil has been a common motif.

Below : Pirating material from English sources was standa rd practice in colon ial publishing. Paul Revere lifted "The able Doctor; or America Swallowing the Bitter Draught" from the London Magazine. He appropriated the cartoon to the radical cause by adding the word TEA, publishing it in 1774 to mobilize supportfor Boston when Parliament passed retaliatory legislation following the notorious tea party.

PAGE 2 THE QUARTO Cartoons in the /790s were the work ofanonymous amate urs. They were relentlessly political in content, often cluttered in design . "Congressional Pugilists " (/798) records an unedifying moment in American history when a Vermont Congressman accused ofcowardice spat in the fa ce ofhis colleague from Connecticut. They Jought with. cudgel andfire tongs until separated.

Graphic satire was an important compo nent in periodicals during the first decades ofthe nineteenth century. The Echo, published by RichardAlsop (Boston, /807- / 8/2), was openly hostile to Jefferson. It ran a particularly vicious series ofcartoons by Tisdale and Leney in 1807. One was "Infan t Liberty Nursed by Mother Mob." A slattern holds an infant to huge breasts laheled "whiskey " and "rum," In the background Jefferson 's "republican mob" storms a public building.

THE CWARTO PAGE 3 Right : William Charles hod learned the engraver's trade in London be/ore emigrating to Philadelphia in 1808, and he borrowedf reelyfrom the work ofGillray. A popular,prolific artist duri ng the War of 1812, Charle s helped make the cartoon part ofour national political life. In "John Bull Making a Nell' Batch ofShips to Send to the Lakes" (1814), Charles ridicules the Brit ish loss oftheir entire Great Lakes fleet to the Am ericans. King George sputters, "What, What, What!" 10 his right a man warns, " You had bette r keep both your ships and guns at home. If you send all you 've got to the Lakes, it will only makefun for the Yankl')'s to take them."

Below: Philadelphian Edward Clay's social satire (ca. 1830) conlmUS a Quaker ofplain but elegant dress. accompanied b.v his ... - ' -. ..- -r-w- ;""!P'! .- """'''''1'--:- lovely dau ghte r, with WI Irish immigrant j[OJ!ll d l !llJ.L lIlalW Li) It IIfIIJ ~ATCH .r SHIPS to send fa tll£ 71. A!KE$ carrying his worldly possessions 0 11 his back. clay pipe stuck in the band of his high -crowned hat. A guest, mounted 011 a well-bred horse, is welcomed to the Quaker 's prosperous home. But the Irishman, asking directions to Phila delphia, is given a condesc ending answer, one that belies the Quaker reputation jar tolerance.

1 S l1.y. tJais u n 't tA~ roa -d: eq F r irn. rf. thft JiNt t"Us me a. (ie d na tlt.~ " thte PAil~'fky ..4"'''6)1 . i.. it .' M ks me .1. 9U. ~stU,1t.l t ru. ly tht.J is the road ./

PAGE 4 THE Q\)ARTO Technology revolutionize d the popular marketfor cartoons in the J820s. Commercial lithography, a relatively inexpensive, flexible process by which impressi ons are taken f rom designs inked on stone, replaced the difficult process ofengraving on metal. Prints could be mass produc ed on cheap, single sheets. The result was a floo d ofpolitical cartoons during the Jacksonian Era (1828-1840). In his fir st message to Congress, President Jackson proposed sending Native Americans to unoccupied land west of the Mississippi. By May J830, the Indian Removal Bill had become law. An anonymous artist, with. masterful san'Wim, drew Jackson as the Great Father.

THE Q1JARTO PAGE 5 Above: Lola Montez , celebrated "European" beauty, mistress variously of Liszt, Dumas, and a Bavarian king, arrived on the New York stage in 1852, billed as a "Spanish dancer." No amount ofpublicity could disguise her limited talent. Johnston records the "enthusiastic reception ofLola by an American audience" - one Quaker, who hardly dares to look, and one dismayed gentleman, peering over his New York Herald, whose pages endlessly had promoted Lola.

David Claypool Johnston had ambitions to become America 's Cruikshank. Although the quality ofhis draftsmanship was uneven, his caricatures, published as book illustrations and single sheets, show he had an eye for human foibles and the ability to translate them into witty drawings.

Left: Johnston '.'I ingenious cartoon envelope allowed him to change a politician '.'I express ion with the pull ofa tab, a device he used to comment on the results ofseveral presidential electio ns. His 1849 version, Metamorphosis: A Locofoco Before, and After, the Late Elec tion, shows a radical Democrat reacting to the news that Whig candidate Gen. Zachar)' Taylor has defeated Democrat Lewis Cass ­ "Hurra For Cass.''' changes to "What.' Old Zack Elected."

PAGE 6 THE QlJARTO Comic almanacs began to appear in the 1830s. a welcome relieffrom the moralizing fare ofconventional almanacs. From them evolved the illustrated humorous weekly. Yankee Notion s: or, Whittlings from Jonathan's Jack-kn ife, is representative ofthe genre. Chauvinistic, racist, bigoted, its favorite targets were foreign immigrants, Jews.Blacks, and women. Racial stereotypes used in facial features and dialects were standard devicesf or cartoonists like Augustus Hoppin. His coverfor Febraury; 1853, had Jonathan and son Junior commenting on the stupidity of a "[ urriner" who has fa llen through the ice.

T HE QUARTO PAGE 7 O jd. :i\Inrtn lhitn n nin. a n d h e r- Peu uy Brtl111 d ....

Above: Vanity Fair, America 's Punch during the 1850-60s, owed its popularity on the eve ofthe Civil War to the cartoon s ofHenry Louis Stephens, as they refl ected the controversies tear ing the nation apart, During the 1860 presidential campaign, Stephens caricatured Douglas as a pious hypocrite. Lincoln 's inau gural address. March, 1861. had been conciliatory towa rd the South on slavery, hut fi rmly opposed secession. Stephens drew Lincoln balancing hope for peace against the reality that Confederate guns had fi red on Fl. Sumte r. Stephens, in 1862, ragedagainst "Old Ma nn Britann ia " jor her continued sympathy with the South, but he was ambivalent 011 emancipation, unconvinced thatfreed slaves would find kinder maslcrs.

PAGE 8 THE Q!)ARTO Right: Theftrst issue ofRichmond's Southern Illustrated News, September, 1862, carried an advertisementfor engravers and the blocks ofash wood used to make newspaper WOOdClitS. It would replace Harper's Weekly in the South and he the Confederacy's only pictorial magazine. Cartoons were a regular feature. "Butler; the Beast, at Work," carried on April30, 1864, shows the hated Benjamin Butler. Appointed military admin istrator when Union troops took New Orleans in 1862, Butler incensed the South with his order that a local woman who insulted Union officers or soldiers "shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a vv'oman ofthe town plying her avocation. Today, copies ofthe Southern Illustrated News are extremely sca rce.

'tHE GUlSB ,.!1T CAN DIOATE Above: During the Civil War, Currier and Ives mass produced lithograph cartoons. Hastily done , few were well drawn. 17Je best were by Louis Maurer. "The Gunboat Candidate at the Battle ofMalvern Hill" appeared during the 1864 Presidential election. Democratic candidate General McClellan is accused ofincompetence. Sitting safely in his saddle mounted on the boom ofthe ironclad Galena (a reference to his abortive gunboat attack on Richmond and the battle ending the disastrous 1862 Peninsular Campaign), his uniform immaculate, McClellan urges, "Fight on my brave Soldiers and push the enemy to the wall, from this spanker boom your beloved General looks down upon you. "

TH E QlJARTO PAGE 9 Thomas Nast, America's greatest political cartoonist, influenced public opinion for three decades. Between 1862 and 1885, over 3,000 ofhis drawings appeared in Harper's Weekl y. Nast was a genius in creating powerful images that simplified issues and focused emotions. He is remembered as the creator of Santa Claus, the Tammany Tiger, the Republican Elephant, and the Democratic Donkey. Like all great satirists, Nast had a strong moral sense. He crusaded for the rights ofNative Americans and against the corruption of New York 's Tammany Hall, yet he was capable ofusing ethnic stereotypes so vicious that they may reasonably be described as racist.

Right: In "Move On," Nast used ethnic stereotypes ofboth European immigrants and Native Americans to argue the injustice ofexcluding the latter group while allowing the former to become full citizens.

Below : The Irishman 's image in American and English caricature had evolved from the crude but benign Paddy of the 18305 into a menacing, simian brute by the 18605. Nast. using the code for Irishmen fi rst seen in Punch cartoons - the sloping forehead, long upper lip, huge mouth, and jutting jaw - depicted Irish marchers attacking policemen during the St. Patrick 's Day riot of1867.

PAG E 10 T HE QUARTO Left: Judge attracted a stable ofartists whose talents were enlisted for the Republican Part): Gram Hamilton 's "How Women 's Suffrage Will Increase the Power a/the Ward Heeler " (1894) is typical in using prejudice against Irish immigran ts andf ear of corrupt politicians as a rationale for denying women the right to vore.

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Judge and Puck changed the character of American graphic humor in the 1870-805. Both were militantl y partisan weeklies - Puck Democratic, Judge Republican. They raised the artistic quality of American graphic humor. but in their competition, both reached new depth s in political abuse. Puck and Judge would monopolize the market until the final years of the century, when they were eclipsed by the metropolitan newspapers and syndicated editorial cartoons.

Right: Joseph Keppler, Puck's fo under, succeeded Nast as America 's leading cartoonist. For Puck's cover, February 2, 1898, Keppler drew on the traditional alliance between the Democratic Party and the American 'Working man.

Til E Q]JARTO PAGE 11 - continuedfrom page l the Library developed an outstanding here, a sampling of our holdings, range Prints, unlike newspapers or body of cartoons relating to the Ameri­ from rare colonial imprints to nineteenth periodicals, were not subject to censor­ can Revolution by English artists. In the century pulp magazines, from fine ship or libel laws. They obviated the 1980s, the library began collecting the engravings on single sheets to litho­ need for literacy. Caricatures were sold caricatures of James Sayers and James graph s mass produced for the popular as separate sheets in printshops and Gillray. Through the generosity of market; there are woodcuts, the staple of circulated in coffeehouses. In the hands Duane N. Diedrich, the Library has a weekly illustrated newspapers, and even of artists like Hogarth , Gillray, tine group of original Thom as Nast original drawings. Together, they cover Rowlandson, and Cruikshank, the drawings. Recently, a remarkabl e nearly 175 years of Ameri can caricature, cartoon became an accepted part of opportunity arose to acquire a large from the l760s to the 1930s, from Paul political controversy. number of Jack sonian and Civil War era Revere to Gluyas Williams. They are It was this English tradition that cartoons from a collection made at the presented, not as art, but as evidence, as Americans imitated. Over the years, as time these prints were issued. Today, the a mirror reflecting changes and continu­ the Clements Library collected Ameri ­ Clements can provide researchers with a ity in American history. can caricature, it collected English broad range of graphic satire. graphic satire as well. During the 1950s, The American caricatures presented

Right: Gluyas Williams' cartoons are synonymous with the early years of the The New Yorker. One ofthe original group ofartists hired when the magazine was founded in i925, his elegant drawings and urbane wit projected exactly the right ima ge. American comic art

was transformed by The New Yorker. The mod ern cartoon - {l picture integra ted w ith. a capti on to clinch a joke - was created for its pages. Williams produced a series of "industrial Crises" drawings f or The New Yorker. Here multimillionaire IF. Morgan, to make ends meet after the 1929 Stock Market crash, resorts to lending out the Morgan Library 's priceless rare books and manuscripts to patrons for 4 cents a day.

Below: Rube Goldberg drew this caricature ofhimselfin 1910 as his affectionate contribution to a fr iend's autograph book.

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PAGE 12 T H E Q UARTO o n I I ;.W;'P 1 1m £/I [I

INDUSTI\IAL CI\ISE.S Owing to loss-taking, the Morgan Library is forced to go on a circulating basis.

Drawing by Gluyas Williams, c 1933, 1961 The New Yorker Magazine. Inc. All Rights Reserved

T il E Q1JA ItTO PAG E 13 MARY DARLY, CARICATURIST

Mary Darly. a London print maker and etcher by trade , an ingenious arti st with a wicked wit. chang ed the face of English politi cal print". A contemporary of Hogarth , she lacked his genius and skill, yet her caricatures. drawn, as she advertised them, in the "O'Garthian Stile ," were striking. No less so was her con tribution to the art of graphic satire. Mary and her husband, Matt hew, were well known in the London publishing trade of the 1750s-1760s. Th eir shop in the Strand, oppos ite the stalls of Hungerford Market, produced more politi cal prints than any of the others scattered between 51. Paul' s Churchyard and Charin g Cross. Th e Darlys were creative in marketing their political prints. Some they sold as single sheets, others were collected into small books. They were the first to print satires on small cards. a popular innovation, muc h like the modem picture postcard. The Darlys thrived on political rancor. They had greeted George the Third's new reign with a torrent of scurrilous attacks on Lord Bute, advisor to the young King and allegedly his moth er's lover. Mary herself had designed and etched most of the prints they sold. In December 1762, a notic e app eared for A Hook ofCaricatures on Sixty Copper-Plates. With the Principles of Designing, in that Droll and pleasing Manner: by M. Darly . It was the first attempt by an English artist to set rules for caricature dra wing . Mary's text was two brief paragraph s. "Caricature is the burlesque of character, or an exaggeration of nature, when not very pleasing ." Drawing, she claimed, was excellent diversion for young ladies and gentlemen, "Tis the most dive rting species of designing and will certainly keep those that practise it out of the hippo or Vapours,' that is, off the race track and free of melancho ly. Her rules were simple: "Observe what sort of a line [onus the Phiz or Carrick, you want to describe, wither its straight lined, Externa ly circular, intemaly circular, or Ogeed . When you have found out the line, then take notice of the parts as to their

Bottom row, pages 14 and 15: Mary Darty's technique f or drawing "carricks" shown on the left, wa." adopted by James Saye rs to caricature English. politicians William Pitt, Lord North, and General Burgoyne (1789).

Figure 3 Figu re 4 Figure 5 Y,.x.t erna ~ circular earn o

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PAGE 14 Til E Q\JARTO situation, projection and sinking. then by comparing your observations with the samples in the book. delineate your Carrick giving it the proper touches till finished. Keep constantly practising from this book till drawing in this manner becomes familar & easy & is attended with pleasure." The remainder of Mary Darly's small book consisted of plates illustrating her rules for drawing "carricks," based on physiognomy ­ the "science" of reading an individual's character from outward appearance. Her drawings revolutionized the style of English political prints. Rather than use emblems. symbols, or animals, to represent public figures. artists began to produce caricatures of public figures. James Sayers. working in the 17805. was the first to use Mary Darly's rules to develop a recognizable. easily repeated recipe for an individual politician's face. Gillray perfected the technique a decade later. Thanks to the generosity of our Associates. the Clements Library recently acquired a fine copy of Mary Darly's seminal book.

Figure s 1 and 2 (Right): Heads dra wn by Mary Darty to illustrate the technique of caricature.

Figure 1 Figure 2

Figure 6 Figure 7

T HE Q]JARTO PAGE IS Above: James Gil/ray's masterpie ce, Doublures of Characters: or - Striking Resemblances in Phisiogmomy (1798) predicts the moral deterioration of leading Whig politicians , including Charles James Fox (jig. 1) and playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan (jig. 2).

CALE N DAR OFEVE NTS Culture. based in Williamsburg, Virginia, will take place at the University of Michigan. The April In-Ju ne 30. Exhibit. America in aim of the Conference is to bring together senior / 795: "The Preservation ofour Peace. and younger scholars of early America (to about Foreign and Domestic " 1815) in a forum for the rich and diverse range J\1a)' 2. Clements Library Associates Board of work now being done in that active and Meeting. three o'clock in the afternoon, at exciting field of study. Meeting rooms at the the Library. lop of the Rackham Building are the site of May 6-7. 171h Annual Ann Arbor Antiquar­ thirty sessions scheduled for the three days. ian Book Fair. a benefit for the Clements Friday through Sunday. while llie Clements Library. at the Michigan Union , in the Library will host informal receptions Friday and ballroom, 2nd floor. Sat. May 6. 5:30-9:00. Saturday evenings. Clements Library Associ­ Sun. May 7. I I:00-5:00. Admis sion S3.00. ates are welcome to attend the Conference. For program information, please call the Library May 19. Clements Library Duplicate Sale. (313) 764-2347. closing date. June 1, Clements Library Associate s Spring Clements Library Associates Spring Program Program, Lecture, Declarations of Indepen­ Professor Pauline Maier will speak on "Decla­ dence, Professor Pauline Maier, Massachu­ rations of Independence" at the Clements setts Institute of Technology, at the Library, Associates Spring program. June I. at 7:30 pm. 7:30 prn. reception following. A distinguished historian of the Colonial, June 2 ~ 4 . First Annual Conference of the Revolutionary, and Early National periods, Institute of Early American History and Profe ssor Maier has been on the faculty ofthe Culture Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1978. Her numerous publica tions have explored July IO-September 8. Exhibit commemorat­ the nature of popular politics in early America; ing the end of World War II. they include From Resistance to Revolution: Colonial Radicals and the Development of ANN OUNCEMENTS American Opposition to Britain: 1765-1776, on Conference Early American History and more recently. The Old Revolutionaries: On June 2-4 the First Annual Conference of Political Lives ill the Age of Samuel Adams. the Institute of Early American History and

PAG E 16 T H E Q))ARTO